Honduras 02/08

Honduras is such a beautiful country. As I cruised along the countryside visiting different orphanages I couldnt help but be amazed by the beautiful landscape; lush greenery, majestic mountains, colorful people, simple homes, grazing animals, tropical flowers, and a warm, humid climate. Its incredible to think that in a country so fertile, there are so many people struggling to survive. As in most of the countries we serve, the main purpose of these orphanages is to provide the basic needs and a quality education to children whose families are not able to do so. Food For The Poor is very active in Honduras and is working continuously with housing, water wells, food distribution, animal husbandry, agriculture, tilapia production, vocational training, and education. It is a country full of potential.

My agenda was packed for the week. We are constantly increasing our Angels of Hope program so one of the tasks was to visit three new potential Angels of Hope homes and discuss their candidacy for the program. We are also looking to develop our support more into the direction of sustainable projects.
We evaluated many of the homes for agricultural and animal husbandry projects and will soon have agricultural engineers working with each home individually to develop small plots of vegetables, herbs, fruit trees, and ornamental flowers. For the homes that are lucky enough to own larger pieces of land we will move forward with some chicken coops, goats, and maybe a tilapia pond. I am excited about these new projects and how they will benefit the homes.

Through our regular distirbution of goods we are able to provide the basic food items needed, but this fresh produce will provide an improved level of nutrition and maybe cut down on some of their monthly expenses.

The young ladies at Hogar Amor y Vida received a workshop on jewelry making. They proudly gifted me this set of orange jewelry when I visited. The home cares for 35 HIV infected children. All but 2 of these children have lost both their mother and father. You would never know by meeting the children and sensing the hope and happiness in this home, truly a wonderful place.

I was blessed by a large donation of brand new children's clothing. A generous FFP donor sent me four large boxes of new children's clothes. I have been distributing some of them on each trip and I also send a box down to Haiti to be taken to one of our housing villages. This trip I took two suitcases of the remaining clothes and distributed them to three of our most needy homes. The clothes were beautiful and brand new. The children and the staff were very excited and appreciative. The girls were already picking which dresses they would wear to church this week. It is so nice to receive items like this. I know that the donor will never understand how wonderful their generosity really was and how is affects the spirit in these orphanages.

I met in a child in Hogar Emanuel that had a shocking story. As I was walking with the home director a small boy came up to us and reached up to hold both of our hands. He walked around with us for the remainder of the visit. The director told me the story of how he came to live at the orphanage. The young boy was actually about six years old. I assumed he was 2 or 3 given his physical size and demeanor. She said that he was found by social services severly mistreated and abused. He was grossly malnourished and suffered from a variety of illnesses. Apparently he had been found physically tied to a chair in his home. He was completely neglected for nearly his entire life and treated like a chained animal. Fortunately the child received barely enough food to at least keep him alive until his life would change for the better.

After being removed from his home he was evaluated at a government run orphanage. He was found to be deaf and mute. Since Hogar Emanuel already has several hearing impared children in their care, the boy was sent to their orphanage to reside. After two weeks of attending classes at the hearing impared school the teacher approached the home director. The child is not deaf. He was just so severly neglected that in 6 years he had never learned to speak. He was not potty trained. He cannot eat by himself. He was not used to being around other people. He hid in the corner when approached or showed affection. He is at a 2 year old level developmentally.

It was an amazing story. Incredible that this boy who has suffered so much, after only 4 months, is now babbling jibberish and has learned 6 words so far. He is now playing with other children and approaching strangers to affectionately hold their hand. He has been cured of intestinal parasites and other illnesses. He is healthy and putting on more and more weight. He will be given the opportunity of a quality education and a loving home. These orphanages are doing the work of God. I am so proud to be able to be a part of their work.