Honduran sisters share story of determination

In the late seventies, around the time Jamaican Self Help was starting up, another Peterborough family was having a similar inspiring experience in a poor southern country, and involving our community in supporting it: Jim and Anne McCallum.

The McCallums had volunteered in the impoverished central American country of Honduras, making connections with a remarkable nun, Sr. Maria Rosa, who was rescuing abandoned and orphaned children from the mean streets of Tegucigalpa, the capital, and finding them homes in children’s villages: secure, small communities where kids could live in small group homes led by an affectionate woman, a “tia” (auntie). They could finish high school and afterwards attend a skill training centre in Tegucigalpa or in Santa Lucia.

Honduras, a country of 8 million people, has a very difficult history, with 50 per cent of people living below the poverty line. Great damage was done by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which killed 5,000 people and destroyed 70 per cent of crops. In the United Nations Human Development Index, Honduras places 127 out of 188 countries.

In such conditions of deprivation, crime will thrive. In 2014, the American Peace Corps withdrew their volunteers, citing too much risk.

But dedicated people, both north and south, don’t stop. The original group, “Horizons of Friendship,” opened a fundraising thrift shop and an office in Cobourg, and expanded to support projects in Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico.

The McCallums and supporters decided to maintain their steady involvement with Sr. Maria Rosa and the children’s villages in Honduras. Today, under president David Cain, the Friends of Honduran Children has an office in downtown Peterborough, and an employee, Allison, and raises thousands of dollars every year while sending scores of volunteers on service-learning trips to the village of Nuevo Paraiso in northern Honduras.

It has become clear that the education of girls is central to the development of individuals, families and communities. FoHC began to plan to sponsor two teenage Honduran girls from Nuevo Paraiso to come to Peterborough, live with a local family, learn English and enter Fleming College, with a goal of returning to their country to help their mother and siblings, and provide leadership for others.

Things took shape. Board member Dan Durst shepherded the project along. Fleming agreed to admit the girls, who are sisters, 19 and 17 years old, Fany and Ivin, under the Canadian, rather than the foreign rate. A Peterborough couple, Karen and Shannon Hartford, offered to provide a home and guidance for the sisters.

The Hartfords have been impressed by the resilience of the Honduran spirit, as they have watched the girls arrive in January cold, and adjust to an immensely different culture and lifestyle.

A month ago, having successfully completed their English- language proficiency test, Ivin and Fany gave a public talk at the Canoe Museum.

Through some tears, they told a powerful story of their determination, their loyalty to the mother, who had to give them up to the children’s village in 2009, and their gratitude for the opportunity to gain qualifications in business and in computer science at Fleming. Fany and Ivin’s mother had Ivin when she was 15, and now works as a maid in Tecucigalpa for C$25 a week.

It seems remarkable that the early eighties gave rise to at least 3 organizations in our region committed to overseas aid. Each attracted generous support.

What was it about the times? Was it that the leaders of the new initiatives, were respected people rooted in their own work and communities, offering an opportunity for others to be globally involved, to learn and be inspired? Was it the Canadian generosity towards others, even those beyond our borders?

Welcome, Fany and Ivin, and thank you for coming. You will learn, and so will we.