By David Fellingham
The knock on the door brought no response. Luis Espinosa, associate director of the Benson Institute, and Raquel Tuston, a local member of the church and a student intern, heard noises coming from the back of the Entering the back yard, they saw Sister Garcia, the bishop''s wife , who was working. Introducing themselves as members of the church sent to help the local community, they asked for the bishop, who was not there. Both Espinosa and Tuston smelled something foul coming from the house.
'Sister, what are you cooking?' Tuston asked as she let herself into the house.
The overpowering smell emanating from the cooking pot, they realized, was rotten meat Sister Garcia had fished from the local butcher''s garbage. While the bishop was trying to feed his flock, his family was starving.
The Garcias and their community are Otavalo Indians, indigenous inhabitants of Ecuador. When the gospel was introduced in their area they joined the church in great numbers and now comprise two stakes.
The Otavalo community once thrived as tourists bought their handmade textiles. Three years ago, the Ecuadorean textile trade was undercut not only by a cheaper Chinese version, but by drug runners who used their cloth to hide illegal wares. The bottom fell out when the Ecuadorean government switched to the American dollar and the value of their textiles plummeted. With no income the people went hungry.
BYU faculty from the Benson Institute were sent not only to meet the members'' immediate needs, but also to teach them long-term self-sufficiency.
Formed in 1975 by President Ezra Taft Benson, who had also served as the United States Secretary of Agriculture, the Benson Institute''s goal is to aid Third-World farmers and members of the church by teaching farming techniques, greenhouse construction and small-scale poultry production.
Horacio Araya, a member of the Seventy, first noticed the Otavalos'' hunger crisis and called the Benson Institute.
Espinosa was one of the first to respond. He worked not only to provide immediate relief from starvation, but also established an underlying infrastructure to teach self-sufficiency.
'We teach farmers to farm better in poor countries,' said Allen Christensen, director of the Benson Institute. 'And people with no land, we teach them small-scale poultry production, up to 300 chickens in eight to nine weeks.'
Over 80 families in Ecuador have been helped since the project began in August 2004.
The efforts paid off in a surprising way, Christensen said. During a visit to the Otavalo community, a local farmer approached Christensen to tell him about his new problem: he had so much food he couldn''t choose what to eat.
Janet Smith, a BYU nutrition science graduate student, found that 50 percent of Otavalo children were not getting enough iron and almost 100 percent had parasites. But those who were growing food as a result of the program were much healthier.
'There is a visible difference between the people,' Smith said in reference to the Otavalo who grow their own food versus those who do not. 'Their children are cleaner and healthier.'
The Benson Institute''s program has had a far-reaching impact as a once-starving people are becoming self-sufficient.
'The most dramatic impact has been the ability of these people to go back to their agricultural roots,' Espinosa said.