CRS Work in Honduras
Catholic Relief Services Honduras focuses on strengthening local capacities and partnerships, while implementing a wide variety of programs that help poor Hondurans improve their livelihoods. Funding from our CRS donors, along with financial support from international aid agencies and organizations, is directed into projects that best serve marginalized Hondurans.
CRS Honduras currently concentrates efforts in four sectors:
Natural Resources
Honduras is a country rich in natural resources, with more than one-third of its labor force engaged in agriculture, largely subsistence farming. CRS programs promote sustainable use of natural resources to ensure continued availability and access by the most marginalized communities.
The Natural Resources program supports environmentally sound agricultural development through credit to rural farmers, watershed management, irrigation and crop diversification. CRS works with small-scale farmers and their families to improve growing conditions, diversify crops, and to increase production so that families can move from subsistence farming to marketing and selling their surplus produce. Together with local partners, CRS serves as an advocate for farmers on issues of agrarian politics and local community development.
Global Justice and Solidarity
The Global Justice and Solidarity program helps communities build relationships that promote the transformation of unjust systems and structures related to labor, debt, migration, land tenure and trade. Key strategies include community organization, civic participation and political advocacy.
Health, Education, Water and Sanitation
For many Hondurans, access to the most basic of human needs is a monumental struggle. The national health care system is unable to meet the needs of the majority of Hondurans who, as a result, do not receive adequate, timely medical care. In addition to the threats of disease, malnutrition, and infant and maternal mortality, many poor households lack access to potable water, fomenting issues of sanitation and the spread of disease. Inadequate education further exacerbates this already desperate situation.
The Health, Education, Water and Sanitation program strengthens communities and partner organizations through participation, advocacy and leadership. The program specifically focuses on child health care, safe motherhood, HIV and AIDS, water and sanitation, education, and response to health emergencies.
Emergency Preparedness
Geographically, Honduras is susceptible to devastating climatic effects, rendering it the second most vulnerable country in the world to the ravages of natural disasters. A strong disaster preparedness and response team is critical to the safekeeping of the Honduran people.
In the face of Honduras' vulnerability to hurricanes and tropical storms each year, CRS supports projects in at-risk areas. CRS organizes rapid relief responses and preparations for natural disasters that emphasize community organization and training, early-warning systems, and risk and damage assessment. CRS coordinates with networks of organizations that provide local partners the means to respond quickly and efficiently to emergency situations.
