Promoting healthy lifestyles to combat disease and malnutrition.

In Jocotenengo, and throughout much of Guatemala, parasites and malnutrition bring huge health problems. Because of the high levels of poverty, many people have little or no access to quality nutrition plus large sections of the community have very limited education and thus lack a basic knowledge of simple hygiene ‘do’s and don’ts’. Both these issues subsequently lead to higher incidences of disease. Whilst we have been at ‘The School of Hope’ we have been so impressed with the excellent strides they are taking to combat these problems through some amazing, but often very simple, initiatives.

I shall start with hand washing simply because, every day, one of my responsibilities is to make sure every child in ‘Prepa’ washes his or her hands after they have been to the toilet. Most of us are fortunate enough to understand, from a very young age, that ‘hand hygiene’ is an important lifetime habit for staying healthy but many of these young people are not made aware of this until they start school and some will probably not even have the facilities to wash their hands at home. Twice a day the 4 to 5 year olds line up outside the toilets, in an orderly fashion, to be given (by me) a strip of toilet paper – remember even loo paper has to be bought with donations so none of us are allowed to go crazy! One of of my biggest achievements is that every girl in ‘Prepa’ can now say “paper please” as I tear them off a piece of paper from a large industrial sized roll. The smiles on their faces when I say “good girl” because they have said these 2 words correctly are priceless. They then know that before they can come back to class they have to get a ‘squidge’ of bactericidal soap, wash their hands and then line up in the school yard where we wave our hands to let them air dry in the hot sun. Obviously as the children get older the paper and soap scenario changes slightly and Jan and Karen’s classes don’t have such a disciplined routine to follow but hopefully the basic steps they learnt when they started school will be with them for the rest of their lives.

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Cleaning teeth is another part of a normal daily routine that we all take for granted but many of ‘The School of Hope’ students do not have access to clean running water at home nor do they own a toothbrush or toothpaste. So, at school everyone has a toothbrush (thanks to hundreds of donations including many from a lot of you reading this) and teeth cleaning is encouraged as a regular activity.

Approximately 95% of the water in Guatemala is unsafe to drink.  Children, especially those in rural areas, often get sick from drinking unclean water.  When they are sick, they are less likely to perform well in school, attendance suffers, and subsequently they miss out on all the available learning opportunities. Parasites are usually transferred through contaminated water, making them dangerous because they can induce malnutrition by consuming the body’s nutrients.  At ‘The School of Hope’ pupils are regularly screened by the school nurse for signs of parasites and yesterday an external organisation came in and administered single-dose medications to certain pupils. These tablets can fully treat the relevant parasitic infections and provide yet another example of going the ‘extra mile’ to make the children happy and healthy.

Probably one of the best things of all about this very special school is the nutrition programme. Each day every single child in school receives a healthy mid morning snack and a fruit and vitamin-packed drink and then at lunch time everyone gets a nutritionally balanced meal and another healthy drink. The food is carefully prepared by a qualified chef and his team in an immaculately kept kitchen. There are no pre-prepared products at all – the produce is all local and fresh – music to my ears! Karen can vouch for the fact that all the meals are delicious as she never misses out on eating with the kids. Jan’s favourite job of all is handing out tortillas to accompany the main meal. I expect the chef will be relieved when she leaves as Jan often gives an extra 1 (or even 2) tortillas to those who realise she is a soft touch where a smile or a cheeky grin is involved.

Those of you who know me well will recall that many years ago I worked in school catering and to try and promote healthy eating I even illustrated a small pamphlet to give to every primary pupil in Sheffield called ‘The A to Z of Healthy Eating in School’. Oh how I wish I had been dealing with these children from Jocotenango way back then… my job would have been 100% easier. These young people do not get a choice of meal, drink or snack and they are not allowed to leave anything. There are no tears or tantrums about eating food they ‘supposedly’ don’t like and, every single student, throughout the school, eats and enjoys everything on their plate from the vegetables, to the protein to the pasta/rice to the 1/2/3 tortillas (depending on how much they smile at Jan). To me this is so refreshing because I was used to dealing with hoards of whinging pupils/parents continually saying I/my child cannot eat one thing or another. We could learn so much from the nutrition programme at ‘The School of Hope’ where there is thankfully not a chicken nugget or a frozen pizza in sight. Apart from the fact that a nutritionally balanced diet means students are better able to concentrate on their studies the most important thing that this programme provides is a snack and a meal that is often the only proper food that some of the children will get all day.

The nutrition programme is completely funded by sponsorship. It costs £13 a month to provide a student with two nutritious meals a day leaving them ready and energised to learn. If you are interested in a nutrition or other type of sponsorship – please follow this link. https://www.eftc.org.uk/en/sponsor

If you don’t feel you can commit to a full sponsorship why not ‘Donate Your Dinner To The School of Hope’. In 2020, the nutrition budget is underfunded by £2,224. So, between Wednesday 19th February and Thursday 19 March EFTC are asking us to #donateyourdinner to fund the shortfall. Whether you are tucking into a sandwich, eating street food in Vietnam or having a slap up Michelin Star meal , take a photo and #donateyourdinner by visiting https://justgiving.com/campaign/donateyourdinnerjustgiving/campaign/donateyourdinner

So, within the blink of an eye, tomorrow is here and it is our last day at school – there are bound to be hugs, tears and more hugs. There is still a lot more to write about our time at ‘The School of Hope’ but as Rob, Barry and Letty fly out to join us this weekend you may have to wait until I am laid out on a beach in Costa Rica before you get my final instalment. For now we are all off to pack our tissues in preparation for the end of our amazing, life changing adventure.

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