Progressio is celebrating 75 years of supporting marginalised people around the world. We have marked the occasion with a special version of our magazine that looks back over more than seven decades of incredible work, and gives you a glimpse of the significant moments coming up in the year ahead.
After a nearly a week of preparation, it was here. Our Cleaning Campaign (La Campaña de Limpieza). Ideas had been flying around alongside paint brushes, games were at the ready, bags of sweets and bubbles to hand, and the banner looked perfect. We were off.
Team Catacamas have had a busy week. Our involvement in the community has stepped up a notch.
Today has been the best day of my life so far. Surpassing the previous day that held those king jewels. Graduation Day. The day I graduated was filled with anticipation, exuberance and a huge sense of achievement. From as long as I can recall, a perfectionist with a competitive streak, educational achievements had always been a colossal goal of mine. Never wanting to be second best, and wanting to prove I wasn't stupid, I got a first.
During our “prioximo semana” (first week), Progressio introduced us to the programmes we would be participating in whilst in Honduras. Meeting Red COMAL our partner organisation, whom we are supporting, we got shown a video displaying the effects of climate change in Honduras and why the work we will be doing in Lempira, Western Honduras is so important.
THE PREVENTION OF DRUG AND ALCOHOL ABUSE IN CATACAMAS, OLANCHO, HONDURAS
We are a team of twelve volunteers and two team leaders from Honduras and the UK, here to promote healthy lifestyles to prevent substance abuse in Catacamas. Working in partnership with health organisation Predisan and their rehabilitation project CEREPA (Centre for the Rehabilitation of Patients with Addictions), we aim to fulfil a number of short-term goals and kick-start the project’s longer-term outcomes during our 10-week cycle.
As we enter our last week in Gracias, we’ve begun to finish off the projects in the communities and to say goodbye to the people there. So now is a good time to look back at the work we’ve done and to give you an idea what these communities are like.
Our day starts when our bus driver – Don Berto – picks us up from our house in Gracias. He then drives us to one of eight communities, five of which are profiled below. First up is the turn off for Los Altos Guanteque:
Los Altos Guanteque
If there’s one thing we’ve learnt from our time in Honduras; it’s always have a backup plan.
Spending six weeks in Guayape, where neither restaurants nor internet exists, and the few shops that do are limited to basic amenieties, has been a real test for a group of volunteers accustomed to living in some of the world’s most developed cities. It was therefore with great excitement that in the early hours of Saturday morning we boarded a bus bound for Catecamas, a dusty town set against the base of the Sierra de Agalta, to visit the famous Cuevas de Talgua. We were about to leave Guayape!
The town of Guayape, in which the six of us UK volunteers are spending our 10 week in-country placement, is situated in what is known locally as the Honduran ‘Wild West’ of Olancho. So called for the cowboys – complete with cowboy hats – that roam its landscape, this small town is nestled in a meandering river valley and protected by a range of lush, green hills in all directions. Needless to say, upon arrival we were somewhat overwhelmed by the natural beauty of the place we would be calling home.
