Category: Honduras

by Bruce Petch, director

World Neighbours Canada has provided support for rural development in Honduras since its inception in 1988. Federal government funding approved last year will allow our partner organization, Vecinos Honduras, to provide assistance in new areas. Vecinos Honduras will support 10 communities in Nacaome municipality and 8 communities in Langue municipality. Both areas are in the department of Valle, located near the Pacific coast and known for its dry climate and poverty. Unfortunately, it is necessary to discontinue activities in several communities in Danli municipality (El Paraiso department) because of security concerns. Violent crime is pervasive in Honduras and travel to many locations is dangerous.

support is to decrease mortality rates of mothers and young children. Ironically, the extreme levels of crime (Honduras has one of the highest murder rates in the world) will make project implementation particularly challenging.

by Bruce Petch, President WNC

Canada signed a free trade agreement with Honduras on 5 November. The agreement has had little coverage by Canadian media, despite the violence that is pervasive in Honduras. Our partner organization in the country reports that violence is a serious impediment to rural development. Note also that elections are scheduled in Honduras on 24 November. We urge Canadians to learn about the situation in Honduras and the implications of a free trade agreement with Canada. For more information please check out the following links.

Announcement from Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada:
http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/agr-acc/honduras/info.aspx?lang=eng

Editorial by the Americas Policy Group of the Canadian Council for International Cooperation:
http://www.ccic.ca/_files/en/working_groups/2013_May_APG_OpEd_Honduras.pdf

Articles on the free trade agreement and the Honduras election by the American-Canadian organization Rights Action:
http://rightsaction.org/.

By Michael Bligh Newman

I read of the prison fire that killed 350 prisoners in Comayagua on the morning I flew out of Honduras last February. I wasn’t shocked; it fit into a pattern I had been seeing for the past three weeks of my tour of Central America. As a volunteer with World Neighbours Canada, I was pursuing my decades’ long interest in village development by visiting five long-term projects among the most marginalized people of Honduras and Guatemala.

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