Local
Involvement - cultivating a sense of social
responsibility
Social responsibility is
a learned trait. The founders of ProNino are both
Honduran and American citizens. And they have helped us understand that the
strong American sense of social responsibility is a learned trait. We take it
for granted because so much of us have grown up in societies that care for each
other (at least to some degree). Most of the
middle class in
Honduras is blind to the issue of
street children. They do not see them, and further they don't see them as their
responsibility.
One of the beautiful part of this program is that George and
Betty have worked hard in their own community - through their own awe-inspiring
self-sacrifice and service to the Honduran community they have won the respect and ear of leaders in the community. As such they have been able to teach through action what it means to practice social responsibility. They have
built a board of local leaders.
Honduras is a tremendously poor
country, second only to
Haiti in the
Western
Hemisphere. It is doubtful they will ever NOT need outside help.
However it is tremendous to hear the stories of how PNH has worked to solicit
the support of the community and see how they have really changed the stance of
the local community toward these children.
About Honduras
Honduras, a tropical Central American republic situated
between
Guatemala and
El Salvador, to the west, and
Nicaragua to
the south and east. The
Caribbean washes its
northern coast and the Pacific its narrow coast to the south. With an area of
43,277 square miles (112,088 square kilometers) and a population of only 6.9
million
Honduras is also one
of the smallest countries in
Latin America.
Inhabited since well before the Christian
era, ruins in the west of
Honduras
indicate the area was the center of Mayan civilization before migrating to the
Yucatan
Peninsula. Now, only small, isolated
groups of non-Spanish speaking Indians remain and the majority of the
population is mestizo (a mixture of Spanish and Mesquitan Indian).
Honduras
’s main exports are coffee, bananas, palm oil, meat,
zinc and shrimp. With a national economy heavily geared towards agricultural
export ordinary Hondurans are highly vulnerable to the extreme fluctuations in
the global commodity markets. Equally, any change in trade policy by superpowers
such as the
US
has an enormous impact on the national economy. One tragic example is the
plight of coffee growers in
Honduras.
Many of them are facing starvation because of a decision supported by the
international community to encourage coffee production in
Vietnam.
Honduras’s economic and social problems were compounded in
1998 when Hurricane Mitch struck. More than 5,000 people were killed and 70% of
the country’s crops were destroyed. Damage was estimated at $3 billion dollars
and economic and social development was set back decades. The poverty and
unemployment has caused a dramatic rise in gang warfare throughout
Honduras since
Mitch struck. Police estimate that more than 33,000 gang members stalk the
country.
Vulnerability to the rising tide of
globalization and its resulting instability has left a society rife with
inequality. Close to 85% of Hondurans live below the poverty line with
malnutrition, poor housing and domestic violence rampant.