Honduras
This savings group meets every two weeks to bake and sell bread. They hope to use the proceeds to open their own bakery. Photo by Melita Sawyer/CRS
Two-thirds of the nearly 8 million people in Honduras live in poverty, making it one of the poorest countries in the Americas.
Hurricane Mitch devastated Honduras in 1998, caused many deaths, destroyed the country's infrastructure and revealed the extreme vulnerability of the poor. The Central American country is prone to tropical storms, droughts and landslides and the repetition of these disasters affects most severely the poor and isolated communities.
The 2009 political crisis sparked a polarization in society and its institutions. International funds were suspended for a year and a half, affecting our development projects. Catholic Relief Services began a process of peace and reconciliation in collaboration with Caritas Honduras.
The high unemployment rate and high income inequality together with insufficient development and an inadequate educational system have contributed to a complex environment in which CRS works to bring about change.
Today CRS focuses its efforts on programs in these departments: Lempira, Intibucá, Copan, Ocotepeque, El Paraíso, La Paz, Choluteca, Valle, Yoro, Olancho, Comayagua, Cortes and Francisco Morazan. The majority of programs are in isolated rural communities that lack the resources and infrastructure to maintain basic health, sanitation, education and clean water services.
In addition improving the management of agriculture and natural resources in Honduras, CRS helps establish emergency systems that provide protection from tropical storms and hurricanes that wreak havoc from time to time. As part of our commitment to the principles of justice and solidarity, CRS is also working to eradicate child labor, HIV and AIDS, and to alleviate complex immigration problems. Through cooperation with local partners, CRS has been able to implement these projects very successfully.
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Stats
| Population: | 8,143,564 (July 2011 est.) |
| Size: | 43,278 sq. mi; slightly larger than Tennessee |
| People Served: | 348,589 (2011 est.) |
History
Catholic Relief Services began to work in Honduras in 1959 with a food distribution program in rural areas. Then we started to support water and sanitation, sustainable agriculture and medical supply distribution projects. In the eighties, CRS assisted refugees fleeing the civil war in El Salvador. During this period, we began to dedicate ourselves to long-term sustainable development programs in the Honduran communities most in need and also to natural disaster emergency response.
In 1992, CRS began transferring responsibilities to local partners including church organizations and local committees and to limit its role to technical, administrative and financial support.
As one of the first agencies to act in response to Hurricane Mitch in 1998, CRS developed a coordinated response with the participation of local organizations that provided support to more than 4 million people, helping them to rebuild homes and restore health services, potable water systems and bridges. In total, CRS provided nearly $83 million dollars in emergency relief to people in Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. After hurricane Mitch, CRS consolidated its programs in the following areas: peacebuilding, advocacy, civil society, administration, emergency management, natural resources, health, water, sanitation and education. In 2007, we served more than 260,000 beneficiaries in the departments of Francisco Morazán, Lempira, Choluteca and Intibucá.
Partners
Caritas is a confederation of Catholic organizations working at international, national and local levels to assist the poor. The principal Catholic Relief Services partner in Honduras is National Caritas, but we are also involved with the division of Caritas in the Archdiocese as well as with the Dioceses of Choluteca, Comayagua
