One of the poorest countries in the world

  • People and their valuable animals live in close proximity.
  • Most homes do not have electricity or even cement floors.
  • Makeshift kerosene lanterns provide some light in homes.
  • Some homes are "electrified," but the black ceiling is evidence of their traditional cooking methods.
  • Everybody works picking coffee. This sack weighs more than 75 pounds.
  • The Honduran diet consists mainly of tortillas, beans, and coffee.
  • Before Christmas this young girl was earning money making fuses for firecrackers.
  • This room with a dirt floor sleeps the family of 8.
  • This family was ecstatic with their wood savings.
  • To buy a clean stove is out of the reach of families like this. That is why we only ask them to supply a few materials to build them.

Over half the population of Honduras lives below the poverty level and 65% are considered impoverished by USAID standards. Statistics are worse for those who live in rural areas, what we call the Last Mile.

Un- and under-employment rates in Honduras are high at about 36% (2009 estimate, World Fact Book).

Statistics translate into depressing reality. Villages are reached by muddy, rock-strewn roads. Homes are generally one-room adobe structures with animals living in close proximity. Few children have shoes. Many families do not have toilets and simply use the out of doors.

Most families do not have access to clean water and get water from a cistern. If there is no rain, families haul water from the nearest, usually polluted, stream.

Meals are beans, tortillas, rice, little meat and limited vegetables. Coffee is the drink of choice and beans are roasted on the plancha of the stove. Often the home is used to store the corn harvest attracting rats, mice and disease. There is extremely limited access to any kind of medical care or electricity.