Una Invitación: Cinco Estrellas - Consejo Nacional Anticorrupción (CNA) Honduras

Just a few weeks before I left for Honduras in June this summer, my long-time friend Dr. Luther Castillo Harry told me that if I was in town, to attend his award ceremony as a special guest.  I had not planned on wearing a tie in Honduras until after beginning my future role at the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa.  However, I'm glad I got some practice sweating when the spotlight was on other people.

I am so lucky to be able to learn about Honduran heroes as Consejo Nacional Anticorrupción (CNA) Honduras - the Honduran anti-corruption society - presented its annual "Cinco Estrellas, Five Stars Awards" to the following civil rights advocates:

• Patricia Elicenia Pérez - Indigenous leader and Secretary of Junta de Agua en Yamaranguila, Intibucá
• Julio Escoto - Author, essayist, and literary critic
• Teresa de María Campos - Social rights advocate and Director of National History and Anthropology Museum in Sand Pedro Sula
• Christhian Joel Murrio - Psychologist and major facilitator at CAPRODI - the Center for Progressive Awareness of Disabilities in Honduras
• Luther Castillo Harry - Garifuna physician and human rights advocate

Thank you, Luther for the invitation.  Thank you CNA for the hospitality.  I hope my life's path enables me to work with the fruits of your labor in the very near future!  The five of you exemplify what is good, what is possible, and what is needed not only in the Republic of Honduras but across the world.  I look to you for your leadership and direction.

______________________

Would you like to learn more about how to get involved in Honduras?  I lead AHMEN's Rio de Agua Viva team to work with AHMEN's Community Empowerment Program.  We teach sustainable health skills to local leaders who then will go on to teach those same skills to the greater community.  Our dates for 2020 are July 6-16.  The trip costs $1200 + the cost of your airline ticket.  No previous skills or experience is required.  We will teach life guarding and water safety to fishermen in Garifuna & Miskito communities.  We will teach "Clean Communities: Stomping out Addiction and Pollution" in the La Ceiba suburb of Jutiapa.  Finally, we will teach methods of non-violent protest and lead a US/Honduras cultural dialogue in the mountain town of Yorito.  Join us for the trip of a lifetime.  We need photographers/videographers, computer gurus, lifeguards, teachers, medical professionals, students, and people from all walks of life.  Ask yourself and others "How can you help?"

Together, we are the difference.

Return to Yorito

The success of ACSI-Yorito cannot be understated and must be recognized as a cumulative effort.  When I visited Yorito in 2010 to share the idea of AHMEN's Community Empowerment Program with the quaint mountain town, it was Fanny Aviles who took action.  It was Janet Espinosa of Peace Corps-Honduras who organized.  It was CD and Linda Tripp who continued to foster relationships with Yorito as the community agents approached graduation.  Together, they brought a small contingent of representatives from Yorito all the way across Honduras to Cusuna to participate in the initial ACSI-Cusuna meeting in 2010.  I visited Yorito again in 2013, and after three years, the small group of leadership had blossomed into a legion of community agents.  Six years since then, that legion has fruited animation and activation.

The original concept behind AHMEN's Community Empowerment Program was to teach Honduran communities without access to resources to learn to meet their own social, political, and economic needs without outside help.  Out of the four ACSI workshops, Yorito has always had the privilege of enjoying leadership who knew a thing or two about getting a job done.  Together, Fanny, Janet, and the Tripps are accomplishing the mission behind ACSI.  

While many mission teams, like my own many times, continue to look for foreign solutions to the clean water issues in Honduras, ACSI-Yorito merely looked to the ground which gives forth life.  AHMEN clean water efforts in Yorito began as relief and quickly moved to empowerment.  When the Tripps first began working on clean water with AHMEN's "Feed My Sheep" team to Yorito, they initially began using bio-sand filtration.  The team hauled sand, pebbles, gravel, and the plastic filtration systems to the mountains each year until finally CD said he was tired.  Now usually, this means it is time for a coffee break, but this time it meant that he was tired of hauling earth to a place with plenty of it.

