Cries of the forgotten

Among the countries to benefit from money raised on this Friday?s Lenten fast day will be two that suffered natural disasters but were eclipsed from the headlines by others. Here, the situation in Guatemala is examined, and opposite, Joseph Mpinganjira describes that in Malawi

LAST OCTOBER, Guatemala suffered three natural disasters in just one week. A volcanic eruption was swiftly followed by Hurricane Stan, which in turn triggered mudslides, claiming around 2,000 lives and changing the landscape for ever. About one third of the country was affected by Stan, which swept away vast tracts of farmland and temporarily cut off the major economic routes.

Yet few people in Britain heard about the plight of Guatemala. The country fell victim to timing, for the world?s eyes were still focused on the flooding of New Orleans when Stan struck. Then attention almost immediately diverted to Pakistan as the earthquake there hit only four days later. The lack of interest and lack of headlines has been reflected in the international response. The United Nations appeal for $14 million (?8m) for Guatemala has been less than half met, despite warnings from the World Food Programme that the country could face famine in the forthcoming months.

Just one of the hundreds of affected communities is San Carlos, a small town nestling in the mountains. On the slopes grow patchy clumps of pine trees but many more have been cut down in recent years, leading to deforestation that in turn helped contribute to the mudslides. Most of the houses are built from adobe bricks ? blending clay and straw ? that offered little resistance to the heavy rains and subsequent mudslides. Fortunately for the townspeople, the school is a solid concrete building that offered much-needed sanctuary during the storms. But for that building, the death total of seven from the community would have been much higher.

Sitting lethargically outside his ruined home, one little boy highlights the risk that now faces the people of San Carlos. His short stature suggests that he is about four but he is more than double that age. Underneath his worn clothing, his belly is swollen and all over his tiny body his skin looks more like scales. He is suffering from severe malnutrition, due in part to the ruined harvest lost in the storms. This is a community in which 93 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line and half are living in extreme poverty.

All around the town lies field after field of flattened maize. This is food that would have fed the subsistence farming families which form the majority of the population here. But Stan first floored the crop and then flooded the fields, leaving the maize, which was just ready to harvest, rotten and useless. In some parts of the diocese of Jalapa, in which San Carlos lies, 95 per cent of the harvest was lost. ?Welcome to the land of survival,? says Fr Victor Manuel of the San Carlos parish. The World Food Programme is distributing some maize and oil, but the need is much greater than supplies.

With Cafod?s help, the Church will ensure that farmers have seeds to sow in the planting month of May and food to keep them healthy until the next harvest. But reconstruction work on the hundreds of homes that have been lost or damaged will have to wait. It is simply not safe to reconstruct many houses where they once stood because future storms could see a repeat of the devastation. On the hillsides surrounding San Carlos are huge boulders, brought down from the mountains and now precariously perched mid-slope with many houses standing in their path.

Many of the hillside communities will have to move from areas where they have lived for centuries. Climate change has brought stronger hurricanes and heavier rains than previously experienced and deforestation means that there is little to hold back the mudslides. So new land needs to be found for the relocation of families and communities.

In other affected areas, the Guatemalan government has intervened and is currently in the process of finding rare areas of flat lands for the relocation of villages. It has risen to the challenge of helping its people in the absence of widespread international aid, repairing water systems and coordinating relief supplies. Civil society, including Cafod partners, has been vocal in demanding that the Government has a duty to lead reconstruction efforts.

But what is perhaps most remarkable about the disaster is the way the Guatemalan people have helped themselves. This is a country divided by long conflict that has pulled itself together in adversity.

For example in the diocese of Jalapa, which contains San Carlos, desperately poor parishioners collected an impressive $20,000 (?11,500) to help those affected by Stan. Even more remarkably, the decision was taken that, although their diocese had been brought to its knees by the hurricane, they would donate the money to another parish which they considered had been worse hit.

This solidarity has been a strong feature of the disaster response, with Churches organising themselves almost immediately to take it in turns to feed those who had lost everything. So the Pentecostal Church would find 100 eggs for breakfast, then the Catholic Church would provide lunch in the shelters and dinner would come courtesy of the Evangelicals.

Miguel Marroquin, the director of Cafod partner FGER Nahuala community radio, which has helped distribute blankets and food, said: ?People who are already poor and have suffered themselves have responded one hundred per cent. It is very humbling and inspiring. There is a great sense of solidarity and unity. The age-old religious divisions have been transformed and everyone is pulling together. This is something we must build on.?

Fiona Callister is head of media at Cafod. Cafod can be contacted on 0207 733 7900; cafod@cafod.org.uk www.cafod.org.uk