Making life a little bit easier in Guatemala

A Gozitan missionary in Guatemala is calling on the Maltese to dig deep into their pockets to help relieve people of poverty in the Central American country.

People live in primitive cane and straw huts, using bricks instead of shelves to store their meagre possessions.

Hungry children run around in the dirty surroundings, where domestic animals roam freely. There is no school and lessons are given under a tree.

For Fr Joe Camilleri, moving to Guatemala 14 years ago was a rude awakening and a far cry from his former home in New York, where he had lived for 21 years. It took a while to overcome the shock of the stark difference between the city that never sleeps and the poverty-stricken country.

Despite the hardships missionary work brings with it, Fr Camilleri describes it as "colourful".

"I did not even know what it entailed when I decided to go for it. I must have been 25 years old, and had just been ordained, when my uncle took me to see Dun Gorg Preca.

"He (Dun Gorg) asked me what I wanted to do, and I blurted out that I wanted to be a missionary. He told me to go and be careful.

"The day Dun Gorg was canonised, we named a parish in his honour," he says, seemingly as an afterthought.

Sitting at the dining table, at a friends' house, sipping cold water, the 73-year-old Fr Camilleri describes how families have so little food that children have to take it in turns to be given anything nutritious.

"I have never heard a child say he is full; they are always hungry. It is horrific to see children going hungry," he says pensively.

He recounts how people - most of whom earn just $3 a day - live mostly on black beans and corn, with meat and milk being a very rare treat. They are so poor that children even save the ribbon and paper that their Christmas presents - sent from Malta - are wrapped in. One young girl was so in awe after receiving a doll that she went to hide it, lest someone took it from her. Infections are rife and medical help not easily accessible for the 350,000-odd people living in Fr Camilleri's parish, with the closest hospital being 60 miles away over rough country tracks.

Some people never see a doctor in their lives. Some five years ago two of his friends died of appendicitis because they did not make it to hospital in time, and Fr Camilleri almost joined them.

"I needed to go to hospital urgently, and had I been unable to pay I would surely have died. Fortunately, I made it in the nick of time and was operated on as soon as I arrived."

This close brush with death made Fr Camilleri realise the importance of a hospital in the Jalpatagua municipality and, as soon as he was out of hospital, he got down to work, asking the Maltese for help to build the much-needed hospital.

He says the Maltese responded with generosity - architects got together to prepare the plans and companies sent over raw materials, including tiles, paint and bathroom accessories.

Through donations from Malta and help from the Guatemalan government, Fr Camilleri raised the Lm1 million needed to build the hospital, which was inaugurated in June last year.

"We have had some big benefactors from Malta, Gozo and the US."

Since it is close to the frontier with El Salvador, the 100-bed San Juan Bautista Hospital is also being used by that country's people.

But although the hospital is finished, Fr Camilleri still needs help to keep it running. He is calling on Maltese doctors who can spare some time to volunteer.

A Gozitan doctor already spends two months a year helping out in Guatemala. Doctors from Canada spend time helping out in the region.

"Whenever someone comes to the hospital, they do not ask for the doctors, but come looking for me because they know I am aware of their situation, and if they are unable to pay will let them go in for free," he explains.

Anyone who would like to assist Fr Camilleri on his mission can send cheques payable to Fr Joe Camilleri, to his sisters at 28, St Zachary Street, Xewkija, Gozo or to Charles and Lina Thake, 169, Victoria, Fleur-de-Lys Road, Birkirkara.