Material written and designed by Lisa Fenton

Senior Adviser to Schools and Hannah Williams

Blackburn Diocesan Board of Education

The Bethania Project IN partnership with Christian Aid Bethania works with families in their own homes to improve nutrition and health by teaching people the importance of fruit and vegetables to their diet, and providing them with seeds, saplings and support they need to grow them. In the kitchen gardens families grow vegetables that can survive on very little water.

Increasing droughts in this region have left farming families in an even more precarious position. In 2009 severe droughts ruined harvests. Some vulnerable people died of hunger and many thousands went hungrey. But it is not just a one off event, it is a structural problem in Guatemala that means these families live permanently on the brink of starvation.

Guatemala is a beautiful country, famous for coffee and textiles, known as the centre of the Mayan world.

But Guatemala is also country of contrasts: flooding and drought, wealth and poverty, agricultural exports and food shortages.

Since Hermenejildo planted his kitchen garden with seeds and support from Bethania, he says his children feel stronger and it is easier to work. His family lost their harvest last year because of droughts. ‘With the garden they are giving us classes to show us how to make medicines with local plants to treat cough, fever and stomach ache.”

Severe droughts in 2009 compounded years of living on the brink for families like Jacqueline’s. Bethania gaveher family emergency rations to

help them survive until next year’s harvest. Jacqueline has planted fruit trees and resilient

traditional vegetables which they can pick and eat every 8 days.

“Bethania brought us food and helped us with the kitchen garden, how to do it and they gave us seeds. It is great when the food bag arrives. I want to eat it all at once, but mum is good at

making it last.”

Time Activity

5.00 am – 7.30 am Get up, help mum to clean up and grind maize. Get washed in stream and get dressed.

(We don’t have electric light so wake up when there is some light)

7.30 am – 12.30 pm Go to School

12.30 pm – 6.00 pm Collect wood for stove, pick maize, do homework and grind maize for dinner.

6.00pm Dinner Time

How many electrical

things have you used this

morning?

Where do you have a

wash?

What time do you get up?

Do you help prepare food?

We eat chicken every couple of

months.

We just eat tortilla, beans and

rice

We don’t really have milk or

cheese

How many different things

do you eat?

How often do you eat

chicken?

Do you eat milk and cheese? How often?

Our water comes from a mountain

stream

Where does your water come

from?

Half of all Guatemalan children are chronically malnourished.

What does malnourished mean?

•This is when a body does not get the proper nutrition it needs to work

•Malnourished children doesn’t just mean thin children, it means children who get sick easily, children who cannot concentrate in class, who have no energy, when children don’t grow enough, when adults don’t have enough energy to work.

We only used to eat vegetables twice a month. We’ve now realised how

much we need to eat vegetables because they have even more vitamins

than meat.

Someone comes every month to teach us recipes to cook the vegetables. These are old traditional recipes, but they have been forgotten over time

Vitamin Good for

A Eyesight, growth, appetite and taste

B1 Nervous system, digestion, muscles, heart, alcohol-damaged nerve tissues

B2 Growth, skin, nails, hair, sensitive lips and tongue, eyesight, the breakdown of protein, fat and carbohydrates.

B6 Preventing skin conditions, nerve problems, helps the body absorb protein and carbohydrate.

B12 Making red blood and the formation of the nerves.

C Immune defense system, protection from viruses and bacteria, healing wounds, reducing cholesterol, cell lifespan and preventing scurvy

D Strong bones and teeth.

E Fighting toxins

Rural homes are built of adobe bricks, palm leaves, or clay mud mixed with straw. Floors are usually dirt, and roofs are made from palm leaves, grass thatch, wood or metal sheets.

What is your house made from?

It is 3 hours walk to the

nearest town.

How do you travel to town?

How long does it take you to travel into town?

There are very few cars here, and no bicycles either.

For most people, getting to market or to a health clinic involves walking

miles up and down steep mountain tracks.

Lucky travellers may be able to

hitch a lift.

My birthday has already passed this year. I didn’t

celebrate it,

Have you celebrated

your birthday this year?

Why didn’t she celebrate her

birthday?

A short film by Christian Aid about their work in Guatemala can be found herehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY_7Pjyz98g

This can also be accessed via the Diocesan website. Click on the Social Responsibilities tab and then Harvest Appeal Information and scroll to the bottom of the page