October – November 2017
A team of four ACTS volunteers travelled to Honduras, to explore Honduran resources that may support ACTS’ expanded programs at the education center, and to establish a relationship with Partners of the Americas (PoA) Honduras chapter. The contacts that were made hold real promise for the exchange of useful information and in some cases the possibility for collaborative efforts.
In El Progresso meetings were held with the Coordinator of “Students Helping Honduras” a group with the ambitious goal of building one thousand schools, and with the staff of “Organization For Youth Empowerment (OYE) whose mission is similar but more expansive than that of Fuerza de la Futura.
The team spent a delightful day and one half in Comayagua, meeting with the movers and shakers of the Comayagua chapter of Partners of the Americas with whom ACTS expects to collaborate. This included a lengthy discussion with the Mayor of Comayagua who was very supportive of a possible ACST:PoA collaboration.
A unique evening and overnight was spent with John Chater on Lake Yojoa at the Hotel El Cortijo De Lago. John is a Vermonter who spent much of his professional life in Washington DC and Honduras serving as AID’s Coordinator for agricultural programs in Central America. In that capacity he helped to establish the Comayagua chapter of PoA. John is a wealth of information on every aspect of agriculture in Central America and his insights into the complexities of large government agencies may be very useful.
The team moved on to ACTS’ home base in El Rosario, where they met with the Education Committee to discuss potential new education program initiatives, and met with the local health staff for an update on current needs.
The team worked hard, and returned well satisfied that they had achieved their goal of meeting new people and discovering new ideas that are making a difference in Honduras, ideas which may be applicable in part to programs in El Rosario and area.
