There are so many ways to help in Honduras, such as sponsoring a child, donating items on the list of needs of groups planning trips or giving money. Most of all donating your time will do the most good, especially if you have skills, such as medical knowledge, engineering background or educational experience. Of course all the wonderful groups helping in Honduras need money.
In the back of this book you will find a list of groups and organizations that you can send money too or volunteer to work with, so you can do your part to help the poor in rural Honduras. Browse through the lists of needs, items, donation requests and volunteer jobs on their various websites and see what you can give to assist in the mission to help in Honduras.
The fact is that everyone can help: either by donating money, time or joining a group. Those who come back from their volunteer efforts in Honduras explain how it has changed their perspective and their lives in so many ways. Often without realizing it, those of us in the first world often take things for granted, so at times we forget how good we have it and go about our daily lives without even thinking. Bunny Oliver with Austin Helps Honduras brings this point home;
"I have made seven trips since 2000, so I've been watching the children of Colonia Solidaridad grow up. One of the people [Linda] on our trip in February had been on the first trip in 1999 to build the houses in the colonia after Hurricane Mitch had left so many homeless. The people had been living in cardboard and plywood shacks on the banks of the river before the hurricane, and even that had been washed away. Some of them had moved out to the hill which had been donated for the houses and were living under trees with cardboard propped against them for shelter. Now they have modest houses with water, lights, sewer, and a beautiful elementary school right in the colonia. Linda's comment was that when she was there before, they had no hope, and now their children and grandchildren are going to school, and with the scholarships, they can even go beyond the government-paid 6th grade. We've had three of the scholarship students graduate from high school--an impossibility before. Several have graduated from vocational schools and now have jobs."