Picture Taken In Guatemala - The Home of the Maya

“Deutsches Aerzteblatt” says that thanks to efforts by different aid-organizations, the German measles – and I found this term amusing when I heard it for the first time – now can be considered as extinct in all of America – the North and the South. Before that they were a lethal threat especially to natives. Hence why I post this here! At least where I live Guatemala is famous for its natives. There even is a book for children that depicts Guatemalans as stereotyped natives who still believe in ancient tradition and “magical” tricks used by their ancestors.

The aid-organization “Adveniat” now makes some advertisement for their projects in Latin America. As Christmas is approaching they have sent letters to households giving them information on how their projects are going: “Adveniat” says that in many Latin American countries – including Guatemala – peasants are having a hard time trying to get their families through as extreme weather recently has destroyed quite a lot of harvest. Most of the food those living in slums get to eat is rotten and they live in crowded shanties without water. Children show signs of malnutrition that will destroy their health permanently. Many of these kids have never seen a doctor.
On the bank account:
Bank im Bistum Essen eG
BIC: GENODED1BBE
IBAN: DE03 3606 0295 00000173 45
they collect money to educate and hire teachers to be and teach peasants for example in sustainable agriculture and hygiene.

A friend of mine who is going to move to Berlin soon and who – as all of my friends – knows about my interest into developing countries as well as native culture gave me a book published by the aid-organization “Misereor” as a farewell present. Actually the first examples of this book were published in the late 60’s /early 70’s, but the edition gave to me had a little note on its front page stating that much of this book was still current in the 21st century. Anyway it is about natives living in Guatemala: and it says that in this country most natives die of diphteria, tuberculosis, Gastrointestinal and metabolic disorders and typhus – which may also have to do with their tradition of not cooking the water they get from lakes and rivers before drinking it. The fact that among natives the death rate of infants is much higher among natives than among others is simply explained by malnutrition due to the poverty of these people and the fact that deforestation is taking away their main-source of food. As you may know malnutrition weakens the immune system meaning that under normal circumstances these children would be far more resistant towards diseases and they would be more unlikely to die of said diseases. Another problem is that a high number of natives either can’t visit a regular doctor or simply doesn’t want to visit one – due to not trusting them for example. Instead the vast majority either asks the pharmacist from the closest village, they ask friends or – even worse – many don’t ask anybody at all what to do, which may be due to many native tribes having a very strong belief in faith and destiny.
In interviews most natives stated the wish of having a better infrastructure for Guatemala, but also a high number of native people stated that they wished there were more possibilities for natives to find work in this country.
Last but not least “Misereor” criticized the fact that a widely spread opinion among the non-native population in Guatemala is that it’s their own fault that their situation is not too well. They are thought to be less adaptable than others and thus many think that these men simply have trouble adapting to the “modern” lifestyle. According to “Misereor” aforementioned seem to forget that this situation just has to have something to do with Guatemala’s development policy. For centuries the conquerors of Guatemala took away their right to simply state their opinion and the European lifestyle was forced upon them. It is only human that in a situation like this a people becomes rather passive and insecure. Also there merely is a single institution in Guatemala that would try to do something about this situation, meaning that it actually is rather arguable that what happens in this country is to be blamed on natives only.

I know that some of the rainforests I mentioned in here aren’t separated forests. Actually there is one huge piece of rainforests going through several countries that are located to South Africa. I just thought that since each country is more or less left alone with its responsibility for the survival of its environment, it would make more sense to give you photos depicting parts of this rainforest in each single country and give you links that also deal with each South African country’s rainforest-individually.

In case you want to get involved, you will find tips concerning what you-the individual-could do on the websites “http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/adopt/projects/guatemala” and “http://www.worldlandtrust-us.org/?page=donate”. They depend on people who support them in their fight for the survival of the rainforest.