This is a brief post to flag up examples of media coverage for the work of two development organisations who have been working in Guatemala in the aftermath of Hurricane Stan in October 2005.

The first example is from CAFOD who have been involved in various projects through partners on the ground in Guatemala. This is an article published in the Tablet is from CAFOD's Fiona Callister. She makes the interesting point that although here the disaster was forgotten quickly, solidarity has been impressively strong in Guatemala itself crossing the religious divide between Catholics and Protestants.

"For example in the diocese of Jalapa, which contains San Carlos, desperately poor parishioners collected an impressive $20,000 (£11,500) to help those affected by Stan. Even more remarkably, the decision was taken that, although their diocese had been brought to its knees by the hurricane, they would donate the money to another parish which they considered had been worse hit.

This solidarity has been a strong feature of the disaster response, with Churches organising themselves almost immediately to take it in turns to feed those who had lost everything. So the Pentecostal Church would find 100 eggs for breakfast, then the Catholic Church would provide lunch in the shelters and dinner would come courtesy of the Evangelicals.

Miguel Marroquin, the director of Cafod partner FGER Nahuala community radio, which has helped distribute blankets and food, said: “People who are already poor and have suffered themselves have responded one hundred per cent. It is very humbling and inspiring. There is a great sense of solidarity and unity. The age-old religious divisions have been transformed and everyone is pulling together. This is something we must build on.” "

Fiona Callister mentions CAFOD's lenten fundraising- one example is St Margaret's Church, Richmond, in the UK already mentioned on this blog last month. For more information on their 26th March event, see this post.

The other example is an article that appeared in AlertNet on the work of World Emergency Relief in supporting the rebuilding of houses in affected areas of Guatemala.

"WER has released funds to local partner agency, Cosecha Trust, to purchase land and materials to rebuild houses for families who were left homeless in the aftermath of the disaster. These new homes will provide housing for over 100 people in the town of Tecpan."