So heres a bit more information about how MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) works in Honduras:
They most often partner with organizations or ministries that are already established and provide financial and volunteer support. For example, MCC Honduras partners with
>Servicio Cistiano Menonita (Mennonite Christian Service)- in the departamento of El Paraiso, administering various social and justice related programs
>Comision de Accion Social Menonita (Commission of Mennonite Social Action)- in San Pedro Sula, working for social change
>Proyecto Mama (Mama Project)- in San Pedro Sula, this is an amazing program that helps tutor kids with learning disabilities and provides extra after school help, they also assist women in health education, nutrition, family food production and small business development, emergency food assistance and home repair, we visited this project today and it was amazing to see all that was going on there!!!!
>Aldea Global (Global Village)- in Teguicigalpa, this helps with community development reducing HIV/AIDS, conserving forests, and works to fight domestic violence
>Ministerios Cristianso de Mayordomia (Christian Stewardship Ministries)- various programs
>CODESCO (Bretheren in Christ partner)- in the departmento Choluteca, helping conserve and find better ways to use water
>Montana de Luz (Mountain of Light)- in Nueva Esperanza, providing tutoring and developmental assistance to youth with HIV/AIDS, this is where I will be!
>ASJ-Associacion para una Sociedad mad Justa (Association for a more Just Society)- in Tegucigalpa, fighting for workers and human rights/ check out www.revistazo.com for more information
Other MCC Honduras Workers:
Darren Yoder and Julie Aeschliman, Simon and Lucia: Country Representatives living in San Pedro Sula
Andrew Clouse and Amanda Lind- MCC Salt coordinators/connecting peoples living in San Pedro Sula
Caleb Yoder- doing a 3 year MCC term, living in San Pedro Sula
Josh and Maria Eley-McClain- administrators of the Mama Project and Farm, living in El Cipres
Virgil and Kathy Troyer- MCC disaster team coordinators for Central America, living in Tegucigalpa
Marcos Flores- MCC office assistant, living in San Pedro Sula
Rachel Reed- Salter, working on micro-loans, living in Tegucigalpa
Michael Wiebe-Johnson- Salter, enrivonmental educator, living in La Campa in Gracias
Liz Goering- Salter, working at Montana de Luz with children who have HIV/AIDS, living in Nueva Esperanza
Some cities I will be referencing:
Copan Ruinas- a city in the south central region of the country where I had language school for 2 weeks, it has the ruins from the ancient Mayan civilization and is a fairly quaint touristy town
Nueva Esperanza- means New Hope in English, this is where the Montana de Luz is located and where I will be more days during the week working with kids
Tegucigalpa- the captial of Honduras, and about 45 min. away from Nueva Esperanza, its the largest city from where I will be living and the other Salter Rachel will be working with micro-loans there also
La Campa- means The Country in English, located in the departamento of Lempira, where the other Salter Michael will be working with environmental education
San Pedro Sula- a large city in the Northwest where the MCC Honduras offices are located as well as five of the other MCC workers live there
There is a lot of stuff going on here and its really neat how MCC works to partner with other organizations. There are around 105 Mennonite Churches in Honduras, 11 of which are in San Pedro Sula. This past Sunday we attended the ¨Mother Church¨which was the first Mennonite Church in Honduras. The music was awesome and the people were very passionate. We prayed for one taxi driver who is forced to pay a ¨war tax¨by various groups in San Pedro who are holding taxi drivers at gun point if they do not pay. This is a grave situation and every night after 7 or 8 pm this man´s life could be on the line. Please pray for him and other taxi drivers who face the danger and harassment of paying this sum to these groups. Also, pray for those that are harassing. They are impoverished and struggling to make it in a society that is not set up for many people to have jobs and survive. This is the root of the issue and needs to be addressed before the oppression can be stopped.
Another interesting thing I ran across in Copan Ruinas was a social service program for poor or street children in Copan called Arte Accion Copan Ruinas (Art Action Copan Ruinas). This program was started in May 1999, and seeks to use art, photography, videos, drama, and other media to reach children who are impoverished. Through art, the workers of this organization work to help children learn self confidence, and promote healthy social interactions with one´s environment, children´s rights, and the environment. This is a type of art therapy that children would otherwise not have access to. The youth have all kinds of art available for people to buy to support them. They also are in need of resources or volunteers. If you´re interested check them out: www.arteaccionhonduras.org or www.mayacopan.info
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