Jim Linhares, NutriFund’s new board chair, made a trip to Honduras this past spring. He had done so once before nine years ago and is eager to share his experience here.
In lots of ways the trip was hard for me. History hasn’t been fair to the people of Honduras. Natural resources are aggressively exported, putting people’s capacity to live secure, happy lives at risk. Social, governmental and economic structures that should be helping are often terribly inefficient or even make problems worse. All of this is reflected in a heartbreaking way in the babies, children and moms who live at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder.
But folks, I wasn’t depressed in Yoro! In fact, I had a wonderful week and came home thrilled and inspired. San Yves is saving lives. The little ones come to the center listless and sick and return to their families healthy and happy. The nutrition center does so much with so little!
I met Kevin 9 years ago when I first came to the center. I had no Spanish, but we were buddies. Because he has a severe spinal deformity, I didn’t think he’d be there if I ever managed to get back.
That’s him trying on my glasses back in 2014 and again nine years later! We had a great few days together. He is a clever, funny, smart and athletic young man! Once again, it was hard to say goodbye.
Spending the week with these beautiful kids and babies was a huge part of why I came home happy. But every bit as important was the way this trip made the work and mission of NutriFund real and inspiring for me.
But the hopeful reality of how impactful our work is has an adult face, too.
One day, Patrick took us up an hour or so into the hills outside of Yoro to a small community. We met women who receive prenatal healthcare and nutritional supplements, delivered by two of our employees, Arianny and Arnoldo.
This might not sound very remarkable or inspiring given how much we take access to community healthcare for granted, but it truly is. First, we are, quite literally, the only organization of any kind--Honduran or international--serving these folks with basic prenatal healthcare, or any kind of healthcare for that matter.
And second, Arianny and Arnoldo are native Hondurans, something very rare in a country where most of the work fighting malnutrition comes from the outside. That really cuts to the heart of our vision at Nutrifund: partnering with local communities to support healthy moms and children in a way that promotes mutual respect and creates a solid, long-term foundation for the future.