John Dewane and Walt Blasberg traveled to San Pedro Sula, Honduras in the 2nd week of December to research new proposed projects for Angeles Para Honduras (APH). We are indebted to Rafael Ugarte who discovered these worthwhile projects and to Juan Carlos Mejia Pena for being our guide and chaffeur as we travelled to the various projects in the city of Choloma and San Pedro Sula. We have decided to focus our efforts in the city of Choloma as it is close to San Pedro Sula (close to the airport)  and in great need of our help with our education initiatives. We also have a strong network of support in this area which makes it much easier for us to manage our projects and make a real difference.

 Choloma is the third-largest city in Honduras with a population of 220,300 (2023 calculation). Many factories are stationed in Choloma due to its cheap labor which has boosted the municipality's economy. Choloma is just north of San Pedro Sula, with transportation to other municipalities provided by private bus companies. Many transnational companies are stationed here for production. There is considerable poverty in Choloma and children lack educational opportunities to keep them out of gangs and allow them to find a path to a sustainable life in Honduras.

We believe that helping to provide quality educational experience for children from the ages of 5 to 18 is crucial for the ultimate success of these children.  Our goal is to help children grow to find meaningful job opportunities , keep them out of the clutches of violent gangs, and make it possible for them to make a sustainable life in their own country rather than joining the multitude of individuals seeking to migrate to the United States. Education in Honduras is only mandatory through the 6th grade. When they graduate from 6th grade they are theoretically only 12 years old. Sadly, many of these children find little opportunity other than working with their parents and leave for the cities where they are recruited into violent gangs that use them to collect extorted funds from local merchants. If the merchants don't pay they are required to kill them. If the child doesn't kill the merchant, they themselves are killed by other gang members. Many Hondurans seek to migrate to the US rather than face this pattern of violence. 

Accordingly, the focus of our efforts is to help provide educational opportunities for children until they are qualified to find meaningful employment. It is important for us to find ways to keep them in the educational system well past 6th grade. We want to help children stay in school until at least 9th grade and from there into a trade school so have the skills that render them qualified to work for local companies, foreign factories or for themselves in a learned trade.

We have found two projects in Choloma that will help us achieve this goal. The first is a grade school in the outskirts of the city of Choloma where parents are trying to create a school which will educate them through the 9th grade. The second is a trade school in Choloma which provides academic education from 6th to 9th grade plus has the facilities to teach a variety of trades. We will describe these opportunities in subsequent posts. 

A third initiative is to fund a medical mission to San Pedro Sula with US Plastic Surgeons who have volunteered to perform cleft palate and other restorative surgeries for needy Honduran children.  We will have a post dedicated to this initiative.

Me llamo Jorge Armando Rodriguez y en este relato les contare un poco acerca de mi vida. Nací en el año de 1984 en la aldea de Suyapa en...

My name is Jorge Armando Rodriguez and in this story I will tell you a little about my life. I was born in 1984 in the village of Suyapa...