William and Elias Guerrero play soccer near their family's underground greenhouse in the Bolivian Altiplano. Photo credit: Jason Swensen/Deseret News
Jason Swensen writes on Deseretnews.com,
William Guerrero is building a reputation as a first-rate soccer player here in this remote region of the Bolivia Altiplano some 14,000 feet above sea level.
This is an impoverished area. William will likely never play on an organized team. He may never own a pair of cleats. But the 12-year-old boy can dribble his well-worn ball along the hardened paths of soil outside his home like a veteran.
Young William is strong and looks like he could run forever.
No surprise, said his mother, Bernita Choque. When William’s not at school or outside playing soccer with his many siblings, he’s likely eating something. Over the past year, William and his family have been enjoying a more healthy, balanced diet thanks to an LDS Church-sponsored greenhouse project that is bringing spinach, carrots and other vitamin-rich produce to a region where vegetables are typically scarce.
The people of the Bolivian Altiplano have long existed on a diet of meat and potatoes. The climate here is simply too harsh for traditional farming and reliable plant growth of most types of vegetables. As a result, many people here live in a perpetual state of vitamin starvation.
Click to read the rest of the Mormon Vegetable Program Helps Bolivians story.
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