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Sponsorship in Honduras

CFCA extended its outreach to Honduras in 1982 and currently works through six projects. CFCA sponsorship provides benefits such as basic health care, nutrition, educational supplies and clothing to children and aging persons.

The Santa Rosa project is the largest in Honduras. In partnership with Hogar Amparo de San Antonio home for abandoned girls, the project provides shelter and nutrition and teaches sewing skills.

The Suyapa project, located in Honduras’ capital, works with children of very poor neighborhoods of the capital and rural areas. Most of the families live in extreme poverty, and family disintegration is a common problem. The project provides benefits to address this situation including nutrition, education, family assistance and health care.

The Ocotepeque project in southern Honduras offers benefits such as school supplies, uniforms and shoes, and basic food provisions. The project provides lunch programs at two sites Monday through Friday and offers classes in computers and sewing. Ocotepeque is in the process of constructing Casa Hogar, a shelter that will offer comfort and stability to sponsored children, youth and aging from the community who have been orphaned or neglected.

The El Progreso project serves more than 2,000 children and aging persons who receive education, nutrition, school supplies and medical attention. Classes are taught that offer parents guidance on how to care for their children and educate them.

The Juticalpa project works in 31 rural and three urban communities, spread throughout 11 subprojects, and addresses basic needs of children, youth and aging, including health, nutrition, education and clothing.

The Santa Barbara project is based in the city of Santa Barbara and serves various neighborhoods and surrounding communities. Its primary focus, as with all the projects, is on basic needs: education, nutrition, health, clothing and values formation. In addition, family assistance and home improvements are provided.

Sponsor a child in Honduras

About Honduras

Honduras, in Central America, is the least economically developed country in Latin America. The northern coast along the Caribbean Sea is the most productive agricultural area of the country, where the bananas for which Honduras is famous are grown. Rugged mountains and steep ravines make up almost 60 percent of Honduras, which causes villages to be isolated from one another throughout rural areas. Tropical rain forests cover the northeastern region of the country.

In 1998, Hurricane Mitch struck Honduras, killing approximately 7,000 people, destroying 70,000 homes and causing $1.7 billion in damages. The hurricane ruined half the farmers’ crops and washed away most roads and bridges.

The people

With the exception of some indigenous settlements in the highlands, Honduran culture is mostly Spanish. Many elements of the indigenous culture, such as dance and art, are found around the school of fine arts in Comayagua.

Although good farmland is scarce, agriculture is still a major economic activity. More than half of the labor force is made up of campesinos, or people who survive off the land. In many cases, they barely grow enough food to feed their families.

The majority of campesinos still use machetes and hoes in their fields, and ox-drawn wooden plows are common. Corn, beans and rice make up the staple diet, along with bananas and mangoes. Every few years, farm soil is exhausted and the campesinos must find a different location to farm on.

There are some modern homes in the cities, but in rural areas the houses are constructed of adobe, boards or poles, or they are made of earth and stone packed into a wooden frame.

Sanitation conditions are generally poor, and many people suffer from diseases such as malaria, whooping cough and typhoid fever. Malnutrition is a major problem.

Education

Although education is compulsory for children ages 7 to 12, many are unable to attend because of family poverty or shortage of classrooms, especially in rural areas. Most jobs outside of agriculture in Honduras require at least a primary school education, which many people do not have.

Honduras reached its goal of a nationwide education system in the 1950s, but the country experienced a population explosion at the same time and has not been able to build enough schools to meet the population needs. Honduras still has a high growth rate in comparison to the other Latin American countries.

In an effort to improve the nation’s literacy rate, the government suggests that every adult who has completed primary education teach at least two illiterate adults to read and write.

Sponsor a child in Honduras

Sources:

World Factbook

MSN Encarta Encyclopedia