Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina: Home: Honduras


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Honduras Our mission in Southern Honduras started with the first visit in 1988. Bishop Estell wanted for us to have a presence in Central America and asked if some volunteers would go to Honduras to see what we could find. The Contra War was still going on as well as problems in El Salvador and Guatemala. The Hondurans that the Charter Committee on Global Missions helps have established an organization known as the United Communities. This group of men and women from seven communities is comprised of subsistence farmers seeking to improve their lives. They struggle to survive in the face of such overwhelming enemies as poverty, flood, drought, and lack of land and a lack of basic necessities. Over the last decade, the diocese has setup a fully functional grain fund/credit union with silos located in local co-op stores. The people in these small villages are able to borrow seed for planting and repay the debt at harvest. We taught them how to manage the fund there, enabling them, not us to make decisions. Since hurricane Mitch in 1998, we have paid for and constructed 12 houses and have sent eleven 40ft containers of food, medical supplies and equipment. Another focus today is on education. Many of the schools in the region only go to the 9th grade. To open up the windows of the world to this isolated area, we have provided computers to local schools with life changing results. We have established a memorial eduction fund (Jerry-Nathan Fund) to educate students in high school and college. Charter Committee on Global Missions volunteers bring down suitcases full of medical supplies. A clinic is set up to serve the folks in need of medical help and is run by the locally-trained Health Promoters. This was by no means a charity operation as each visit requires a payment of three limpira (seven hard-earned cents). It was here, through the common human condition known as relentless pain that walls between cultures came tumbling down. On one trip nurses helped a young mother who walked with her infant across the countryside. She was given vitamins, treated for infection and informed about how important she was to her baby's well being. The young mother left with renewed strength and determination. The teams help children with ear infections, adults with infected varicose veins, plus a variety of burns, botched circumcisions and infected bug bites, parasite treatment, and antibiotics for infections. The patients put their faith in the volunteers. Faith and healing are crucial elements in the Bible. Jesus heals those who have faith in Him. The volunteers feel that these people will live in their memory for a lifetime. There are many opportunities to help in Honduras: Continued funding of the grain bank is necessary to stay ahead in this drought prone area Medical missions are taking place on an annual basis and there is so much more we could do. Building teams are needed through out Honduras, primarily to construct adobe brick houses. For more information visit: http://orbita.starmedia.com/~irhv/indexe.html Last Published: March 23, 2007 6:24 PM
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