That is when the light bulb turned on for a "Feed My Sheep" team full of engineers.  The group set off to make an analysis of the sand, pebbles, and gravel local to Yorito to see if it would work in a biosand filter.  They also set out to design a mold to be used to make biosand filters from local materials.  Today, CD and the team haul no water purification supplies to the area but merely evaluate projects.  The ACSI take care of everything!!

As of today, ACSI-Yorito has built and installed:

• 300+ locally made biosand water filters
• 26 outhouses
• 18 floors
• 12 roofs

And they would like to do more with your help!  I am setting up a fund with AHMEN especially for project grants in Yorito.  $20/month would go a long way to helping ensure all families in Yorito live clean, healthy, dignified lives.  Education continues; as each project commences, Fanny and Jovel ensure that the skills they are implementing are also being taught to the larger group of ACSI along the way.  How can you help the work continue?

To learn more about how to address developmental needs in Yorito or to join an outreach team to the pueblito, contact me today @EcofemFranklin.

Together, we are the difference!

***Since I began writing this blogcito, nuestro querido Yorito has experienced trauma.  A mining company has begun operations against the wishes of the town.  Protest has erupted, and members of the community have been shot by riot police.  Among the injured is the father of our own Fanny Aviles.  Please be in prayer for the community and its land.***

Dinner with Neel

I'm a cheapskate if there has ever been one.  I don't know who bestowed such a trait on me or what vestigial instinct bubbled to the top of my gene pool.  However, I know that I began showing signs at a young age.

When I was a nine-year-old kid, I went shopping with my step-momma.  She notoriously shopped by coupon at the time.  As if under the command of Admiral Nimitz in Saipan, Carol Ann aisle-hopped across Target with stealth and speed.  In no need of being distracted by a child with limited allegiance to a shopping list, she sent me to roam the toy section with a plan to meet back at the register in thirty minutes.  When we met at the front of the store I had an X-Men action figure (Iceman if my recollection serves me right) ready to purchase for the fair price of $4.99.  Carol Ann let me go first because I only had one item.  When the clerk rang up my toy, the total came to $5.39.  I immediately turned to Carol Ann and asked if I could borrow a dollar to cover the change.  She responded "what about that $20 bill in your wallet?"  Without thinking anything of it I remarked, "I don't want to break my twenty!"  I remember as clear as day Carol Ann pulling out fifty cents in change and saying "Son, you give 'tight wad' a whole new name!"

What does this have to do with community empowerment in Honduras?  Well, as I was tallying up my budget for this year's trip, I looked at where I might save a few bucks.  Travel from the San Pedro Sula Airport to Casa Blanca in El Progreso stuck out at me.  I wondered who I might know who could give me a ride.

Then it came to me!  I thought, "Dr. Delmer is from El Progreso.  Maybe he is home and can give me a ride."  I wrote to Delmer; alas, he would not be in Honduras during June.  "But my brother Neel can give you a ride" Delmer wrote back.  Cha-ching...$30 bucks in savings!

Not only did Neel give me ride, his sweet girlfriend offered to feed me also.  The special of the day??

Sopa Marinera

It was one of the best I have ever enjoyed, but what made it taste so deliciosa was not the whole fish, crab, shrimp, leche de coco, or sweet yucca, but the love which brought ladle to bowl.  It is such a warm feeling knowing that I have friends a world away who will greet me as family.

There are many other memories (most which are best left for oral storytelling) from the night I spent in Progreso in early June 2019, but "Dinner with Neel" will be one of my fondest.

