Oaxaca, Mexico is among the poorest regions in Latin America. Three out of four people lack access to basic necessities and have only a primary level education. Most families are forced to live in one or two-room, dirt-floor shacks with no electricity, running water or sewage system.  

Many children suffer from malnutrition, neglect and abandonment, and are often forced to quit school for low-paying jobs that trap them in an endless cycle of poverty; a cycle that often brings with it drug use, gang membership, and teen pregnancy. 

Our program, called Trigo y Miel (Wheat and Honey), serves children and their families in Zaachila, a very poor and underdeveloped area on the outskirts of Oaxaca City. Most families have come from smaller villages in search of a better life and are facing severe unemployment and dire housing conditions. For many, daily life is focused on survival with little hope for a purposeful future.  

The Trigo y Miel program currently provides a healthy meal once a day, five days a week, to over 100 children from nearby colonias (neighborhoods). It also offers safe drinking water, tutoring, medical check-ups, recreational activity like sports and self-defense training, and invests in income-producing initiatives for the families in the community. The newly founded church at Trigo also offers hope, encouragement, and spiritual discipleship to the children and their families.