The word wasteland probably describes it best. 

The dump is fuming with the smell of spoiling food, magnified by the beating sun and the heaviness of the air. The stench is almost unbearable.

Barefoot children walk through the heaps of burning trash, searching for broken glass to sell. Hundreds flock to these grounds every day for the same reason. The dump is just a snapshot of the poverty that affects over half of Guatemala’s citizens.

World Help’s partner Carlos Vargas operates a Hope of Life feeding center here. The feeding center, in operation five days a week, impacts 800 children, 125 single mothers, and 10 special-needs adults in the community. For many, these meals aren’t just supplemental, they are a lifeline—their only real sustenance. The alternative for most is to allow their children to scavenge for contaminated scraps of food from the dump, causing widespread sickness and disease.

Hope of Life has just been faced with several new and stringent regulations from the Guatemalan Health Department, who have threatened to close the feeding center completely unless specific improvements are made to ensure compliance to health codes.

Unless Hope of Life makes these changes in the next 30 days, the feeding center will face closure, endangering the lives of hundreds of desperate people in the area.

The following improvements must be completed in order to continue operation of the feeding center in the dump community:

• Installing a high perimeter wall around the entire feeding site
• Supplying several tables for people to sit and eat
• Constructing two bathroom facilities
• Providing two sinks and several cooking stoves for the facility

The cost for completing these improvements, including labor, is $30,000.

The need here is not simply to continue a feeding center, it is to invest in a program that is providing numerous opportunities to share the hope of Christ with hundreds of people in the community. Hope of Life staff has been able to develop incredible relationships here through sharing the love of Christ in both action and words.

World Help supporter Wanda Ott recently visited the dump feeding center on a trip with us. She had this to say about her experience:

When I went to Guatemala, the first stop we made was at the feeding center at the dump. As I stepped off the bus, I immediately started to cry when I saw the long line of women and children who had gathered there waiting for a meal. I was recruited to help serve lunch to those who were eagerly waiting . . . it was a nutritious bagged lunch. It was obvious by the way they devoured the meal that they were ravenous. The fact that Hope of Life was there to offer some kind of respite from their hunger and having to dig through trash at the dump was like a breath of fresh air. It was wonderful to see the smiles on the faces of these women and children after they had been fed and cared for.

Hope of Life not only offers nutritious meals to this community, but also lets these women and children know that someone cares about them and wants to help them. They are stepping in and filling a need that obviously is not met by anyone else . . . all at no expense to their government or community. They should be commended for the work they do and the positive impact they are having on the people of this community, as well as many other areas of Guatemala.

Please join me in saving this vital source of help and hope for the people in this poverty-stricken community. Every gift—big or small—will make a tremendous difference for the hundreds of children and families who depend on its existence.

Join me today in doing something that will outlive you and last for eternity.