--

How many more stories like this could be shared among the 60K volunteers who travel to Honduras each year?  With UVA - Uniting Volunteers App of Honduras - we can learn about all of the other connections that have been and are being made among volunteers.  UVA could also be used to discover which volunteers are doing what, where, and when in Honduras each year.  Such a tool could truly transform the effectiveness of the honest outreach throughout Honduras.  Such a tool offers the unity the volunteer community must have in order to provide the infrastructure the Honduran government simply won't.  Will you join me in sharing my GoFundMe page at www.gofundme.com/unitingvolunteershonduras to raise awareness and funds for UVA-Honduras?!  

And if you are ready to take the plunge and join AHMEN's Rio de Agua Viva team in 2020, contact me today! 

Together, we are the difference.

Looking Back from the Horizon - June 2019

What did my adventure in Honduras entail during my stay in June?  Take a look at what you will be reading about in the coming weeks!

*Dinner with Neel

*Return to Yorito

*CNA 5 Estrellas Award Ceremony

*ACSI-Raista and Rio 2019

*Hay Protestas?

*Meeting El Dr. Jerry Sabio, Alcalde de La Ceiba

*ACSI Network

If you would like to donate to, volunteer for, help plan, pray for, or fundraise for ACSI, please contact me today!

Together, we are the difference!

I'm Back, Baby!!

In his infamous ballad "Brownsville Girl" Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan sings "Now I've always been the kind of person that doesn't like to trespass. But sometimes you just find yourself over the line." On this most-recent voyage through Honduras I felt myself "over the line" on several occasions.


From wearing a tie in Honduras for the first time and attending the Consejo Nacional Anticorrupción Cinco Estrellas award ceremony and negotiating my way through the national protests and roadblocks, to traveling alone in the collectivos all the way from Pueblo Nuevo to Sambo Creek, I continuously found myself in what could have been some precarious situations over the last twenty-two days.


Of course, when God has our backs, we tend to trust all will work out according to plan. And in terms of completing the mission of AHMEN's Río de Agua Viva team, it did!


Tune in over the next several weeks as I relay tales from my time in Honduras this summer.


As you do, remember that anyone can play a role in making our work in Honduras possible. Whether it is fundraising, donating, praying, or physically joining a team, educational empowerment is a relationship you can help build through your participation with our team.


Together, we are the difference.

Act Now!! Join Rio de Agua Viva Community Empowerment Team Today!

Who: Filmmakers, videographers, photographers, students, teachers, interpreters, anyone with a kind heart

What: Build relationships, engage in intercultural dialogue, talk human rights and the environment with local change agents, indigenous leaders, and municipal officials (Open for college credit opportunities and research!)

When: June 3-14, 2019

Where: Yorito (Mountains), Jutiapa (urban Caribbean), Cusuna (Rural Caribbean), Raista (Rain Forrest)

How: $1500 + cost of flight (This money will cover all in-country travel, meals, lodging, insurance, AHMEN membership, team t-shirt, interpretation services, cultural events, and 1 day of R&R)

Why: Join our team to evaluate the status and results of AHMEN's Community Empowerment Program!

For more information, contact team leader Michael Franklin @EcofemFranklin or visit the team website at www.honduranmissions.com/teams and click on Rio de Agua Viva today!

Together, we are the difference!

Horario del Río de Agua Viva - 2019

AHMEN's Río de Agua Viva is calling on YOU to join one of our exciting teams and help recruit members.  We need bilingual team members and will negotiate a lower team fee for you if you can serve as an interpreter.  However, we also need a good mix of other kind-hearted individuals looking for some adventurous outreach!  Our teams are great for all ages 18+ and will impact your life almost as much as those we serve. Check out our team schedules below!

The team we started in 2013 has expanded to cover four different areas.  Each team has a leader and needs 4-8 additional members.  Share this blog post with someone who you think would be a good fit.  If you can't join us, can you donate to our cause?  Will you buy an ad on our team t-shirts? Will you hold a fundraiser for us?  Will you pray for us?  By separating we can cover more ground and build relationships with each of the four "Agentes Comunitarios de Salud Integral - Community Agents of Total Health" workshops.  Buuuutttt....

