Guatemalans live in one of the most inequitable societies in the region. Poverty is particularly widespread in the countryside and among indigenous communities. Outside Quezaltenango City women and children search through refuse all day long in the smoking wasteland of a garbage dump. Desperate people travel for hours on foot to scrounge through the garbage daily to find scrap metal or bottles they can sell to recyclers or garments and toys they can repair and sell in a market. Often they eat what they find in the trash, carrying it home to share with their hungry families. In the developing world this is an all too common way for the poor to survive.
