Tearfund Launches New Resource for Bolivian Indigenous People

Tearfund has launched a new Harvest pack entitled ‘Glorious Food’, which focuses on the indigenous Quechua Indian people of the Bolivian Andes.

|TOP|The resource looks to provide a colourful insight into the relatively unknown people, living in one of the world’s most beautiful and extreme mountainous regions.

Cleverly designed to divide between church group members and friends that may be interested in different areas of work, the pack offers resources for a specific church meeting about food and healthy living.

Included in the pack are:

• Recipes - including one donated to Glorious Food by Delia Smith
• Inspirational Bible notes by Dr Elaine Storkey
• A script for eight colour OHP slides
• An interview with a typical Quechua family on life at high altitude
• Song sheets and lyrics
• Icebreaking nutty ideas, fun games and thought provoking food displays
• A drama sketch
• Fabulous food fact posters and stickers for children's activities (and those who feel as young!)
• And a DVD and CD-Rom ...containing much, much more!

The pack has been written and edited by Tearfund’s Jo Hill, who previously travelled across the High Andes last year to spend a week with the Tearfund-supported project, Yanapanakuna - which means 'let us help ourselves'. During the time, she clearly saw watching Bolivian Christians revolutionising health and nutrition for some of Bolivia's poorest Quechua people.

|AD|Hill found that a basic diet of potatoes and wheat, mixed with poverty, was a fertile ground for malnutrition.

She said, “This is being eradicated by Yanapanakuna's work... building humble greenhouses, teaching women new recipes using fresh produce, sharing Christian perspective on relationships and the environment and showing local health volunteers how to treat a cold so that it doesn't turn into pneumonia. There are hundreds more Quechua villages dotted across the Andes in need of the Yanapanakuna treatment.”

Professor Andrew Tomkins of the Institute of Child Health in London also gave his endorsement of the role of this resource, saying, “This pack shows just how important it is that young children in poor communities receive a better diet, live in an improved physical and social environment and have access to vital health services if they are to benefit from schooling and grow up to achieve their potential. It's true for us in the UK as well. Recent research shows how essential improvement in early child diet and healthcare is for achieving intelligence, learning and earning capacity, and health in adult life.”

Tearfund President, Elaine Storkey said, “The Glorious Food pack is an inspiring and challenging resource for churches to see how the topic of food unites both rich and poor. It's an opportunity for us to support Bolivian Christians as they improve the diet and spiritual well-being of the poorest people who have no choice about what they consume.”

Churches can order Tearfund's Harvest Pack by visiting www.tearfund.org