Together, we are the difference!

The Miskito and the Lobster Diver

This just in...doot doot doot doot...Special Report from Porto, Portugal...doot doot doot doot...


I don't know if you believe in angels or not.  The Bible talks about them off and on throughout the Old and New Testaments.  They saved Danny Glover's management career in Los Angeles.  John Travolta played one back in the 90s, and one protected mutantkind as a member of the original X-Men.

Well, my angel helps me on all things Honduras.  He believes in my conviction and serves the world by helping me and others who pursue causes about which they are passionate.

Last week my angel sent me an email including a video he saw on the local news featuring the lobster divers of La Moskitia.  Why is this important?  The lobster divers and the lobsters are in danger!  (English transcript below)

Honduras Report
Channel: SIC
Date: December, the 28th - 2018
Country: Portugal

Translation: Santa Barba


[Bottom Banner: Honduras Poverty - Hundreds of people risking their lives in lobster fishing for income.]


News Reporter:  To run from extreme poverty, hundreds of people risk their lives in Honduras.
Lobster fishing is an activity, which leaves permanent injuries, and many divers eventually, die.


Voice Over: Saul Ronaldo Atiliano just suffered an accident during a diving.
He has 25 years of experience but necessity forces him to dive into a dangerous depth. In ‘La Mosquitia’, one of the poorest areas in Honduras, hundreds of adults and teenagers, find in lobster fishing, the only way of guaranteeing their subsistence. Half a kilo is worth 3 dollars.


[Top Banner: Saul Ronaldo Atiliano – Diver and fisherman]

“When I came out of the depths, I felt neck pain and back pain. The pain went all the way to my arms. I enter my wood canoe and reached the boat. That day, I’ve already used three bottles of oxygen.”


[Bottom Banner: Honduras poverty – Fisherman try to catch as much lobster for each dive]

Voice Over: Saul Ronaldo Atiliano was victim of decompression sicken. Which means that he returned to the surface to quickly. At that depth, Saul should have made many pauses as he emerged.

[Bottom Banner: Honduras Poverty – Fisherman have to save the oxygen that each oxygen bottle has and emerge too quickly.]

But the expenses with the oxygen tanks, force the divers of “Mosquitia” to spend the most time possible underwater and to emerge as fast as possible, risking their lives in the process. In these circumstances, the gases that are deluded in the blood, can develop bubbles in the veins and arteries, which block the blood flow, causing paralysis or even death.


*I didn’t translate Luigo Luddo from the Non-Governmental Organization ‘Goal’, because he’s speaking in Spanish*


[Bottom Banner #01: Honduras Poverty – Hundreds of fishermen were victims of decompression sickness and many die or become paralyzed.]


[Banner #02: Honduras Poverty – The only hyperbaric chamber the region is located a day and half away of distance and was donated by the USA.]


Voice Over:  There’s not a precise number, but everyone says that there were many injured fisherman in the last years. In the fishing villages of “La Mosquitia”, wheelchairs are a part of the tropical landscape. Decompress sickness is treatable, but the only hyperbaric chamber in the region is located a day and an half away from the village, at the Central Hospital in the largest city of the province. It was donated in 2008, by the United States, the country that buys the most lobster to Honduras. Charly Melendez has 12 years of experience as a diver. He got sick a year ago, in a day when he got almost 30 kilos of lobster.


[Top Banner: Charly Melendez – Ex-fisherman.]


[Top Banner: Cedrak Waldan Mendoza – Physioterapist.]


[Bottom Banner #01: Honduras Poverty – Fishermen receive 3 dollars for each half-kilo of lobster.]


[Bottom Banner #02: More than 60% of the population of this Central America country lives in extreme poverty.]


Voice Over: More than 60% of Honduras population lives in extreme poverty. Last year, according to the government data, lobster fishing earned the country 40 million dollars and cost the lives of an undetermined number of fishermen.