Volunteerism

Peace Corps Volunteers Reflect on Leaving Honduras

I think it’s sad that Peace Corps in Honduras was temporarily shut down, but I understand the reason. At the same time, I never felt unsafe and I think most volunteers don’t have extreme safety and security incidents.

By Brittny Mejia
In December, the Peace Corps announced it has temporarily suspended volunteer operations in Honduras while it conducts a review of the safety and security environment, according to a Peace Corps press release. Peace Corps volunteers from the University of Arizona who were sent to Honduras before the governmental decision to withdrawal said they understand, but also said that it is unfortunate for both volunteers and Hondurans. Gabriel Sidman, a natural resources graduate student, spent about two years in Honduras living in a small rural town located on top of a mountain. There he sold organic coffee, helped a women’s artisan group and taught ecotourism.

Lyons Family Eye Care on Mission to Tela

There was this little boy, probably six years old. His mom said he was deaf. I was checking his prescription and it was really high. He had no verbal skills, so they didn’t even know he wasn’t seeing.

By Patty Wetli
On February 8, optometrist Stephanie Lyons, husband John, and the entire staff Lyons Family Eye Care will board a plane to Tela, Honduras, as part of a mission by VOSH International of Ipswich, Massachusetts, to deliver vision services to people who otherwise lack access to eye care. With Stephanie having participated in previous missions to Honduras in 2008 and El Salvador in 2010, she and John were looking for a volunteer opportunity as a way to give back after the successful opening of LFEC in 2011. “For us, it’s been an incredible year,” says John. “People have been so supportive of what we’re doing.”

Being Transformed in San Manuel de Colohete

As the old and young and everyone in between were guided through the long lines in triage and then to the various clinics for treatment, my life began to transform. I began to see how the challenges of relocating from Wisconsin to Florida, going to school in order to build a new career at age 51, working a part-time job, my recent divorce and living alone away from my family and friends began to pale in comparison to the fact that I was with people in Honduras who do not receive basic medical care...

By Gail Bernhoft
I finally did it. Or, better said, it finally happened for me. I knew that taking a trip to Honduras was the right thing to do, because when all things came together, seemingly on their own, as if the universe itself had personal interest in seeing to it that I was provided with a first time experience that would not only leave me feeling like I can make a difference in the world, but also to become bonded with an amazing group, through MEDICO of Georgetown, Texas. My role with this organization was as an interpreter for the medical teams. I admit I wasn’t sure if my level of Spanish -- which at the time was only a little bit better than conversational -- would be good enough to be able to be of any use.

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What It's Like to Volunteer in Honduras

After getting up at 7:30 am every morning, Adams and the rest of her team would work on the worksite most of the day, but more importantly they would get to know the children and the families they were helping.

By Brittney Haynes
A month ago, Carly Adams would have told you that her spring break plans consisted of going on a cruise with her friends. Now, Adams, a junior from Sedgwick majoring in applied behavioral science, plans on saving her money for a second trip to Honduras. Over winter break, Adams spent eight days in Primavera, Honduras with the organization Students Helping Honduras building schools for children. ”I’ve felt like I’ve always been called to teach in a third world country and I’ve always been involved in volunteering,” Adams says. “I found the organization on Twitter this past summer and after researching it, I fell in love with it.”

Students Building 1,000 Schools in Honduras by 2020

Our goal is to build schools and provide resources for 1,000 remote villages across Honduras by the year 2020.

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Students Helping Honduras
In 2010, Students Helping Honduras began building relationships with community leaders from four schools in northern Honduras. These schools lacked the necessary facilities to teach their children. We also began planning with local officials to build a shelter for the orphaned and abandoned children of the area. During the winter of 2011, volunteers from all over the world flew down to Honduras to meet the kids, parents, and teachers in these communities, and for one week began constructing the projects for which they would work to raise funds over the next five months. Back at home, they started to mobilize a massive fundraising effort.

The Only Safe House for Abused Women

Up until 1998, victims of domestic violence in Honduras could not press formal charges. They were told to work out the issue on their own.

By Robin Hauenstein/Janice Sweitzer
Walk through the wards in the public hospital in Santa Rosa de Copán and try to count all of the victims of violence. Domestic violence is the top cause of most of the injuries to children and women. One woman was waiting on plastic surgeons to try and fix her machete-hacked face, and another woman was in the public health center X-ray lab, after saying she was hit in the face, although she declined to say what happened. Many children in the hospital were injured protecting their mother or other siblings. Even though the numbers are high of abuse-related injuries, until recently, little was done to try to curb the violence. Studies done by the United Nations showed 65 percent of police calls in Honduras are domestic violence-related. Orrville, Ohio-based Central American Medical Outreach (CAMO) is trying to change that in the northwest department of Copán. The problem is complex and while the job is far from over, the CAMO team is working with the Hondurans to bring about change.

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The Throw Away Kid

Some say that there is an unspoken code among the Indigenous poor that sick incurable children like Sinthia are sometimes given less food and care then other children. If the child dies then it is the will of God, and that is that.

By Rodger Harrison
It's one of many cool rain drenched nights in Honduras, and I am sitting on the darkened front porch of the Hacienda wondering when the electricity will come back on. Lately we have been losing electric about four times per day and it has been off now for 22 hours. Sinthia our adopted child is sitting next to me in her wheel chair cooing and babbling as I hold her hand and wonder what the future holds for her. Now she sits beside me listening to the rain as she serenely looks into my face with her large brown almond eyes. With an all knowing expression she seems as if ready to tell me something very important only to sigh and turn her attention once more to the pounding rain. We are still holding hands.

Calera High School Students Will Deliver Utility Vehicles to Honduras

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By Phillip Ohnemus
Students at Calera High School in Calera, Alabama, are combining math, science, and Spanish to help developing nations. And they’re doing that with a new vehicle called the BUV, the Basic Utility Vehicle, and it's made entirely by high school students. Brian Copes first envisioned the project six years ago while teaching 7th and 8th graders at Chelsea Middle School. Copes says he challenges his students every day and so far those students have more than risen to the challenge. "The goal is to make an affordable vehicle, something that can be put together with simple hand tools something that will allow people to get their goods and services to and from the market place affordably."

Ohio Medical Volunteers Visit Yamaranguila

Motley said she mainly helped patients with medication. The language barrier wasn't too much to overcome. "A smile and a hug communicates as much as words," she said.

By Mark Caudill
Mary Ann Stotts actually got to clean people's teeth during a recent medical missionary trip to Honduras. "Usually (on such trips) you're just getting people out of pain," she said. Stotts, a dental hygienist, was one of three members of Ontario United Methodist Church who went on the mission with members of a Zanesville church as part of Heart to Honduras. The others were Dr. Karen Wagenhals and Jenny Motley, a registered nurse. Stotts said Honduras has a number of medical clinics but not many supplies. The local contingent took 13 suitcases of medication and bandages, setting up shop in a church in the town of Yamaranguila in the mountainous southeastern portion of the country.

University of Texas Students Build School in Santa Rosa

By 2013 this facility will accommodate more than 250 students from 15 communities and further the economic and educational development of the rural community. The school will provide classes for students in the seventh, eighth and ninth grades.

By Amy Crossette
Nineteen undergraduate students from the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin will visit Santa Rosa, Honduras, during January 2-8 to finish construction on a school and community center they helped design and build. Students from the university’s chapter of Global Architecture Brigades collaborated with chapters from five other universities to design a secondary school and community center for the developing, rural community of Santa Rosa in central Honduras. Global Architecture Brigade students lay the foundation for a school and community center in Santa Rosa.