Jun 30

Written by: reh
6/30/2008

Honduras Operations
The infrastructure implemented in Honduras is operating very effectively and efficiently under the leadership of Fernando Cortez. He is absolutely the right individual to lead our in-country operations. On many occasions during my visit, he demonstrated his effectiveness in building and maintaining relationships with people, which is a critical skill in the oversight of our organization. Additionally, Fernando affirmed with his words and his actions that his mission is to protect the best interests of L4L as well as the well being of the kids in our program.

Additionally, Jessica Gonzalez, who often works as L4L’s in-country interpreter, has become an increasingly important person in our organization. She has a tenacious spirit and a skill for getting things done on behalf of L4L that might ordinarily take the U.S. management team a long time.

Kitchen Projects
I visited the school where our first kitchen was built and I spoke to the school principal, who is very proud of the new structure. She gave me a tour of the kitchen and told me that because of the kitchen, the community involvement in preparation of the lunches is even Jueater. She has actually created a “kitchen team” complete with its own elected President and Secretary who are responsible for organizing the parent volunteers.

I also saw the school where another kitchen was in the middle of construction. It appeared as if construction was progressing quickly as a result of the huge community participation in the construction.

TIGO
Ron and I had the opportunity to meet with Ms. Chincilla at TIGO, which is a cellular phone company that has the largest market share in Central America. The TIGO logo is evident in every single community one visits and is often painted on fences, roofs, walls and any other flat surfaces in addition to the various signs and billboards throughout the country.

In addition to its normal business operations, TIGO has a charitable division that focuses on education. In our meeting, Ms. Chinchilla confirmed the importance of an education and, for this reason she was interested in the L4L mission. We suggested a marketing strategy for L4L and TIGO which Ms. Chinchilla did not think would work due to logo restrictions as mandated in TIGO’s Amsterdam headquarters, yet she continued to engage us in discussions about working with L4L.

Ron and I left the meeting with no assurances of monetary support but we both felt as if Ms. Chinchilla gave us enough verbal cues for us to conclude that we have a reasonably good chance that TIGO will give L4L some sort of monetary support.

Ron and I also have a secondary marketing concept for TIGO to present when the time is right.

Fundacion Brazos Abiertos
The Fundacion Brazos Abiertos is a charitable arm of the Executive branch of the Honduran government and is directly sponsored by Becky Santos, the Vice President’s wife. The mission of the Fundacion is to intervene with medical assistance and parental education in the lives of severely malnourished kids under the age of five. The Fundacion believes based on well-known research that the early years of development are impacted by nutrition.

While I was in Honduras, Fernando, Jessica and Ron arranged for the Fundacion to visit several L4L’s schools with medical teams so that the rate of malnutrition among the rural population could be determined and documented. Becky Santos sent her secretary, Rosibel, Cristina and several other team members that included a doctor a nurse and several social workers.

We divided into teams with Ron, Rosibel and Fernando in one and Cristina, Jessica and me in another. Each of us had our own medical team and supplies and we each were scheduled to visit two schools.

After several hours of weighing, measuring and documenting ages of the children who were 5 and under, the statistics revealed that 50% of the kids were malnourished. These statistics were slightly skewed by the number of babies who were analyzed because most of the babies were within acceptable nutritional limits because they were all still breast feeding. However, nutrition quickly declines when breast feeding stops.

It is clear from spending a day with the Fundacion that we are kindred spirits in our missions but it is quite unclear how we proceed in working with each other. However, if nothing more comes of the visit to our schools except that we have a contact in the government office, then I think our efforts were well spent. We intend to maintain our communication with the Fundacion to ensure we have an ally in the future.


Miscellaneous

• When traveling in between schools, I asked Cristina what impact a 6th grade education has in the life of a child and she responded, “it is life changing.” She went further to explain that without at least a 6th grade education, employers will not even grant them an interview. With a 6th grade education, they have basic reading and writing skills which gives them a chance at a better job.
• I had the opportunity to spend Sunday afternoon with Anabelle. When I met Anabelle 2 _ years ago, she was an awkward, skinny street kid who didn’t know where she fit in life. Despite being given an opportunity, she rebelled against the structure in her life and returned to the streets. However through a series of events, Anabelle went to live with an older sister outside of El Amatillo and she is a completely different child. She recently turned 13, she attends a L4L school and she even sings in a kids choir at church. She seemed happy and as if she had found a place she can belong.
• I had the opportunity to visit the secondary education campus where kids attend what is the equivalent of junior high and high school. The secondary campus was located a significant distance from the feeder elementary schools but it was a decent campus when compared to most of the elementary schools. Most of the buildings were in good repair, they had a computer lab as a result of some donated computers and they even had various curriculums. It seems that when a student reaches high school, they must declare a “major” which can range from carpentry/construction, agriculture/farming to home economics.

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