Up early this morning for breakfast and a bus ride to the Office of the Honduras ACJ. We met the staff and toured the building which is situated on one of the hills in the city. The Director is Rossibel and she has a small staff which support her in the administration and running of the programs.
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| On the way to the bus to start our day... |
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| On the way to the ACJ building |
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| The traffic in this city is crazy... |
The Honduras ACJ has the main office in Tegucigalpa and offers programs there as well as in outreach centers. We were given a presentation by some of the staff to help orient us to their organization and to set a context for the programming we are about to discover. They have a number of partners besides us for example Norway also offers support to them. It seems since the recent coup the funding sources have become less both inside and outside the country.
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| Here is the Honduras ACJ/YMCA building |
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| Their neighbourhood... |
The ACJ/YMCA- Honduras was founded on June 16, 1990. Its mission is to achieve improved living standards of the youth and build spaces to search for proposals to support the youth to improve their social underdevelopment by understanding and accessing the political, economic, cultural and educational systems in the country. Their main priority is to work with youth between the ages of 16-30.
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| Some of the staff.... |
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| Rossibel, the Director of the Honduras YMCA, on the right and Tania, our translator on the left... |
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| Bev and Debbie busy taking notes of the meeting... |
After our morning meetings we went to Pizza Hut for lunch (there are a lot of North American food chains here). We had a great lunch as we got to eat at the salad bar!!
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| Now what will we have for lunch?? Maybe pizza?? |
In the afternoon we went to one of the neighbourhoods called San Francisco which again was located way up in the hills. Here we visited a center called Ludoteca which is run by the YMCA with a few staff and lots of dedicated volunteers. We were greeted very warmly and given a tour of the facility and again an introduction to their programs.
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| The view on the way to the San Francisco neighbourhood... |
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| Bev outside the Ludotec building. This building is located in the neighbourhood so that it is accesible to the young people who live here. |
One of the main programs they run here is the computer informatics school which trains young people over a 6 month period (5 months educational, 1 month on the job training) in four aspects of computer training (ie Software, Graphic design, Web base information and computer maintenance). Another interesting component of this program is the module of citizen formation which teaches such things as self esteem, community development and participative democracy. This area is one of the main goals of the Honduras YMCA and seems to be included in all their programs.
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| The computer room... |
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| There is also a child care program but as you can see there are very few toys or books on the shelves... |
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| This is where they collect water and wash their clothes, notice the wash board on the left. No washing machines here! |
We were also treated to a theatre of the opressed performance in which the young people portray the challenges of their lives such as unemployment and drug addiction. The neat thing about this type of theatre is after the performance the audience is invited to participate in finding solutions to the scenarios presented.
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| These actors were discussing the drug deal... |
And finally one of the volunteers from another program in Sector February 21 treated us to some of his own lyrics again addressing the issues facing the youth in Honduras on a daily basis.
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| A very talented singer and song writer, he expressed his feelings about his life and the work of the Y with such passion... |
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| Some of the volunteers and participants of the programs... |
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| Here we are with some of the children and the NL flags we gave them... |
We concluded the day with a group meeting where we talked about what we saw today, our impressions and some logistics for the rest of the trip. And again we were off to bed early as both of us were tired from all the images in our head from our day’s experiences.
Debbie’s Reflections
Well what am I thinking after our first day seeing the work of the Honduras ACJ?
I am impressed with the enthusiasm of the staff and volunteers as they do their work with very few resources.
I appreciate the warmth and generosity of our hosts and how much time they have put into the planning of this trip as they still have their own jobs to do.
I admire their mission and how it is clear if they can work with unemployed or underemployed youth it will make a difference in this country which has so many challenges.
I question how I can take the pieces of what I am learning here back home to our YMCA in order to strengthethen our International Development work.
I am looking forward to the rest of the trip and all the learning I am about to encounter as today was such an eye opener and maybe a glimpse of what is to come.
Bev's reflection
Today for me was all about passion and dedication. The youth in the capital and surrounding areas were eager to let us know what they accomplish in their regions, they have so little but give a hundred and ten percent of what they have. The people here are very thankful for the YMCA Canada involvement, without outside involvement and partnerships, like ours, their programs may not exist. Tomorrow we will go to Marcala, this community YMCA is a direct result of the partnership between us and YMCA Honduras. The enthusiasm that I have seen so far makes me excited for tomorrow`s agenda.... Stay tuned
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