I was recently asked by a friend to discuss what I did in Honduras and so I decided to put it here on my BLOG. You can also get a good feel for the program by visiting our website: www.handstohonduras.org.

Back in January of 2004, Dorrice and I went on a Rotary Club-sponsored trip to Tela, Honduras. The program was started in response to the ravages of Hurricane Mitch back in 1997. It had begun as humanitarian aid and then evolved into one which ostensibly built schools and school classrooms. Our teams went down and supplied the labor and funds to build these schools and we worked like Trojans. In Honduras there is only limited mechanical equipment so much of the work must be done manually. This is particularly hard when mixing cement and concrete, carrying and lifting it. You can’t believe how much cement goes into building a cement block building.

The program called for working from 8-4 or 5 when we would return to a moderate Honduran hotel on the beach, where we often washed off the grime in the ocean. It was a wonderful finish to hard days.

In 2005 the person running the program almost single-handedly, moved from Vermont to Texas and decided to take the next year off. I convinced a number of other volunteers that the program might not have the momentum to carry on if we quit for a year, so I convinced the organizer to let me run it and turn it over to him the next year. Since I knew few of the details, I formed a group to help me and we organized the whole program, where heretofore it was run by the seat of the pants. We established a formalized system for the stating of requirements and a provision for sustainability and community responsibility. It was quite successful and the number of volunteers rose to more than ninety. It was quite a job organizing it all, but we accomplished an enormous amount and when my predecessor came back, he told us to keep the program. He was going off to start over somewhere else. That was not what I was expecting, but since I was holding the bag, we continued along, growing ever more successful.

The program raised its own funds, often getting some funding from Rotary Clubs. Our volunteers, which normally run around 75-85, pay their own way, raise funds, and work like mad for one or two weeks. The program has further evolved into more of a community-to-community effort where we do not altogether limit our activities to schools. In the last few years we have worked on and improved a police barracks (it was atrocious before with no water), a childcare center, numerous schools, health clinics, and adult education. We have built and provide essential management and support for a fully operational Rehabilitation Center – the only one in the region. We’ve worked on libraries, we have helped to establish the first E-911 program in the country, provided lots and lots of medical programs and screening, helped provide and support an ambulance, and numerous other projects.

I effectively passed the organization over to a full Directing Committee three years ago, but remain on it and active with Dorrice. We go every year and I have been there a few more times – seven I think. It’s great fun, the volunteers are a wonderful group of people and we all get an enormous sense of satisfaction from working on this.