HOTLINE - week of November 06, 2006

"We are very pleased with the level of interest by families in Totonicapan with the CIEDEG agricultural program," says Roberto Muj, program director of CWS Guatemalan partner CIEDEG (the council of Protestant churches in Guatemala). "We expected 570 families to become involved over a three-year period," adds Muj, "but 674 families are now taking part in projects after just the first year."

Needs are great in Guatemala, where more than 50 percent of people live in poverty. Some 60 percent of Guatemalans are indigenous. A 36-year armed conflict that ended in 1996 negatively impacted life in Guatemala, killing some 200,000 people, and resulting in "many widows, single mothers, orphans, and immigrants to the U.S.," says Muj.

Totonicapan department has an elevation of 8,000 feet. Farm families are learning to overcome the challenges of growing vegetables at the high altitude in the cool climate--and on rocks and hillsides--with the help of CIEDEG, Church World Service, and Foods Resource Bank. FRB raises funds for agricultural projects in developing countries through growing projects in the U.S.

CIEDEG is training the most vulnerable families so they can increase food production on their small parcels, develop new water collection methods, use available natural resources, grow and use new crops, make their own fertilizer, improve family nutrition, develop better organization, and share what they've learned with other members of their community.

The families are growing warm climate vegetables such as tomatoes, chili peppers, and cucumbers in greenhouses made from plastic sheeting stretched over wooden frames. They are also incorporating other strategies, including terracing on hills, composting, and water conservation.

Recycled wash water that is run through simple filters is used to water crops. And the farmers are improving the garden soil using decomposed leaves, manure, eggshells, sand, lime, and ashes.

The communities are also planting trees, including fruit trees, and learning how to trim, fertilize, and graft them. Some families are also learning to grow mushrooms.

Outside of the greenhouses in the warmer months, they are growing a variety of vegetables to help improve family nutrition, including radishes, peas, squash, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots.

In one community, the ground was too rocky for the women to grow enough vegetables for family consumption. In an innovative approach developed by Muj, they--and their children--are now turning used tires inside out and filling them with a soil mixture to grow vegetables. The old tires provide easy-to-manage raised beds.

"The response from women and children to the tire project has been great," says Muj. "The children don't think they’re working, but that they’re playing when they make a garden in old tires."

Daily life continues for these children in Gaza despite ongoing strife. Photo: Paul Jeffrey/ACT

"We can't lose hope; otherwise it will be a disaster for the Palestinians," said Constantine S. Dabbagh, executive director of the Middle East Council of Churches' Committee for Refugee Work, in the Gaza Strip this past week, as the situation in the Palestinian territory worsened. CWS is supporting the work of MECC, which is providing food, health, and education support for people in Gaza and the West Bank.

In Gaza, where the situation is particularly dire, the MECC is focusing on providing assistance in purchasing basic food items for some 7,000 families, emergency health intervention?free health care or free medicine--for about 76,000 people, and vocational training for 187 people.

CWS has launched an education and advocacy campaign called "Sow Justice" that is calling for policy changes that will help family farmers in the U.S. and around the world save their farms, feed their families, and educate their children. The campaign focuses on the upcoming Farm Bill legislation, with the goal of a new Farm Bill that supports sustainable agriculture, rural development, and nutrition programs. More on the Sow Justice campaign.

Your prayers and support - and your participation in CROP WALKS and the TOOLS & BLANKETS Program - make possible these and other life sustaining programs. For information on how to get involved, please call your Church World Service/CROP Regional Office toll-free at 1-888-CWS-CROP, that's 1-888-297-2767.

For information about free loan videos, please call 1-800-297-1516, ext. 338, or e-mail us at: videos@churchworldservice.org.

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