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Honduras News
This page provides ongoing updates
about our church's Honduras Service Trips project.
On this page:
Pre-Mother's Day Sale on May 6 to
Benefit Honduras
Cable Purchased for Canasta Project
First Payment Sent for Building of Canasta
October 23 Faith-to-Action Collection Raised $853 for
"Canasta Project"
Pre-Mother's Day Sale on May 6 to Benefit Honduras
In light of the continuing political turmoil in Honduras,
we are, more than ever, wanting to support the impoverished communities of
the Cangrejal River Valley.
In anticipation of Mother's Day (May 13), the Honduras Service Trip
group will be selling sweet treats, cards and jewelry made by UUCC members
and friends on Sunday, May 6, before and after the service. All proceeds
will go towards the Canasta Project, enabling children on the other side of
the river to go to school year-round (see details below). Canasta Project
fundraising updates will be on display.
The Honduras group is currently in the planning stages for
becoming a formal Covenant Group, and we welcome new members! The reflective and action-oriented aspects
of our work are important to us, as is fellowship. We do fundraising in
order to be able to put our faith into action. We are an intergenerational
group and welcome children and youth.
For more information contact Allie Gassmann of the Social
Action Committee at 447-3629 or by email.
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Cable Purchased for Canasta
Project
Our Honduras Service Trips coordinator, Allie Gassmann,
reports that the cable for the canasta project has been purchased with the
money we sent in February. She received the following email message from
Cito, the project foreman:
Hello, how are you all? I am adding some photos of the
cable, I hope you can see them. The people are very happy. They say that it
is a dream that is turning into reality since it has already been many years
since they have wanted a canasta. Now it is already the second step because
the first step was when you said that you were going to help. I am also very
happy. We can only say "THANK YOU, THANK YOU VERY MUCH." May God bless you.
Here is one of the photos sent by Cito:
To complete the canasta project, we still have over $2,000
to raise. The next opportunity to support the project is at our sale in
anticipation of Mother's Day on May 6 before and after church. The Honduras
Service Trip group will be selling sweet treats, cards and jewelry made by
UUCC members and friends. All proceeds will go towards the Canasta Project,
enabling children on the other side of the river to go to school year-round.
The Honduras group is currently in the planning stages for
becoming a formal Covenant Group. The reflective and action-oriented aspects
of our work are important to us, as is fellowship. We do fundraising in
order to be able to put our faith into action. We are an intergenerational
group and welcome children and youth. If you are interested in joining us,
please come to our next meeting on April 28 at 3:00 p.m. at the church.
See the stories below for more information about the
canasta project.
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First Payment Sent for
Building of Canasta
In mid-February, the Honduras Service Trip group was able
to send the first payment towards the building of the canasta to Honduras.
The most expensive part of building this zip-line-type means of
transportation across the river is the very strong cable at a cost of
$3,812. The rest of the materials will cost about $3,000, and about $2,000
more will need to be raised to complete the project. We are well on our way
to helping poor villagers in an isolated area of Honduras better their lives
by enabling year-round education for their children and providing a means of
transportation for the elderly and disabled and in cases of emergencies.
In other news from the Cangrejal Valley, where the 2009
and 2011 UUCC groups built latrines, we have learned that the 11-year-old
girl who was not able to walk in June of 2011 is walking again! She had
suffered the severe and sudden losses of her father and brother within a
very short time period of each other, after which point she was suddenly
unable to walk anymore. Thanks to the efforts of Mel West, Kristine Smith
and Marty Patton, the UUCC group was able to bring her a wheelchair. Before
our group was able to do this, she had been carried around everywhere by her
mother. Caya Tanski brought her some homeopathic remedies and spent
significant time with her to help her on her healing journey.
– Allie Gassman, Social
Action Committee – February 20, 2012
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October 23 Faith-to-Action Collection Raised $853
for "Canasta" Project
These photos from the June 2009 Honduras service
trip show a canasta in operation.
Our October 23 Faith-to-Action collection raised $853 to
go to the "Canasta" Project, also known as the "Routes to School Project."
The congregation got a sense from the October 23 lay-led
worship service about the June 2011 Honduras service trip of what life is
like in rural Honduras where our group worked. We saw pictures of the
tranquil river (the Rio Cangrejal) which can be crossed fairly easily nine
months of the year. But three months of the year, when the rains come, the
river rises so high and becomes so fast that crossing it by foot or boat
becomes impossible. During those months, it takes an hour's walk to cross
the river at the nearest bridge, and therefore the kids are kept at home and
can't go to school. For those who work outside the village, those who are
infirm, for any emergencies or just for plain necessary shopping, the trip
is long and arduous and in some cases can't be made.
Allie Gassman, our Honduras trip coordinator, made the
following remarks before the Faith-to-Action collection:
"Many a Honduran politician has promised the villagers
where our group worked a hand-powered gondola or "canasta" suspended on a
cable crossing the river in order to earn their votes, but once the
elections are over, the promises are forgotten. A canasta would be the
cheapest way of building a means to cross the river. The most expensive item
is the cable. The canasta would enable 45 kids living in the village to go
to school year-round and would greatly increase the quality of life and
ability to earn a livelihood for all the villagers. It is the abject poverty
and lack of opportunity in Mexico and Central America that brings so many
immigrants to the U.S. They are simply looking for a way to survive. The
poverty and repression that exist in those countries is in no small part due
to U.S. foreign and trade policies of today and of the past. We as a church
have stood with our Honduran brothers and sisters in the Cagrejal Valley by
helping them build latrines, and building this canasta seems like the
logical next step to help themselves better their situation and for us to
continue our friendship and solidarity with them.
"The materials for the canasta project would cost $6,500,
the cable alone costing $3,500. Cito, our foreman and organizer for the
latrine projects, has built several of these canastas and would like to
build this one too. The villagers will do the hard work such as getting
enough stones and sand and mixing and pouring the cement. The wood for the
project has been donated by our friend Pepe Herrera, who lives along the
river as well. We have $2,150 in donations so far, almost entirely donated
by our June 2011 Honduras service trip group. Kristine Smith, my mentor and
partner in organizing the service trips, and her church, the United Church
of Christ, are partnering with us to raise the necessary funds.
"The people of Las Mangas and El Pital continuously ask me
to convey their thanks to you for your ongoing generosity. You express your
generosity in so many ways - with money, yes, which is critically important,
but also with your words of encouragement and appreciation, your interest
and concern and your enthusiasm and understanding, not just of the projects
themselves but of the larger issues.
"I would like to end by inviting any of you who would like
to be involved in our efforts of building real and figurative bridges of
friendship, hope, opportunity, learning and compassion to join us. Let any
of us know and be watching for more information in the coming weeks."
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