A group of 23 volunteers who will be learning what it is to be a missionary by doing a stint in Guatemala this summer are today having a meeting with the Archbishop, Mgr Pawl Cremona, OP, at the Curia in Floriana at 11.30am.

Their work with the missions will be on the Mission Fund’s Project Hope which is building huge bowls where fish can be bred. They will also continue with work on a school dedicated to Mother Teresa of Calcutta where 200 boys and girls are already receiving lessons.

According to Fr Marcellino Micallef, OFM, the Mission Fund has completed various construction projects in Africa, Central America and South America, in areas where Maltese and Gozitan missionaries operate.

This will be the fourth time that Project Hope will be operating in Guatemala, a naturally beautiful country that is full of contrasts and contradictions – 20 per cent of the 15 million-strong population are rich; the rest are miserably poor. Many have no electricity, water, work, education or security.

Maltese Franciscans have been working in Guatemala for over 50 years. The group leaves Malta on Monday, to return on August 27. Prof. Carmel Agius will be advising them on fish breeding.