Community perspectives around child malnutrition in three wayuu communities in la guajira (Colombia)

Abstract

Introduction: Child malnutrition is a public health problem that has affected the survival of some indigenous communities. Several studies have approached it from the biomedical perspective, although only a few have analyzed it from these communities’ perspective. The objective of the present article is to under-stand the community perspectives related to malnutrition in children aged 0–7 years in the Wayuu communities of Taiguaicat, Pañarrer, and Limunaka del Resguardo Manaure, La Guajira, Colombia. Development: A qualitative study was performed. Additionally, as a part of a participatory community-based research, 21 semi-structured interviews, 3 community forums, and a photovoice exercise were performed with 12 participants. The information was analyzed with analytical tools of the grounded theory. The findings around the community perspectives of child malnutrition were grouped into two analytical categories: (a) the Arijuna practices (or those carried out by non-indigenous people), from the loss of the ancestral to the disease of hunger, and (b) the disease of hunger and its relationship with the feeding of the moth-er-child binomial during and after pregnancy. Conclusions: Child malnutrition in the Wayuu is a complex historical phenomenon, with a background of social inequalities and unjust power structures. According to the participants’ responses, the survival of Wayuu children is threatened by malnutrition, which mainly affects the mother-child relationship caused by poor access to food and its limited availability, inadequate western practices in the territory, and the loss of traditional practices, such as planting and grazing.