Honduras: Psychosocial Intervention in Post-Eta and Iota Shelters

The project “Psychosocial Intervention in Shelters (IPSA)” The project responded to the needs generated by hurricanes Eta and Iota in two sectors of the capital (Comayagüela and Tegucigalpa) and in the municipality of Choloma in the Department of Cortés in Honduras. The project is coordinated by RFM-Honduras team, supported and managed by the Coordination Committee of the Franciscan Network on Migration in coordination with the Faculty of Sciences Psychological the National Autonomous University of Honduras, and financed by the generosity of private donors and the Quixote Center in the United States. 

The project is executed by 20 permanent volunteers and 28 occasional volunteers, for a total of 48 volunteers in total. These volunteers were divided into the two sectors where they worked in parallel: in the Villa Olímpica, where those housed in three gyms are concentrated, and in the village “El Lolo,” a semi-rural area located on the outskirts of the central district.

Added to this, a single intervention was carried out to approximately 160 boys and girls from 13 communities of the Santísima Trinidad parish in coordination with Father Jaime Mathew, in the municipality of Chamelecón, Cortés.

With more than 14 days of follow-up interventions carried out in 4 shelters in parallel and 1 full-day day in Chamelecón, a process of emotional sharing and stress management techniques were applied through play therapy, in order to reduce the emotional impact and encourage the process of adaptation to the recent natural disasters and displacement.