Honduras
Compassion started working in Honduras in 1974. Today, there are over 58,300 children registered with program centres at 217 local church partners.
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Snapshot of Honduras
19%
of people live below the poverty line
73
years is the average life expectancy
17%
lack access to improved sanitation
Located in the corridor from South America to Mexico and the United States, Honduras is a transit country for everything from illicit drugs to human trafficking and mass migration.
Honduras’s history since Spanish colonisation in the 16th century is marked by military rule, featuring coups and counter-coups.
Racked by violence and corruption, gang rule and inequality, it is one of the most unstable countries in a volatile region, with recent widespread drought creating further hardship for locals and leading to ever-increasing numbers travelling across borders—most headed north for Mexico and the United States.
Almost half the population lives in poverty, and more than 17 per cent of Hondurans live in extreme poverty (less than US$1.90 per day). Honduras has the second-highest extreme poverty rate in Latin America and the Caribbean, after Haiti. The country is also afflicted by one of the worst rates of inequality in the world, with a stark division between rich and poor.
Remittances (money sent home by expatriates) make up a significant part of the nation’s economy and many families are dependent on this source of income. Small-scale farming, the backbone of the nation’s agricultural economy, is collapsing; many rural communities are no longer able to sustain themselves due to drought and changing rainfall patterns.
In 2017, President Juan Orlando Hernandez was the first president in Honduras’s history to run for re-election, after the Supreme Court lifted a constitutional ban on presidents serving more than one term. He won, in a result that was widely questioned by international observers and met with protests across the country. More than 20 people were killed in subsequent riots.
President Hernandez promised to fight corruption and the drug trade. Yet in 2018, his own brother was arrested in the United States and charged with drug trafficking and weapons offenses. Tony Hernandez was found guilty in a New York City trial in October 2019 and faces up to life in prison. Prosecutors alleged that he was protected in his dealings by President Hernandez—an allegation the president denied. The president himself was not charged with any crime.
Meanwhile, Honduran children living in poverty face many challenges, with malnutrition and insecurity foremost among them. They are particularly vulnerable to the threat posed by gang activity, with many boys coerced into joining and girls threatened with rape and forced labour. As meeting their basic needs becomes more difficult, some see gang life as the only alternative to starving or risking their lives on the road to the United States border.
Local churches across the country are working hard to nurture and protect these vulnerable children, to ensure they have the safety and space to grow and develop and experience a hope more powerful than poverty.
Letter from Compassion Honduras Director Yolanda Rodas
Dear Sponsor, May the Lord’s blessing be upon each one of you! My name is Yolanda Rodas, and I have been the Compassion Honduras Country Director for seven years, yet I have been part of Compassion for 14 years. I am married and have two precious children: Gerardo, who is five years old, and Isabella, who is almost three. They are a blessing!
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Letter from Compassion Honduras Director Yolanda Rodas
Dear Sponsor,
May the Lord’s blessing be upon each one of you!
My name is Yolanda Rodas, and I have been the Compassion Honduras Country Director for seven years, yet I have been part of Compassion for 14 years. I am married and have two precious children: Gerardo, who is five years old, and Isabella, who is almost three. They are a blessing!
By the grace of God, I have been able to see different stages of Compassion’s ministry as I had the opportunity to take different roles at the office. This has been very useful in my current position since I can understand, at a closer level, what happens at the field with the churches and children they serve.
Our office in Honduras began in 1999, yet some work had begun in some regions since 1974 with the support of the offices in Guatemala and El Salvador. Currently we are working with 200 local churches and more than 57,000 registered children.
During these years, I have seen how many lives have been transformed through the dynamic that exists among sponsors, beneficiaries, churches and Compassion.
I wish to thank you for all the support that you bring on a daily basis to the children in our country, expressed through your sponsorship, prayer, letters and gifts.
I am convinced that the sponsorship you provide really does work, for I have seen it throughout all these years. Registered children and youths enjoy more opportunities than other children who are also in poverty. I have seen homes being transformed as the cycle of poverty has been broken, thanks to the work of the church and the support that you offer. Many of our youth have been the first ones in their families to complete high school and university education, or they have had the opportunity to learn a trade to sustain themselves and their families. Many children have been diagnosed in a timely manner with a certain illness that could have taken their lives away—yet receiving adequate treatment allowed them to live a better life.
Most importantly, I have seen entire households being changed with the transforming power of Jesus. Each church that ministers in the lives of beneficiaries is giving hope to these families through the gospel.
