Inside the scanty house of the Chavez-Bernal family, the otherwise bare walls display signs of pride and hope: festive pink balloons, paper graduation caps, rolled-up diplomas. Just the night before, 20-year-old Elena hosted a party for her closest friends to celebrate her graduation from high school. This year, she is the only one in her small indigenous village of Kanaquil, located in the highlands of Guatemala, to finish secondary education. But she’s not the first in her family to receive a diploma. Her older sister, also named Elena, graduated from high school just three years before and now teaches at a primary school in a nearby community. Not to be outdone, young Elena promises to find work in the vibrant town of Nebaj.

Elena’s mother sits shyly in one corner of the living room, her gaze fixed at the solid dirt floor. But anyone can tell that she takes pride in how her daughters have bravely chosen a path toward change. “I’m glad life can be different for my children,” she says, speaking in her Ixil dialect. “They don’t need to suffer like me.”

Elena’s mom – as well as most people in Guatemala’s rural areas – never went to school. When she was young, her mother would hide her and her siblings in the cornfields whenever the teachers came to gather the children in the community. “My parents wanted us to work rather than go to school,” she says.

The long civil war (1960-1996) dashed hopes of a better future. Just like thousands upon thousands of civilians who were caught in the fighting between the government soldiers and the insurgents, Elena’s parents fled to the mountains where they lived in fear and hunger for many years. Still, they say they were lucky they survived. According to official reports, an estimated 200,000 people were killed by the end of the war.

But while the older generation will not soon forget the bitter memories of the war, their children – young, educated and ambitious – are rising up against the past and staking their claim to a life of peace, hope and dignity.

Soon after the conflict ended, FH sought to find ways to help communities address the issues left in the war’s aftermath, and walk with them on a path toward lasting recovery. Thus, full-scale, long-term development work took shape in the regions of Alta Verapaz and Ixil. These efforts would complement and strengthen initial relief activities and community outreaches that were started during the war. This explains why in some villages, FH has served for at least 18 years. But as “old” communities come to embrace the values and knowledge they’ve learned – so that they are now able to care for their own families and communities with very little outside help – FH responds to new opportunities in other villages. In the last four years alone, FH has opened programs in at least 22 impoverished communities with the help of faithful donors and ministry partners.

Today, the poor in Guatemala no longer just dream and hear of change. Instead, they see it and touch it and are a part of it. Change is as tangible as the productive land they are now farming, as visible as the boundless energy of a once-critically ill toddler. And as real as Elena and many other former sponsored children who now serve their communities through their chosen professions.

By Rez Gopez-Sindac

WHERE

+ Democratic Republic
-- of Congo
+ Ethiopia
+ Kenya
+ Rwanda
+ Uganda

 

+ FH HISTORY:

FH Guatemala began work in 1976 after an earthquake killed over 22,000 people and left one million without homes. The initial work consisted of relief efforts and coordination with government entities and churches to provide food, clothing, and medical attention.

In 1981, FH Guatemala began to develop programs focusing on sponsoring children in the region of Zacapa and semi-urban areas of the capital, Guatemala City.

In 1987 FH left the regions of Zacapa and Guatemala City and focused attention on the regions of Solola, San Juan Sacatepequez, Nebaj Quiche, and San Cristobal Alta Verapaz, implementing projects for development in education, health, and agriculture, continuing to have child sponsorship as the base of FH’s work.

In 1994 FH began focusing programming on two regions of the country, Nebaj Quiche and San Cristobal Verapaz. FH began implementing a Biblical Worldview as the foundation of all programs. Because of the decisions that were made to achieve the objectives according to the new focus of work, in 1995 the central office of FH Guatemala moved to the town of Coban Alta Verapaz with the purpose of being closer to the regional offices.

In 2006, the central office moved once again to the capital, Guatemala City, with the purpose of strengthening its relationship with other institutions, and making known the ministry of FH within government entities, other NGOs, and national churches.

Currently, FH is projecting to work with new communities in Alta Verapaz and the Ixil Region, keeping the Child Development Program as the core, while strengthening other programs that allow FH to attend to some of the more critical needs existing in the communities such as health, nutrition, and education. In this way FH seeks to strengthen each group in the community through values so they can acquire firm foundations that will serve them the rest of their lives. .

+ Guatemala's HISTORY:

Guatemala is one of the most populated Central American countries. Guatemala is mountainous, boasting 37 volcanoes. Though most of Guatemala's population lives in rural areas, many people are migrating to the larger cities for a number of reasons including government neglect of rural areas, oppressive labour conditions on rural plantations and unavailability of arable land. Slum conditions in the larger cities are oppressive and quality of life is poor.

Guatemala relies on agriculture for employment and exports (coffee, sugar and bananas are the main products). Once heavily forested, Guatemala now has severe environmental issues resulting from slash and burn agriculture.

A 36-year guerilla war, which ended in 1996, saw the deaths of over 100,000 people. Over 450 Mayan villages were destroyed, forcing over one million people to become refugees. Widespread political violence and corruption scandals continue to plague the nation.

Approximately 31 Guatemalan children out of every 1,000 die before the age of five. Poverty is rampant for most rural people, as is malnutrition because most of the population cannot afford health care. Although public education is free, the cost of uniforms, books and supplies makes it almost impossible for many families to send their children to school.

+ FACTS:

+ 1) Guatemala has one of the worst nutritional conditions in the region. Nearly 23% of children between three and five months of age suffer from general malnutrition.

+ 2) Children and adolescents compose more than half of Guatemala’s population.

+ 3) Scarce financial resources for household expenses often result in escalating levels of child labor.

+ 4) More than half of Guatemalans are descendants of indigenous Mayan peoples.

+ 5) Guatemala is the most populous of the Central American countries with a GDP per capita roughly one-half that of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.

+ Facts From: UNICEF

LINKs