May 2022
Throughout the pandemic, ACTS was weekly contact with El Rosario via email and zoom, but our trips to El Rosario were put on pause. In a brief but comprehensive visit May 13-15, 2022, ACTS President Linda Kennedy was able to visit El Rosario for a series of meetings and local tours.
The Clinic porch during the Cancer Screening Day in May 2022.
Given the COVID pandemic, two hurricanes, a national election and transfer of power, inflation, and increased emigration from Honduras, the situation was dire in many respects. Topics covered are summarized here.
EDUCATION
Situation: To protect children and teachers, schools were closed and are just beginning to open on a part time basis. Many schools were damaged by the hurricanes and neglect.
ACTS mitigation: Funding to repair ten local elementary schools was supplied and construction is near completion. An extensive plan to augment classroom learning with upgraded teaching materials was made possible by the Zondervan Foundation. Kennedy interviewed publishers in San Pedro Sula to source appropriate materials. During school closure, librarians at the Education Center provided worksheets for students to do at home.
AGRICULTURE
Situation: As of mid-May, farming families awaited the spring rains essential to planting in June. The agricultural microbank was paused due to nonpayment from previous loans and farmers were anxious about significant price increases for inputs such as seed, fertilizers, and pesticides.
ACTS mitigation: The ACTS Agriculture Committee is actively pursuing alliances in-country with other NGOs to bring farming practices at the core of regenerative agriculture to the El Rosario valley farms. In January, with farming leaders from El Rosario, representatives from the ACTS Agriculture Committee toured examples of regenerative agriculture in the area around Tegucigalpa. The downstream effects of a newly activated (unlicensed) mineral processing plant on the edge of the community make the future of local environment unknown.
HEALTH
Situation: The clinic in El Rosario operated continuously throughout the pandemic and remains an extraordinary health resource in the region. Staffing is stable with a full-time nurse and part-time physician and dentist. All are mentored by ACTS clinicians. During the May trip, representatives from La Liga Contra Cancer in San Pedro Sula HN, led by oncologist Suyapa Bejarano MD offered a large-scale cancer screening event operating simultaneously in El Rosario and a collaborating local clinic in the village of Ocotal. Together, they screened nearly 300 women for cervical and breast cancer. More than 20 women suspected as positive based on clinical exam will be seen at La Liga within the month. All women will receive Pap test results within two months and those needing follow up will travel in groups of 4-5 to La Liga for treatment.
ACTS mitigation: Stable staffing is essential and with ACTS’ funding, the El Rosario Clinic Committee financed a home to make it possible for the nurse to settle permanently in El Rosario. Inflation is significant in Honduras and ACTS is increasing salaries for all clinicians.
Throughout the community are signs that families with relatives living and working in the U.S. are the beneficiaries of remittances that make life easier. Those without remittances live marginally. A single mother caring for six children, four with multiple major disabilities, has an extremely difficult daily existence and starting immediately, ACTS is augmenting its ongoing family nutrition program with daily household help. Our awareness of her problems and the ability to make a difference is wholly dependent on ACTS’ relationships with local leaders who will, for example, hire and supervise the household helper and manage an increase in monthly nutritional support.
