Did you ever wonder why myself and others in AHMEN went the direction of long-term community development over the relatively more immediately-rewarding medical relief and yearly water filter education? Not everyone in the organization understands or accepts the premise of our side of AHMEN operations. However, the message is relatively simple. It is about empowering local Hondurans to be the change they want to see in their own country.
A linear plan of - A to B, B to C, C to D, and so on and so forth doesn't exactly work. Timelines and deadlines cannot be forced on local communities by foreign volunteers. We provide supplemental education so that local communities can develop their own benchmarks. We are involved in community development so that local Honduran leadership can envision a goal and engage with additional stakeholders about how to get there.
So is the case with ACSI-Jutiapa.
As a small pebble bouncing down a snowy slope can become an avalanche, so too can a conversation become lifesaving education. When ACSI-Jutiapa asked us for help in supporting a Covid-19 relief distribution in their neighborhoods as an educational activity, Greg Thompson and I supported the idea. We didn't support the idea solely to ensure families had access to food staples during a government lock down. We didn't support the idea solely to ensure ACSI-Jutiapa had an opportunity to do something when they could not hold educational seminars for the community. We supported this idea so that ACSI could practice addressing the needs of the community now so that they would be more prepared to do so on their own in the future. When AHMEN is dead and gone, ACSI will have had first-hand experience (a) identifying a problem (b) developing a plan and solution (c) seeking collaborators (d) executing the plan (e) providing evidence and accountability measures.
We are not in the "hand out" business but the "hand-in-hand" business. To donate to AHMEN's Community Empowerment Program, click here! Make sure to specify your donation goes to ACSI! 
To join our think tank or to visit ACSI when travel opens up again, contact me here! God has the power to end human suffering in the world for eternity with the blink of an eye, but instead asks us to be the hands and feet.
Together, we are the difference.
