Since the beginning of the crisis, our team has looked for ways to support families and communities where we work. One of our first concerns was food. School lunch programs are an important source of nutrition for students in our communities, where malnutrition is chronic. With schools closed, those mealtimes are also stopped.

Fortunately, the Guatemalan government has promised to provide bulk supplies to be distributed at schools every two weeks. These distribution events are primarily organized and run by teachers. Parents come to the school to pick up plastic bags filled with basic supplies such as corn flour, dried beans and cooking oil.

Whenever possible, our staff have been participating in these food distributions at the schools where they work, supporting teachers and helping make sure that families get the food that they need. 

During one of the first food distributions at the Mario Méndez Montenegro school, Child Aid trainer Heidi Coyote Mactzul realized parents who collected food to bring home should also have books to take home so kids can keep reading. She worked with teachers to set up a simple lending program so parents borrow books for their kids from the school’s collection of Child Aid-donated books. 

This idea quickly spread to other Child Aid schools. Now literacy trainers are working with teachers to loan books and are preparing simple handouts to give to families with instructions on how to do reading activities with their children at home.

Child Aid literacy trainer Paola Aju says the parents and teachers are grateful to Child Aid for helping them continue to promote reading for their children during the shutdown. “They appreciate the flexibility in using and accessing books and the opportunity for children to continue reading from home,” she says.

Read more about Child Aid’s response to the coronavirus crisis