January 15, 2015
The 1969 war between Salvador and Honduras, sometimes referred to as the Soccer Wars or the Hundred Hours War, left many parts of Honduras bordering El Salvador isolated, with shortages of basic services and infrastructure. These effects last into the present day where, in the southern section of the department of Intibucá, services and infrastructure remain scarce and tenuous. In 1990, the small municipality of Santa Lucia suffered disproportionately the price of a war two decades past. Here there was no physician, no non-profits or relief agencies, no electricity, and the only water came from the community tap in the center of town.
Meanwhile at the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Jeff Heck, part of the junior faculty, was organizing a medical brigade to Honduras to be sponsored by Ruth and Daniel Castro from the Christian Medical and Dental Society of Honduras. Could any of the participants on that brigade really have known what they were getting into? Had they known, would they have gone? And what amazing things would spring forth from the innocence of their good will!! A team of twenty, including five physicians, slept on the floor at the school and municipal building. They worked from sunup to sundown and saw 4000 patients, assisted by the public health nurse, the only medical professional working in the area. The community asked them to return.
At this point, anything could have happened. The University of Cincinnati might have thought the project a folly and ended their support and funding. The project could have continued by way of sending brigades year after year to simply respond to physical needs. But what did happen was so much greater and so amazing. Relationships were forged, formed, and evolved, creating a synergy that profoundly transformed the lives of everyone committed to those relationships. In 1993, with money left over from a $1 million grant to study diarrhea among travelers to the tropics, construction on the first clinic began. A team of professional builders volunteered much of their time and talent, many of the building supplies were donated, and Chiquita Brands assumed the expense of shipping materials. Good will, service, caring, and the integrity of human relationship united to become a permanent site for healing and development.
After four or five years, Daniel and Ruth Castro suggested the name Shoulder to Shoulder, becoming interchangeable with Hombro a Hombro. Few organizations title themselves according to their philosophy. In extensive conversations among faculty at the university, among students and brigade participants, among community members in Cincinnati and Honduras, it was clear that this project would not survive or thrive save for the intricate participation of those served, the Hondurans themselves. The living of that philosophy was as much practical as it was ideal, given that so few from Cincinnati spoke Spanish and were only in Honduras once or twice a year. Whatever the motive, the philosophy secured the dignity of the persons served. Shoulder to Shoulder, Hombro a Hombro, became sustainable as Hondurans themselves took ownership of the service, care, and empowerment that has always identified its vision and mission.
Twenty-five years ago, a few professors, doctors, and medical students from the University of Cincinnati offered a hand of assistance to a desperately poor and oppressed people. They did so with respect, recognizing that Hondurans themselves would own and manage their health care and development. Shoulder to Shoulder was once small and from Cincinnati. Twenty-five years later, Shoulder to Shoulder/Hombro a Hombro, is big and from Honduras, Cincinnati, and the world. Shoulder to Shoulder once responded exclusively to the physical needs it encountered. Twenty-five years later, Shoulder to Shoulder/Hombro a Hombro, responds to the inherent dignity of all life and seeks to empower and develop relationships of liberation and justice.
In tribute to Shoulder to Shoulder and in anticipation of the reunion brigade scheduled for May of this year, Dr. Jeff Heck reflects,
“Some of the best people I know have been involved with Shoulder to Shoulder from all walks of life, all with different perspectives, faiths and otivations. The majority have been motivated by a genuine concern for people left behind and have been willing to make great sacrifices on their behalf. Shoulder to Shoulder has done much to help physicians, nurses, dentists, and other health professionals restore their idealism that motivated them to join their professions in the first place. I count myself fortunate to have watched radical transformations in many people. Thus it is difficult to say who benefited the most: the Hondurans or the North Americans who came to ‘help’.”
All of this because twenty-five years ago, twenty people came to Honduras to offer some limited, medical service. Imagine!!
Scaling Mountains in San Marcos
December 3, 2014
My wife Laura and I spent yesterday mountain climbing. It wasn’t intentional. We were visiting San Marcos de la Sierra. From where the bus dropped us off we walked straight down, probably 1500 feet to the town center. A little later in the day we visited a second community of San Marcos called Aguacate, on the other side of the highway. We walked back up to the highway, then descended the other side, probably about 2000 feet. Returning to the highway at the end of the day to leave, we took the shortcut up, a harrowing path that most mountain goats would think twice about traversing.
The people who live in San Marcos face these difficult uphill climbs daily, both literally and figuratively. There is little to no income or jobs in San Marcos. Most families are subsistence farmers living hand to mouth. They are isolated in this most remote, rural, and rugged territory. Poverty means malnourishment, poor health, shorter life expectancy, more risk of child mortality, less education and little opportunity for success, and all of this while scaling mountains.
These people are easily lost and forgotten, even by the rest of Honduras. That is why what is happening with the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras (National Autonomous University of Honduras, UNAH) is something very special. When Laura and I arrived at the center of town, we saw an unusual sight. The presence of even a car or truck would have elicited special note, but here were three large buses from UNAH parked alongside the church. They had brought in the seventy plus students and faculty. Generally we think of brigades, medical or otherwise, as coming from the outside, foreigners with abundant foreign resources. But here were Honduran students and faculty responding in a generous and intense way to the needs of this small municipality and its people. The commitment of UNAH to the people of San Marcos clearly articulates a powerful message: You are not lost nor forgotten by the rest of Honduras.
