Climate Change
Climate change is leading to starvation across the world, it is acutely felt in Honduras and Guatemala where drought and extreme weather have destroyed farmland and ruined crops and livelihoods.
Guatemala has the highest rate of malnutrition in Central America and the sixth-highest in the world. These are the children who need and deserve our care.
Climate Change Ravaging Crops In Guatemala, Millions On Brink Of Starvation - NBC News Digital
Children are deeply affected by the consequences of climate change. They are malnourished and desperate. They struggle for survival, forced to scavenge for food and put themselves in harm's way to provide for themselves and their families.
Children like Reinery who worked from the age of 6 to help his large family to work their farm and provide enough to sustain them all.
He says ” I tried to give a hand, carrying a half sack of corn to my back from the mountain to the town, walking 30 minutes to reach the place. It was a very hard work but I felt happiness too when somebody is buying my corn”.
They are reliant on a stable climate and a good harvest for survival but the extreme weather events caused by our climate crisis now regularly devastate their crops and food supplies. Most recently Hurricane Eta in November 2020 which wiped out farms, farm land and entire communities in Honduras and Guatemala.
For Reinery “the hurricane ETA had given us more preoccupation with the situation we are living. During the Eta hit our place, there were a lot of destruction happened to us, the mountain near my school had collapsed and Eta had destroyed too our house. We need to transfer to another looking for a shelter during that time. It causes tragedy also to our plants, we were not able to have a harvest during that time.” Reinery thought that all hope was lost when Hurricane Eta hit his family farm but in late 2020 we were able to fund a place for him so that he could join his brother at our school for boys in Amarateca, Honduras. He joined us in January this year and is in grade 7.
For Reinery this is a dream come true. He is safe, cared for, receives regular meals and with a quality education he can learn skills that will help him find good reliable work when he leaves school. With a regular salary he can go on to help his brothers and sisters and his entire family with healthcare, accommodation and a better life.
There are so very many children like Reinery and we wish we could welcome them all. Your commitment to our work and ongoing support can help us to provide more school places for these children so badly affected by this climate crisis.
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