When a group of trained community leaders gets back together with their teacher after a long hiatus, they have a lot to say. Of course, they do! Much changed in Honduras over the last several years.
While it really was always the case, the women are in charge of Honduras now. Honduras overthrew the coup dictator Juan Orlando Hernandez and elected its first woman president, Xiomara Castro.
Indigenous leaders are now well-positions throughout the government from top to bottom, and the youth of the country see that they are the ones who will lead the nation's transition from banana republic dominated by the hegemonic powers that be into an environmentally-conscious, justice-based round table where criminals do not corrupt with impunity.
AHMEN's community agents are back together again with high hopes, positive aspirations, and forward-leaning postures not ignorant of the fact entire families and neighborhoods are daily abandoning their precious country. No, they march forward inspired to preserve and prosper the best of Honduras.
ACSI-Jutiapa 2.0 wishes to fill the hearts and minds of those around them in order to ensure the next generation of Honduras no longer lives in exodus but brick-by-brick rebuilds the temple.
To begin, their goals are brief but powerful. They are centered in liberty.
Goal #1: Look for more men to join the program. Just because women and children keep the nation alive does not mean that men should not be a part of the conversation, the solution.
Goal #2: Ensure the participation of the mayor and local health department. This group does not want to function in a vacuum. They do not want to be a pet project of AHMEN. They desire to be a self-sustaining cog in the wheels of progress throughout their community.
Goal #3: Increase communication and interaction at each subsequent meeting. ACSI-Jutiapa wishes to do more each time they get together. This means taking over the responsibilities of the group chat, organizing meeting times, and contributing to lesson plans. The previous ACSI community agents remember what it was like to be recipients of education. They are ready to be contributors!
When AHMEN's Rio de Agua Viva team began working with leadership across Honduras 15 years ago in an organized fashion with the explicit goal of empowering local Hondurans to take ownership over their own development, we never knew the challenges that we would face. Today, we understand the road behind us was just iron sharpening iron. In the road ahead, with your help, we pray to make steel. Together, we are the difference. How can you help?
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