After a long two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was excited to finally travel again and to do my first trip with Food For The Poor Canada. Together with Food For The Poor, Inc. we travelled to Honduras where we were warmly greeted by the CEPUDO team. The week was filled with visits to numerous communities, hearing stories from beneficiaries, and countless hugs from hundreds of happy and grateful children.

 

One of our first stops was to the APICOL (La Asociación de Apicultores de Colinas) beekeeping project, where we learned about the care and maintenance of honey bees. The young bees are placed in a Langstroth hive where they grow and produce honey for the winter. By planting flowering plants and fruit trees nearby, the bees use the pollen from those plants as a food source. The honey then takes on the characteristics of that certain flower. For example, the honey we saw was very dark and rich in colour, and the taste had a hint of coffee. This is because the bees would take pollen from the nearby coffee plant flowers back to their beehive, influencing the colour and taste of the honey produced. Honey is currently a very in-demand product in Honduras, so beekeepers can find themselves nearly doubling their average annual income, giving them an opportunity for a sustainable livelihood.

 

It was here where we met one beekeeping beneficiary who has been part of the APICOL project, funded by FFTP Inc., for the past 2 years. “My name is Judy, and I have been a beekeeping beneficiary for 2 years. I started with only one hive, and then really started liking it. I then got the opportunity to get five additional beehives donated by CEPUDO. I am currently reproducing 68 beehives and sell the honey locally in Santa Barbara. I also sell soap, shampoo, creams, and sweets made from the beeswax. This has given my family a lot of opportunity, and because of that, we have been able to make a living and send our kids to school.”

After some more community visits and a stop to see the work of the Lenca weaving artisans’ group, we went to the coffee farms in Marcala, an area known for its optimal climate for coffee harvest and one of the largest coffee production areas in the world. A typical harvest period takes 3 years from the time a coffee plant is young, to the point where it grows into a mature plant and is producing coffee beans. Similar to the honey, by planting fruit trees (mainly citrus), the coffee beans take on the characteristics of those plants such as colour, taste, and smell. All coffee beans are certified organic, as there is no pesticide or chemical usage throughout the growing process. The soil is inspected in advance to ensure that the coffee can be given the organic stamp of approval before being sold to buyers in Europe.

FFPC’s coffee project is currently heading into it’s second year, with 7 beneficiary farmers continuing to care for their plants and receive ongoing technical training and assistance from the local agronomists. By 2024, their plants will be ready for commercial harvest. During the trip, I had the pleasure of meeting one of our coffee beneficiaries who is being supported by Canadian donors. Dilcia lives with her husband and 3 children, and has over the past year been tending to her plants, preparing them for harvest in 2 years’ time. Currently, Dilcia has X manzanas/acres of land, equivalent to X coffee plants. This quantity is enough to help her produce _______ for commercial harvest and sale to international buyers. With this income, she will be able to send her children to school, something she was previously unable to afford.

(Testimonial)

On my final day, I got to visit the recently constructed agricultural vocational school in San Antonio. Upon pulling up to the school, students, teachers, parents, and community members were all lined up with signs, balloons, cake, and streamers, excited to show what they have been able to accomplish. I heard from emotional parents of the students and how grateful they were to be given this opportunity, and I saw performances from the students, including the older group that presented to me what they wanted to be when they grow up. The group has been doing career counselling with CEPUDO’s social worker to better understand their strengths and interests that would then help inform what career path they want to take following graduation. Students came dressed as their dream job, and we saw doctors, midwives, bakers, construction workers, firemen, seamstresses, and even a cowgirl! The smiles and laughter were really true testaments to how excited the students were to start thinking about their future, and the opportunities that would one day present themselves.

Following the performances, I walked around to the other side of the school building where the two greenhouses were being constructed. CEPUDO’s agronomist has been working with the community to construct the greenhouses, level and prepare the land for planting, installing the irrigation systems (drip for the vegetables and spray for coffee plants) and nurseries, and beginning to train the vocational students.

The two greenhouses have their own purpose. One is a dark greenhouse specific for coffee plants, with a capacity to grow up to 60,000 individual plants. It is also used to plant fruit trees such as orange, lemon, mandarin, avocado, and mango which will provide the needed shade for the coffee plants in the first year as they grow. These coffee plants will then be sold by the school to coffee farmers, allowing them to make a profit and reinvest it into the needs of the school. The second greenhouse is a light greenhouse for growing vegetables like peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, beans, and squash. Currently, the mothers of the students are working hard to prepare the land and soil to make flower beds. Ultimately, these vegetables will be cultivated at the school for use within the community.

My final visit was to see the women’s empowerment group, who had a set up in one of the classrooms. The original group of 24 women has now expanded to over 40, and they continue to do training in different areas such as interpersonal relationships, emotional intelligence, and understanding domestic and social violence. These women have been able to move to a place of greater independence and self-awareness, ability to identify and recognize their emotions, and improve their communication skills for greater self-confidence. They also do workshops that help them identify their skills and interests, and many have taken a liking to sewing for income-generation. Among sewing, other career paths women take are baking, cooking, jewelry making, hair and beauty, and pinata making.

San Antonio truly is a beautiful community with beautiful people with large hearts, and warm and welcoming to strangers. Each and every person is grateful for the opportunities they have been given to better the lives of their families, that would have otherwise not been possible. I can only hope that one day, some of our very own FFPC donors can visit and see the beauty of the country and people firsthand.