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....
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.
[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.
