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12 Student Journalists Arrive in Zacapa
September 29, 2008 12:25 PM
ABC News On Campus Reporter Miles Doran blogs:
Greetings From Guatemala!
After a whirlwind day of traveling, we made it to our destination: Zacapa. It's about three hours from Guatemala City, but throw in bad traffic, a pit stop for snacks and cattle blocking the road and it took us closer to four hours.
We've being hosted by a ministry called Hope of Life. It actually has a giant compound on a mountain here, where it operates an orphanage, nutritional center and retirement home.
Sunday was our first real "work" day. Twelve student journalists hit the streets of Zacapa searching for a story. Some had more luck than others. The common theme to all of these stories is the severe hunger
and malnutrition problem facing this country.
Students Erik Maza and Jason Henry visited a nearby landfill where children were picking through trash in search of aluminum cans they could bag and then sell for money to buy food. One kid was thrilled to find a dead bird, which he pocketed, perhaps for a later meal. The bird's legs and feathers were actually sticking out of the pocket of this boy's jeans.
I spent the morning at the nutritional center where about a dozen young children are being treated. The youngest patients are a boy born on Sept. 11 and a girl born on Sept. 6. The boy was almost buried alive by his mother, but the police were called and a judge sent him here. The girl was found abandoned.
Three nurses work around the clock taking care of these kids. They used to have a doctor here, but two months ago he left for Guatemala City. Because the center is short-staffed, the children aren't monitored as attentively as they used to be. Even the economic problems in the United States are trickling down to this little nutritional center in rural Guatemala.
The staff relies heavily on donations to keep the center running. Most of the donations come from the United States and lately the center has been getting less and less.
With six days to go, we're all trying to narrow our story focus. It's a tough process – parachuting into a place you've only read about, then searching for a story and making it great. For those of us who
want to pursue a career in international journalism after graduation that's why this class may very well be the most valuable class we'll take in college.
September 29, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (1)
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If only congress would let free markets chart their own best courses, there would be money to help feed the poorer people of this world. The bailout dollars would probably give Guatemala enough of a start to make itself viable.
Ditto for a lot of other countries where humans are starving.
Posted by: dl | Sep 29, 2008 12:56:07 PM
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