RFM~Honduras
During COVID-19, the Franciscan Network’s team in Honduras has focused on providing humanitarian aid and developing a “Laudato Si” project to promote self-sufficiency in their communities.
In the Juticalpa Mission in Olancho there are no cases but they are still quarantined. The Franciscan sisters run a children’s home and a nursing home, and they have to put together enough food to serve more than 120 people.
In Tegucigalpa, they report that health personnel are not sufficiently equipped because those responsible for receiving the foreign aid have likely stolen it. Health personnel are putting themselves at high risk. Only pharmacies and supermarkets are open. It is a situation of daily survival. The military and the police are patrolling and controlling everything. Honduras has a large informal economy and street vendors are suffering greatly from the quarantine as they are prohibited from selling. There is a place behind the University where returned migrants are staying, and the Human Mobility Ministry was collecting clothes and provisions but they have not been given permission deliver the items collected. The Sisters of the Holy Rosary are gathering clothes and they are going to send it along with the assistance organized by Norwegian NGOs.
In Colonia Ramon Amaya Amador in Tegucigalpa, they report that the community of sisters is fine. There have been no concrete cases in the area. The community of sisters, together with the parish priest, have used program funds to buy food because it is a marginalized area and the need is dire. The team is meeting by Skype and are planning how to connect with other institutions to see what they do. There are many ideas of floating around about how to confront the crisis, but always the main factor is money. They work with funders Spain and Germany who now have turned their focus onto the crises in their own countries.
