Issues building products for the developing world
Sarah Santos
In Guatemala there are a lot of issues that have an influence on building products to help the more needed people. All the issues you mention are true and I do not think one is more important than the other one, they are all related.
The infrastructure in transportation in Guatemala has gotten better over the years, we now have a few highways, we can also visit most of the towns (there are still some that need 4X4 pick ups, but it is better than nothing). The communication is much better, I would say that there is at least one telephone in each town that everyone can use (maybe sometimes they must walk a few kilometers). I think that are most important and sad issue is the interference and corruption of our government, a lot of our politicians are only in it for the money and only help there friends with new jobs or “favors”. I think we’ve gotten to a point that you don’t know who the good guy is.
Guatemala is a country that suffers of poverty (more than half of our people are poor) and has a lot of different cultures, so sometimes we do not even understand ourselves and we have trouble communicating because of this, but we have to learn to make this into a positive thing (we have 22 languages). You could say that are history of exploitation has always been divided in two, the indigenous people and the ladinos, the ladinos have always employed the indigenous people for labor, mostly in the field.
The business sustainability for the majority of people in Guatemala is not good, a lot of people only work to have money to survive a day, we don’t have cash flow, and if we do they do not save it to invest on something because most of them need it to pay daily things like food. The work people do on the fields is their only income, they don’t invest in other activities and what they cultivate provides them with almost no profit. Maybe if the communities organize themselves as an organization they can create capital and profits.