In our country, we fight each day against poverty, violence and corruption, which are the main challenges before us. Many of the children live in the most violent and poverty-stricken regions of our country. Each day, these young people and children suffer the pressures of joining a gang, for there they are offered a “family” or money. Some of them live in constant fear of having a family member murdered or losing their own lives. Access to the health public system is also a challenge. Even though there are hospitals and community health centres available, they lack qualified personnel and medicine. Education has improved during the last years, but there are still obstacles to overcome, for the system has not yet reached an adequate educational level for our children.
In each of these challenge areas, churches are making their best efforts in counterattacking the effects of such overwhelming poverty and have become an oasis in the middle of the desert for these children and youths.
My vision for 2017 is that we, as Compassion Honduras, become a better support to the church so they can effectively implement ministry for children and youth. If each church is well equipped, the impact will be even greater on the children and their families. We are also working to improve communications between sponsors and children so they can be more effective and help strengthen the relationship.
Please continue to support our children and youth. I wish you could see their smiling and radiant faces when they receive a letter from you; because even though many of them do not know you, you are important. You are someone that loves them selflessly and who demonstrates a genuine interest in their wellbeing.
Thanks to each one of you for being part of this movement that is changing generations in our beloved Honduras. You are sowing in a good land and we appreciate the prayers you always speak for each one of our beneficiaries.
Yours truly,
Yolanda Rodas de Núñez
Country Director Compassion Honduras
Jean Pier The Barber
At the age of 15, Jean Pier is a masterful barber. In the barbershop where he works part-time, Jean Pier is well known by local gang members who seek him out for his stylish haircuts. Jean Pier uses this opportunity to share the Word of God with them, even taking some of them to church.
open_in_new Read moreJean Pier The Barber
At the age of 15, Jean Pier is a masterful barber.
In the barbershop where he works part-time, Jean Pier is well known by local gang members who seek him out for his stylish haircuts. Jean Pier uses this opportunity to share the Word of God with them, even taking some of them to church.
Jean Pier lives in one of the most dangerous communities of Honduras, well known for having one of the highest murder rates in the world. Despite living in such a hostile community, Jean Pier is the perfect example of what Compassion through the local church can achieve in the life of a child.
Through the local Compassion centre, which he has attended since the age of five, Jean Pier was given the opportunity to attend a barbershop workshop, providing him with the means to generate his own income.
“The barbershop workshop has been the opportunity of my life,” says Jean Pier. “Through my [part-time job] I support my mother, pay my high school fees, and I’m saving money to go to university.”
Jean Pier is currently studying his second vocational career in mechanics, as he aspires to pursue engineering at the local university. He uses his skills to bring about change within his community.
“Even though gunshots and gang fights seem to be the norm in my community, I’m convinced I’m part of a chosen generation,” says Jean Pier shared. “My life wouldn’t be the same without the project and the Bible teachings. I wouldn’t have the opportunities I’ve found here, like caring tutors and a supporting sponsor.”
The impacting work of the local church in Honduras is breaking the cycle of violence and crime in the poorest communities. Through exposure to the transforming love of Jesus, children like Jean Pier will go far in life as they become confident the Lord is always by their side.
Prayer requests for Honduras
- Pray for the health of several children who are registered with the HO0507 Compassion centre. The children’s parents work in the community’s rubbish tip. The children often accompany their parents to work there. As a result, they sometimes get sick from the polluted environment. Please pray for God to help the parents by providing them with stable jobs and may He help improve the children’s health.
- Pray for five-year-old Jeremy, who was diagnosed with cancer recently and will start chemotherapy soon. Pray for the Lord to provide Jeremy with strength and resilience to withstand the treatment. May He perform miracles in Jeremy’s life, as well as in the lives of his family members.
- Pastor Alfredo, the leader of one of our frontline church partners, died this week. Pray for his family, church members and the children he served so faithfully; pray for God’s peace and comfort to be upon them during this time of grief.
- Pray for the registered youths, who are an easy target for gangs. May the Lord extend his hand to them and help them see that He is their Saviour and their Father, that they can lay their burdens on Him and He will be there to provide for them and support them. Pray especially for those who have received death threats, and for the churches who are protecting and guiding them; pray for God’s strength and protection, favour and boldness.
- Pray for the implementation of a dengue fever prevention strategy across more than 200 church partners. Pray that families would be able to attend and learn how to protect themselves; pray that good medical treatment would be available to them and that the incidence of this disease would drop.
- Pray for local centre directors across the country as they lead their teams to help the most vulnerable children of their communities; pray for their health, families, relationships, and leadership. May God bless them all.
Stories from Compassion in Honduras
Like his Bible heroes, Manuel faced a deep test of faith
When his mother collapsed at home in Honduras, Manuel's faith was stretched like never before. But the critical moment was yet to come for this Compassion sponsored boy.