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Published on 11/23/1998 All articles from this issue

The best help for Honduras: empowerment

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By Kristina Stevens

Other Voices

Los Altos resident Kristina Stevens, featured in a Nov. 4 Town Crier cover story, spent two years in Honduras with the Peace Corps. Stevens offers her thoughts in the wake of Hurricane Mitch and the Honduras tragedy.

Neighbors, bearing gifts of tamales and hand-embroidered cloths, came from near and far to the adobe town hall of Santa María, Honduras, to bid farewell to the Peace Corps worker, known for miles around as "la gringa." What a miraculous turnabout from two years ago when only a few arrived to plan a new water system. This indifference stemmed from a poorly executed water project five years before. Tubes burst from excessive pressure as no topographic study was conducted.

Overturning the town's skepticism was a yearlong process of enduring torrential downpours surveying the terrain, bouts of roundworms and political traps set by local dissidents. However, the fruits of this labor were immeasurable. We restructured and trained a new water board, which, in turn, assumed ownership, organizing work groups and supervising construction of the new water system. We implemented pour flush latrine projects for 70 families and developed a management plan to protect the watershed. Municipal, student, environmental and developmental organizations were formed and solicited additional projects for communal benefit. Santa María was empowered to improve their own conditions, and it was time for me to say goodbye and give thanks.

Only six weeks after my return, images of Honduran towns, where I had just walked the streets and talked with the neighbors, were broadcast across the television and in newspapers, "leveled by Hurricane Mitch." Despite the millions in relief aid, there is so much more that needs to be done from the immediate to the long-term. The Choluteca River in Southern Honduras is polluted by decomposing bodies and livestock, and must be dredged at a cost of $10 million to avoid epidemics. Communities are drinking from these contaminated sources. A recent United Nations report states that "70 percent of Hondurans are without water delivery systems." The horror of this reality is finally registering and as re-construction is just starting, the world's attention has already passed to the Iraq crisis and the Kenneth Starr.

However, I ask all Los Altans not to let Honduras be yesterday's old news. Donations are still much needed. But I suggest that mid- and long-term development projects not be forgotten in our disaster relief assistance. Not only does food need to be handed out, but crops need to be replanted and people must be trained in sustainable agricultural practices to prevent the erosion and mudslides that accounted for so many of hurricane-related deaths. I recommend that funds be channeled through reputable aid organizations that focus upon project sustainability and human resources development. Otherwise, more harm than good can be done and dependence or distrust will be fostered.

Now in the wake left by Hurricane Mitch, there is an opportunity to reconstruct a nation torn by servility and dependence as Honduras This Week has reported the town of Miramesi has done: "Standing amidst the rubble of their old lives, we asked the community to allow the past to be the first foundation stone for the future. We asked that, just as the river washed away their homes, that they would allow it to also wash away old battles, gossip and division. To begin anew, we asked that the people stay united. At this plea, the people shoved their fists into the air and gave a great shout... "Qué viva Nueva Miramesi....!" "Long live the New Miramesi."