November 2025 - Launching New Projects and Leadership Groups
The team, led by ACTS President Linda Kennedy, included: ACTS’ VP Sue Burgos; Treasurer Jeff Prileson; veterinarian Brad Taylor; dentist Dave Bogacz; Laurel Ross bringing nutritional expertise; and Emma Farnsworth with clinical experience. Danil Zuniga, a Honduran physician was the driver and interpreter, assisted alongside with Honduran Keila Licona, who teaches ESL in the community.
Taking Care of Elders, the fourth in the Taking Care series funded by the Dr. Margo Krasnoff Fund, was launched with a focus on elders dependent on others for daily living. It emphasizes bringing joy by adding social and educational opportunities. The first meeting with 35 elders was lively and enthusiastic. The team’s clinicians Sue Burgos, Emma Farnsworth, Laurel Ross, and Danil Zuniga, accompanied by local nurse Nolvia Martinez, did in-home visits to begin the evaluation and assistance process.
Also new is Nourishing Young Children, a feeding program designed to improve the growth of young children in a remote indigenous community. Funded by ACTS’ long-term supporter The Zondervan Foundation, the program was introduced at a community meeting and within minutes women volunteered to cook and clean and use of a kitchen was offered and accepted. Locally, the Honduran Health & Development Committee, led by Gloria Castro, will manage the program.
The parasitic screw worm, fatal to mammals, has recently returned to Honduras after decades of being under control. One fly laying eggs in an open wound on a cow, or other mammal, if left untreated can cause death in a day. ACTS veterinarian Brad Taylor drew on strong relationships with the farming community to determine best practices for establishing a small, locally controlled veterinary pharmacy to make key medicines available to treat screw worm and several other serious conditions. Working together, the farmers can hope to keep screw worm under control in their valley.
About a decade ago, led by ACTS dentist Bob Keene, ACTS broke ground on a dental clinic – the only one in the region. The dental team of Honduran dentist Reina Posadas and ACTS dentist Dave Bogacz worked seven long days to put fluoride treatments on 91 elementary students onsite in schools and treat 53 others of all ages in the clinic.
The new Junta de Agua (Water Board) is fresh off a multi-day training funded by the Dr. Margo Krasnoff Fund and presented by our Honduran partner Agua Pura para el Mundial. They learned about how their degraded community water system can be repaired with sweat equity, some skilled labor, materials, a new water tariff for users, and project supervision by Agua Pura para el Mundial.
The busy week also included Emma Farnsworth’s public program on First Aid, Laurel Ross’s open discussion Ask Me Anything about Nutrition, restarting the Fuerza para el Futuro teen leadership program, presentations by the primary school students’ ESL class, plans to improve the library at the Education Center, meetings with the Water Board about repairs to their community system, establishing a bunkhouse for visitors to the community with a large outdoor meeting patio, and introducing fun games to kids of all ages.
To kick off Taking Care of Elders, we met with dozens in a lively meeting. Within an hour, they had named their group Third Youth, decided to meet biweekly, and brainstormed ideas for what they would do together, including learning how to manage poor sleep, celebrating monthly birthdays, singing, exercising, talking about religion, and catching up. The little red moto-taxi will transport those who need help getting out.
While children in school receive lunch, the youngest children in this indigenous village miss meals. They sometimes go days without anything to eat. Our program ‘Nourishing Young Children’ will provide a nutritious meal to young children and pregnant or lactating women daily.
Screw worm is a parasitic insect spreading rapidly through Central America and it is already a significant problem in this part of Honduras where it can kill a mammal in a day. Brad Taylor is working with the farming leadership to establish a small local veterinary pharmacy that will stock the rescue medications that can save an animal that has screw worm eggs and larvae in a wound.
In two meetings with the Junta de Agua, we mapped out steps they need to accomplish to prepare ACTS to seek grant funding to repair the system.
Accidents happen everywhere. Emma Farnsworth’s presentation on First Aid covered topics from rescuing a choking infant to wound care using readily available tools like a t-shirt or a stick.
The first cadre of teens to join the new Fuerza para el Futuro (Force for the Future) celebrated by learning to make a cake – and then eating it! They plan to develop programs to bring the community together such as table games, field trips, and movies. Keila Licona will serve as the advisor to the member-led Fuerza.
Speaking English is rare in the area around El Rosario, but the skill is valued in jobs outside of the rural sector. Primary school students who choose to enroll in after school ESL classes meet at the Education Center with teacher Keila Licona. It’s fun to hear them sing out, with perfect pronunciation, “Good afternoon!”
To keep our team safe from mosquitoes that spread diseases like dengue and screwworm, we spray our clothing and sleep with bed nets.
Everyone loved figuring out how to finish puzzles and make a marble run work!