There would only be one full day of the brigade, so it was no surprise to see the long lines outside the public school building where the doctors and nurses were. We’ve become somewhat acquainted with the medical brigade motif. But things here were different. The most obvious difference was that there were no translators. This allows for a deep sense of trust and respect, something that for all the best intentions of foreign brigades cannot be reproduced. We had already met the engineering students in the main plaza area of the town, discussing the town’s unique water problems and how they might be addressed. At the clinic area itself, in each of the examining areas, a law student or a lawyer was present for legal consults. Here were doctors, nurses, orthodontists, lawyers, engineers, teachers, biologists, and so many more. It seemed every profession discipline that could possibly assist this small town community was present. We even met a social worker. Laura and I are both social workers, and we had long since given up on meeting a Honduran one. It bought us great joy.
So why were all these professions present at a one day medical brigade? It seems the university’s commitment is way beyond the one day brigade. As the mayor of the town, whom we met with later in the day in Aguacate, told us, this is a “convenio” (covenant agreement) that will last for decades. This is not about giving a person a lift up the hill one time, leaving them off at the side of the road to wait for the bus, then scooting off to Tegucigalpa in your Land Cruiser. No, this is about commitment and building relationship. This is a partnership. The brigade was for a day, but the relationship is ongoing. They’ll come back next year for another day’s brigade. But over the course of the year, there will be a great deal of communication and ongoing work; the mayor with the university, the university with Shoulder to Shoulder, the health center of the town with the university, the various local associations with the university, and so on. Francisco Portillo, the social worker, explained it to us as an ongoing needs assessment and a continual search for creative resources; going up and down the hill.
We had a great day climbing mountains. We thank Manuel, one of Shoulder to Shoulder’s health promoters, and Carlos, Shoulder to Shoulder’s health data collector, for guiding us around all day; Paola Barrientos, nursing department at UNAH, who has a ton of energy and is thoroughly dedicated to this project; Doctor Maricela Figueroa, one of the brigade leaders, who graciously shared the inclusive mission of their work; the mayor of San Marcos; and so many others.
…. and if there are tall mountains to climb, we’ll climb them together.
Educate a Child and Change the World
November 24, 2014
Shoulder to Shoulder is pleased and proud to introduce the Good Shepherd Bilingual School Sponsorship Program to advance our mission in the frontier region of Intibucá, Honduras.
Why Education?
The river story, often attributed to the social reformer Saul Alinsky, recounts a scene along the banks of a fast moving river. People are drowning and others are jumping into the river to save them. One individual leaves the scene to move upstream. He is initially scolded for abandoning the vital task of saving lives. But, he is actually searching out the source of the problem to learn why and how people are falling into the river in the first place, in order to resolve the issue.
Education in Honduras is certainly an upriver issue. Children are only legally required to go to school through the sixth grade. Public education is free in Honduras. But when you factor in costs of transportation, books and materials, uniforms, and so on, families that can barely feed themselves are greatly burdened by this “free” education. Public education is poorly supported by the Honduran government. Buildings are inadequate and not maintained. Materials are unavailable or offered at a price that students can’t afford. Teachers are ill-prepared. These chronic problems affect all of Honduras, but in the neglected area of the frontier region of Intibucá, they are exacerbated. Children mostly do not continue their education beyond the sixth grade. The economic reality of most families demands that they assist with farm labor or find other low paying employment. Whereas Hondurans with some financial means send their children to quality, private schools, poorer families simply do not have the opportunity.
It is true enough that children are drowning. It is a faulted education system that has tossed them into the river. How many scholars, civil engineers, doctors, physicists, lawyers, artists, musicians, leaders, and visionaries are unknown to Honduras because learning was unavailable to them? It is a sobering thought.
Shoulder to Shoulder is moving upriver. Since its inception, Shoulder to Shoulder has invested in quality education for young people. Our scholarship program enables over one-hundred young people to continue their education beyond the sixth grade, even unto college. The generosity of donors is matched to young people according to merit and need. This is making a substantial difference in their lives individually as well as within the communities they come from and will go to as professionals. In 2012, Shoulder to Shoulder partnered with the Good Shepherd Community of Cincinnati and founded Good Shepherd Bilingual School in Camasca, Intibucá. The building has been erected and three grades (kindergarten, first, and second) are presently enrolled.
The school is public, accessible to everyone, and offers a quality, bilingual education. It is the only one of its kind in all of Honduras. It exists as a collaborative effort among the Honduran Government, the Municipalities of the frontier region of Intibucá, Shoulder to Shoulder, and the students’ parents. Honduras considers it a model for public education. It offers unimagined opportunities for its alumni as well as substantive change for Honduras.
Shoulder to Shoulder believes that you, our donors and benefactors, would like to be part of this historic undertaking. We humbly invite you to seriously consider sponsoring one of the Good Shepherd Bilingual School children. We are certain that this synergetic relationship of generosity and gratitude will be transformative for both you and your sponsored child. Your commitment today will illuminate the path from poverty to progress.
Help us to move up river! www.shouldertoshoulder.org/sponsorshipprogram