The protestant community marches as a witness of their faith. Now they want to help the government as volunteers in educaiton and public health.
Churches organize to help government
(11 Feb 04) President Óscar Berger’s call for volunteers did not fallen on deaf ears. The twenty-thousand churches that make up the Guatemala Evangelical Alliance (AEG) are only waiting for formal approval to begin work in the areas of health and education.
The nation’s largest protestant organization with about 20,0000 congregations totaling four million members, the AEG pledges to help reopen 100 health clinics closed during ex-president Alfonso Portillo’s administration. Their offer came two weeks after Berger asked the protestant churches to help reopen the health clinics. “We already have told the churches of our offer, so that they can help to reopen the one hundred health clinics,” said David Munguía, AEG’s president. The AEG also has offered its church buildings for use where there is no existing health clinic as well as for use as classrooms in areas where there are no public schools. President Berger’s call for volunteers was fundamentally due to the lack of govermnent resources to meet these basic social needs. The government has declared an finanical emergency siting the fiscal gap $125 million.
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