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Guatemala City itself is a place of contrasts. It has areas of beauty and opportunity but it’s also a highly dangerous place to live – especially for a child living and working on the street without official recognition. This means that street children can be used, neglected and abused by gangs and criminals, and are at significant risk of being trafficked.

As we are undoubtedly facing a global crisis unlike any the world has ever seen before. In the space of just a few short months, the coronavirus pandemic has spread to almost every country, bringing grief, anxiety and economic chaos. As the outbreak continues, it is easy to miss those who are out of sight. Street children are the hidden victims of this pandemic – which threatens their rights and exposes them to even greater risks. So many of the street children we work with are unable to earn any money, and without a safe place to isolate, they become dependent on government support. But unregistered children are invisible– they do not officially exist, and cannot access any official help, which makes them even more vulnerable.

Our street outreach is the vital way for project staff to begin to build trust and relationships with street children but since mid-May the country has been in lockdown has meant that the project staff have been unable to physically reach the children that have been abandoned on the city streets. So, all the outreach activities have had to be put on hold. Street children have complex needs, but by far their most pressing need is basic survival. As coronavirus is so easily transmissible, children on the streets are particularly susceptible to contracting it – and the two things which work best to prevent the spread – good hygiene practices and social distancing – are those that street children are simply unable to do. As many of the street children are dependent on casual work, living a hand-to-mouth existence, ways of earning any income have gone, increasing the children’s vulnerability with too many going to sleep hungry.

THE IMPACT OF YOUR SUPPORT

Over the last 12 months, your generosity has helped some of the most vulnerable children on the streets:
• 108 street connected children were provided with support with their basic needs.
• 87 children were actively involved in life and recreational skill developing activities.
• 40 children accessed therapeutic and psycho-social support.
• 50 children were registered with their birth certificates and official legal identities.

EMERGENCY CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE WORK

Your funding also meant that from the end of March we have been implementing a full emergency response. We were able to start responding prior to the forced quarantine, with a health day to train street connected children on coronavirus and how to protect themselves, and where to go for help if they have symptoms.

NEVER BEFORE HAS THERE BEEN SUCH A NEED FOR THE BASICS OF FOOD, WATER AND MEDICATION

We know street children already struggle to access essential services, so during times of crisis like these when healthcare systems are overstretched, they are even less likely to receive the care they so desperately need. Another huge challenge the street children are facing is linked to the rules and restrictions on movement and being out in public spaces. When lockdowns are enforced with criminal sanctions, those living on the streets are at a high risk of being prosecuted and further marginalised.

Our partner CONACMI are working to ensure street children are given the emergency support they need to survive – food, water and medical care - as well as advocating to stop them being criminalised for being homeless. They are also working tirelessly to find places for children in shelters or with extended families.

We know that isolation is putting some children at greater risk of abuse and neglect. We are also aware that the virus is driving children off the streets and back to the precarious situations they once fled from. In a country where violence against children is already at an overwhelming level – this could have serious and dangerous repercussions.

For those children who remain on the streets, the team have been supporting overnight shelters to provide food, medicine and other essential services and working with local businesses to provide meals and food vouchers. For children living with their families, our partner is providing telephone guidance to encourage healthy parenting methods and to help rebuild relationships. They are also giving children phone credit so they can reach out to them for support and are also sharing videos with children on how to keep themselves safe. In order to protect children’s mental and physical health, they are offering counselling and online health check-ups.

In three of the areas we work there is no access to running water, so our partner is bringing in a water truck to enable communities to have clean, safe water. The team are also working with local businesses to provide 15 children in Guatemala City with food each day and issuing food vouchers to 320 street children and their families who are most in need.

The costs for these activities per month are totalling around £2,222:

• Food vouchers & rations: £1,853
• Hygiene and Medication: £176
• Support supplies for shelters: £96
• Information & support Materials on COVID-19: £96

From the end of March, to mitigate the exchange rate fluctuations, we implemented a system of monthly budget transfers. We have received an adjusted budget based on their

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Kingdom Coffee work with Toybox to fund projects in coffee growing regions around the world. Currently we are supporting a project in Guatemala

CONACMI (the Spanish acronym for National Commission Against Child Abuse) has been working in Guatemala City since 1994. Their work has a specific focus on prevention and assistance to children and adolescents at risk of violence and abuse. Education and vocational training is a major component of their work.

Santa Faz is an economically deprived area within Guatemala City, categorised as a red-zone by the Guatemalan government, it is one of the most dangerous areas in the country. Most of the population of Santa Faz come from socially excluded and marginalised families, with low levels of

Coffee is such an integral part of everyday life that few of us stop to think what goes into growing the beans that make this hugely popular beverage.

The history and importance of coffee

Legend has it that the energising effect of the coffee bean was first recognised by a 9th-century goatherd in the Kaffa province of Ethiopia, where the coffee tree originated. Coffee was almost certainly cultivated in Yemen long before the 15th century when Sufi mystics reportedly drank it to keep awake during extended hours of prayer. The drink was spread by Muslim pilgrims and traders across North Africa and the Middle East, where Arabian coffeehouses became centres of political activity. The Dutch planted coffee in Sri Lanka, India and Java in the late 1600s and later in South America. Within a few years Dutch colonies became the main suppliers of coffee to Europe, its production associated with colonial expansion and slavery. Coffee soon became one of the most valuable primary products in world trade. The first UK coffee house was opened in Oxford in 1650, followed two years later by one in London.

Global coffee consumption doubled over the last 40 years from 4.2m tonnes in 1970 to 8.7m tonnes in 2015. Coffee producing countries consume 30 per cent of the world’s coffee, led by Brazil whose consumption reached 1.2 million tonnes in 2015. The remaining 70 per cent of coffee produced is traded internationally; the US is the biggest importer, followed by Germany and Italy while the UK is the 8th largest importer accounting for 3.6% of world coffee imports.

Coffee is grown in more than 70 countries but over 60 per cent of the world’s coffee is produced by just four of them – Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia and Indonesia. Latin America is the largest regional producer with a 60 per cent share, followed by Asia and Oceania (27%), and Africa (13%).

For countries that produce it, coffee exports generate a significant proportion of national income and are a vital source of the foreign exchange earnings that governments rely on to improve health, education, infrastructure and other social services. For instance, Burundi relies on coffee for 60 per cent of its export earnings, Honduras for a quarter, Nicaragua for nearly a fifth. In Ethiopia, 15 million smallholders, nearly a fifth of the population, depend on coffee for their livelihood – high global commodity prices contributed to record coffee exports in 2010/11 which accounted for 30 per cent of the country’s total export ea

We all want less plastic in the environment but unfortunately a lot of tea bags contain a small amount of polypropylene plastic. This may surprise some of you but until recently it has been an essential ingredient to help the tea bag paper seal together.

But not anymore!

Clipper’s tea bags are sealed with a completely natural, non-GM bio-material made from plant cellulose, known as PLA.

They are completely free of polypropylene – the oil-based plastic that is so damaging to the environment. The material we use is entirely natural, industrially compostable and much more environmentally friendly.

The biomaterial that Clipper use is considered plastic-free according to the definition by environmental gro