Currency: Honduran lempiraLanguage: Spanish

H&H Communities: El Progresso, San Pedro Sula

Bordered by Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and the Caribbean Sea, Honduras is known for its coffee, bananas, pineapples and palms. Lest we forget about the world class scuba diving throughout the second largest coral reef in the world near Roatán, a place I’ll have to return to asap for new memories…

Despite the resources and beauty, almost 70% of Hondurans earn less than $1,200 a year, and one in five Hondurans living in rural areas live in extreme poverty, earning less than $700 each year—less than $1.90 per day. When H&H arrived in 2010, the communities couldn’t believe a group of Americans were coming to help when even own government wouldn’t lift a finger. They are grateful and thankful to have the helping hand, just as we are grateful and thankful on how they receive us with open arms.

Communities

La Coroza

If we don’t buy this land, the people won’t have jobs. If they don’t have jobs, how can we say we’re creating sustainable change? – Darwin Suazo

H&H came to this village in 2010 when the vast majority of people didn’t have a high school degree, and there was little opportunity to work more than one day per week. Now they employ 18 men for 5 days/week working on the corn and plantain projects while the 12 women who work every day tend to the chicken and pig farms. This, of course, trickles down from them and onto their growing families as they provide food, water and education. La Coroza continues to be a great example of unity, hard work and what sustainable change looks like via Humanity and Hope. The locals of the village realize this and want to pass along their skills to people in other villages so that they may have the same opportunities for change.

Someday you’ll do for another village what we are doing for you right now. -The People of La Coroza

Currently: H&H’s biggest project to-date is fundraising $200,000 for the Grand Farm which will provide land, livestock and crops for the village. If you want to help but can’t make it to Honduras, please consider donating here.

Remolino

It wasn’t that we weren’t doing things right. It’s just that now, we’re doing things better. -Daniel Mejia

This place is chock FULL of natural beauty and one of my favorite rivers I’ve had the pleasure of frolicking in back in February 🙂

H&H has been in the village for the past 8 years creating opportunity for jobs. One of my favorite things about Remolino was seeing the single moms working in the sheep business providing for their children. They carry heavy bails of hay down the hill every day, proving to everyone around them that women can do anything, even manual labor. I got chills with all the girl power in this place. So much power, so much purpose. They continue to work on their businesses and evaluate what they can improve on with each day.

This was the first full day for our group in Honduras, and I knew everyone was having a good time when our bus broke down…in the rain…at the very end of the day…and people were still smiling. I mean, look at the man literally UNDERNEATH the bus. People kicked it into high gear real fast and started picking up rocks and sticks to fill the trenches, and then someone got the bright idea to take the bumper off. It worked 🙂 Shout out to Milton and his pride and joy, Alexandra.

La Cuchilla

I don’t play favorites, but a piece of my heart will live here forever. In February this year, we were able to watch Finding Nemo in La Cuchilla since it was their first time with electricity. I held a baby girl in my arms throughout the entire movie. During my second trip, I think I came thiiiiis close to a heat stroke as I played and played and played with those same kids in what felt like 200 degree weather. We were drenched, overheated and gross… but damn we were happy.

It’s pretty clear where my priorities stood this time around. We counted in Spanish, we counted in English, we played hide & seek until we couldn’t due to high temps. We played with cool cameras but preferred the great outdoors and running on soccer fields surrounded by corn stalks much taller than we were. These kids don’t have much, and yet they are the most joyous people I’ve ever been around. I loved being able to see familiar faces from my 1st trip back in February alongside a lush plantain farm and prospering chicken farm that were hardly up and running, if at all, 6 months ago.

February:

September:

When H&H asked what the people of La Cuchilla valued most/would like to see changed, the community had a surprising answer, one that even came before clean water: Jobs for Women. Humanity & Hope took that to heart and has raised $45,000 for the La Cuchilla Chicken Business benefiting women living in the community by creating jobs and giving them a sense of purpose and gender equality. Money raised went directly towards start-up & farm production costs for the first year – and I was taken aback to see it totally prospering just 6 months later. Again, the power and purpose here is palpable.

Final Thoughts & Upcoming Trips

I am here to serve you guys and the people of Honduras. -EJ Underwood

The H&H runs about 1 trip a month to these beautiful villages of Honduras. If this blog post resonated with you, let that sit for a second. If it moved you at all or called you to action, my advice? GO. Send in a request to join! EJ guided our trip this September, and I’d like to officially put in my request to clone this man if at all possible. And Riley Fuller as well. And probably Ben Higgins while we’re at it.

The amount of joy I got from making lifelong friends on both of these trips to Honduras is priceless. Seeing their kind hearts fuels mine to be bigger and far more giving. Going back a second time this month only solidified the fact that I love this country and the people who reside inside of it. The kids put a big smile on my face and keep me belly laughing for days. They are Honduras’ future, and my hope is to be able to watch them grow as I return time and time again. I remember leaving the country in February and feeling really sad. I thought to myself, “I may never see those people ever again.” Leaving this time around was a teeny tiny easier because I know I’ll be back for lots of piggy backs, smiles and high fives.

My first trip to Honduras was very different than the second in a few ways. Truth be told, I felt very distracted during February. I remember having the hardest time staying in the moment since the show was airing and my new relationship was not playing out in the merriest of ways. I was so distracted and a little frustrated with myself for not being fully present with these people and this country. That all changed in September. That and the itinerary. February included a portion to learn about Generous Coffee, the for-profit/for-purpose business that feeds into H&H. If you know anything about Ben Higgins, you probably know something about Generous Coffee. He led our group through an extremely remote area of the country and up the literal side of a mountain to one of the highest points in the Cordillera de Celaque mountain range. We met the families that operate the farm and those who carry the beans and pick the berries by hand doing extremely tough manual labor. It was super eye opening to see this kind of activity happening before me.

Change lives and buy life changing coffee.

I have a new found appreciation from learning how much work in the field goes into producing my morning cup of coffee to seeing first hand how profits have a direct impact in arming communities with jobs, education and lots of love. I truly believe that collaborating with one another and sharing stories makes the world go round. Special thanks to Ben, Riley, Darwin and team for your dedication to spreading hope and love in this beautiful country!

Most photos by talented photographer Kayla Lynn Bacon