Leadership Development
Our goal is Community Development by helping Hondurans to make their communities stronger.
Local leaders are essential, and they are all volunteers. They determine priorities, set standards, motivate and organize others, handle money, and interact with the Honduran government. When we can be helpful, we assist as requested.
El Rosario is the center of ACTS’ catchment area, and our primary work is through local committees. We model committee behavior by agreeing on agendas, talking in turn, taking notes, and always allowing time for extra items as they arise. The committee members recruit new members as appropriate.
The local committees include Health & Development, Clinic, Water Board, Education, Agricultural Leadership, Hope & Faith Gardens, and the Patronato, which is an elected committee.
Learning how to be a leader and spreading the ethic of volunteerism is the purpose of teen participation in ACTS’ program called La Fuerza para el Futuro that translates to The Force for the Future. For more than a decade, the weekly Fuerza leadership camp staffed by Dartmouth undergraduates was a hit with teens – and the rest of the community. Paused during the pandemic, La Fuerza was restarted in 2024 with the Taking Care of You teen health program and will be expanded in 2025.
The agriculture group is an affiliation of farmers determined to improve their farming practice and output to have more food for their families and to sell. Here they are pictured with Linda Kennedy in front of the multipurpose Agriculture Center.
The agriculture group is on a zoom call at the colegio library with Gustavo Mertons PhD an ACTS agronomist, hydrologist, and soil scientist in his lab in Wisconsin. Dr. Mertens speaks fluent Spanish, knows the farmers personally, and is explaining the challenges of transitioning from pesticide usage to regenerative agriculture.
The Patronato is the only elected group in the community of El Rosario. With just a 1-year term, no reappointment, and no dedicated budget, each Patronato struggles to define and accomplish goals. This group plans to take steps toward building a community social center, but until then, they are repairing potholes and fixing streetlights.