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Panyebar is the main community in which Mayan Partners works. Located in the mountains an hour west of Lake Atitlan, the village is home to about 2,800 Quiche (pronounced kee-chay) Mayans who migrated from the northwest Totonicapan region about 90 years ago. The village is nestled in the middle of the western Guatemalan highlands at an elevation of about 7,000 feet. Nearly all the villagers are involved in some kind of agriculture, growing maize, beans, or coffee.
While stunningly beautiful in its vistas of mountains and volcanoes surrounded by clouds, the village is very poor. Almost all of the 700 plus households in the village fall below the World Bank's extreme poverty level of subsistence on less than $1.25 per person per day. There is no doctor in the village. Observations during our clinics indicate that infestation of roundworm and parasites are prevalent in most children. The majority of the houses in the village are constructed from adobe or old planks of wood with roofs of rusting corrugated iron and have dirt floors. Some of the better houses are made from concrete block. A typical diet consists of tortillas and beans.
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