Greenhouses Provide Food Security for Women in Guatemala

Thursday, September 21, A.D. 2006

Antonia lives in Guatemala. One of the thousands of women who lost a male member of her family during one of the longest running civil wars in Latin America, she is a member of the Network of Widows in Guatemala. Antonia has become a local leader in an area of Guatemala mainly populated by single women heads of households. As a local leader helping to gather and empower women, Antonia now supervises a community greenhouse. Ten young women have come together to build and maintain a 10 x 20 meter greenhouse. This greenhouse has allowed the women not only to learn the skills to grow their own food supply, but also to contribute to the improvement of the overall economic situation of their community. As the heads of their households without rights to land, these greenhouses are especially important in providing access to “land” where these women can grow crops. Managing the greenhouses has also empowered the women in a special way as they learn skills that even the men in their villages do not have. The young women are now teaching others how to grow crops. Some of the women Antonia manages have even learned how to grow off-season crops in the greenhouses, which allows them to sell the crops at the local market for a much higher price.

Week of Compassion is helping women provide for themselves and their families by supporting 18 of these community greenhouses in Guatemala. Together with Church World Service and Foods Resource Bank, two of our major partner organizations, we are providing funds to these greenhouses to assist women in the areas of agricultural development, food security, education, and job skills training. As you know, Week of Compassion responds around the world around the year. We are only able to do so in conjunction with our cherished partner organizations and churches. We are also grateful to work together with local people like Antonia – a poor, indigenous, rural woman – to help change the lives of others.

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Volunteers Still Needed for Fall Disciples Habitat Builds

As the new two-year Disciples Hurricane Recovery Initiative gets underway, there is an urgent need for work groups this fall and especially for two upcoming Disciples/Habitat Builds - one in Lake Charles, LA, October 14-28, and the other in Beaumont, TX, November 4-18. There is still time to get involved! Please call Tod Iseminger in Disciples Home Missions' Office of Disciples Volunteering at 888.346.2631 or 317.713.2649 for details and scheduling. The WOC Office has a limited number of hurricane work trip grants available. Information and applications can be downloaded from the WOC website - www.weekofcompassion.org.

WOC Map/Poster

For the latest additions to the WOC interactive map/poster, please visit our website at www.weekofcompassion.org. For a complimentary copy of the WOC map/poster for your congregation, contact Elaine Cleveland at 317.713.2442 or ecleveland@woc.disciples.org. We're looking for stories and photos of how congregations are using the map/poster. Click here to read how two congregations are using theirs. We'd love to hear from you!