February 2019
The Education Committee team included four community leaders from El Rosario, four ACTS educators, a reporter for the online journal Inside Climate News and two Honduran physician interpreters.
Our goals included the exploration of Honduran organizations engaged in agriculture; sharing ideas (including teaching English as a second language) with the Honduran chapter of Partners of the Americas; exploring the status of the educational program Maestro in Casa in the Department of Yoro including a new school in the village of La Conception; documenting concerns related to food insecurity as a consequence drought; and assessing water sources in the village of El Rosario.
The team visited Fundacion Hondurena De Investigation Agricola (FIHA) in La Lima; John Chater retired A.I.D agricultural consultant at Lake Yahoba; Partners of the Americas and the faculty of the Department of Agriculture/engineering and the Department of Linguistics of the National Autonomous University of Honduras in Comayagua; Sustainable Harvest International in Sequatepaque; the Associate Director of Hospital Manual De Jesus Subriana, the staff and children of the San Yves Nutritional Center, the seven members of the La Conception School Committee and Father Solano and Dennis Garcia, Administrators of Maestro En Casa in the Department of Yoro. In addition we visited the Yoro Fire Department where we were treated to a magnificent snack of freshly harvested honey.
These visits offered an unprecedented opportunity for the team members from El Rosario to observe a variety of creative approaches to farming in areas hard hit by drought, to appreciate the extent of the problem in Honduras and to feel more informed as they consider their options. In response El Rosario team members called a community meeting to discuss their observations, and the Education Committee of El Rosario initiated the Faith and Hope Women’s Vegetable Cooperative.
Our ambitious goals and exhausting schedule were more than matched by the value of what was learned, and by the sense of camaraderie and solidarity that bound a hardworking team together.
