Trujillo residents have lived for an entire month without drinking water due to water shortages and lack of rainfall.
The water system that supplies most of the districts and neighborhoods of Trujillo has not been working, and the population has never experienced a situation this critical.
Aquilino Rodriguez, is in charge of maintaining this system, and has reported that the lack of rain and a prolonged summer have dried rivers and streams that normally supply the dams. He is asking the community for understanding of the problem. "It is not in our hands, and only rain can alleviate the situation, because the rivers do not have enough strength to push the water to reach every home in this city," Rodriguez said.
Many people have been in search of this vital fluid. "We have to go to other places where there are rivers to get water to take back. Others have wells, but that is only for them. This worries us because we see that summer is going on for a long time," said one housewife.
The lack of water also affects the activity of the National Port Authority, the Naval Base and the community where the Fire Department is. People believe the Fire Department should be mobilized to provide the liquid, but "The problem is that water demand is greater than our capacity. We only have one tank and not enough to satisfy everyone," said Mark Cross, Fire Chief.
The only solution to the serious problem of water scarcity is that Trujillo receives the rainfall it has not had for months.
Mark and Brenda Young run Little Hands, Big Hearts, a mission in Trujillo, Honduras for children with special needs. On Sept. 30, they'll lead 11 volunteers from around the Northwest United States to Trujillo on a 12-day mission.
It all started with Jose. Just 6 pounds at 6 months of age, born with Down Syndrome and club feet, his family couldn't afford to keep him. So they packed him in a cardboard box and abandoned him. He came precariously close to dying. But it wasn't meant to be.
"Mom, I have a baby," said the voice over the telephone. Brenda Young was startled, as any mother of a young, single daughter might be. It was 1995, and Brenda and Mark Young's 21-year-old daughter, Amber, was calling from a church camp in rural Honduras where she was working. She had found little Jose alone in a nearby home and was seeking advice from her parents on how to help him.
And that's how one little boy, and a phone call, blossomed into Little Hands, Big Hearts, a ministry for disabled children in Trujillo, Honduras .The mission provides nutritional, educational, spiritual and therapeutic assistance to children with disabilities and their families.
As for Jose, the Youngs raised enough money to bring him to the United States for surgery. Now 14, he lives with a foster family in Honduras.
Mark, who is executive director of Little Hands, Big Hearts, and Brenda have devoted much of their lives since 1998 to building a family center in Trujillo. The Youngs -- Brenda is 60 and Mark is 59 -- are well aware of the recent political unrest in Honduras. In fact, the Youngs canceled a trip in July because of the turmoil, but now they're determined that politics won't keep them from their mission.
"As the group leader, I always worry about everything," Mark acknowledged. "But I believe if we're doing God's work, God will protect us."
While there, they'll act as aides for the physician traveling with them. They'll also distribute beans and rice to needy families and give out nutritional information and vitamins. In addition, they'll help in the preschool and oversee several classes, such as Bible study, character building for teens and a sewing class to teach a marketable skills to girls and women.
The Youngs established the mission several years after they first visited Honduras in 1998. Although they were drawn in by the plight of Jos, they initially had no intention of doing anything permanent there.
"We were satisfied being middle-class people with good jobs, but that's not what God had in mind," Mark recalled.
When they Honduras, they saw firsthand that services for disabled children were nonexistent, with food and shelter scarce for everyone. The Youngs decided that they would devote themselves to helping families see that special-needs children aren't a liability. The first step was quitting their jobs -- he worked at Central Washington University, she at a preschool -- going to a Spanish language school and settling in Honduras from 2002-2006.
They found a run-down, former orphanage building to begin their mission. At first they arranged for children to be flown to the United States for treatment. But that proved prohibitively expensive, with the added disadvantage of separating children from their families. Now, medical personnel travel to the Little Hands, Big Hearts center in Honduras at least once a year.
A team of four Florida physicians has made the trip twice, and a medical and dental brigade from Mississippi has also visited. The mission's medical director is the Youngs' daughter, Dr. Amber Figueroa -- the same Amber who rescued little Jose 14 years ago.
Since 2002, Little Hands, Big Hearts has helped 30 children with serious problems get medical treatment or undergo surgery. More typical illnesses seen in the clinic include infections, parasites, malnutrition, complications from HIV and wounds.
Funding comes not only from members of eight churches around the country that contribute monthly. Another 34 ministry partners also give money. It costs about $3,000 a month to operate the mission. Even though the Youngs receive no salary for their mission, they describe being compensated in many other ways.
"It's all to the glory of God," explained Mark. "The satisfaction comes from knowing we help families and children."
* For more information e-mail TrujilloHearts@yahoo.com or visit www.LittleHandsBigHearts.net.
Mayor Luis Lopez of Trujillo is helping to lead a resistance against the current government of Honduras. Also helping is Luis Agurcia, a coordinator of civil resistance efforts in Trujillo and a public schoolteacher, who has said that the Armed Forces had "militarized" the schools of Trujillo from during the weeks of July 13th to to August 13th. Uniformed troops had been sent to each of the schools daily to keep watch on teachers, who have been on strike an average of two or three days per week in protest of the coup.
Luis Agurcia stated that the militarization included the "Escuela Normal" in Trujillo that prepares 1,300 youths to become schoolteachers, and also includes a grade school for 300 younger students whom the teachers-in-training educate as part of their own education.
"We brought two attorneys here. The Colonel accused me of 'indoctrinating children'. But the lawyers explained to them the law and they backed down," he said.
The military has since stopped occupying the schools, as the government did not want their presence to cause any intimidation for teachers or students.
This is an exciting time in Trujillo! The Fiesta de San Juan Bautista is celebrated in various communities in and around Trujillo. Parades, voting over the Fiesta's "Queen", and plenty of dancing highlights the occasion.
The construction a cruise ship terminal in Trujillo, a project valued at 300 million dollars, is encountering problems with the population living in the Rio Negro neighborhood. Some people are asking a higher price be paid for their property, and others are simply refusing to leave their homes. The municipality, and authorities representing Canadian investors, are involved in a process of negotiation with the current inhabitants.
“They are trying to negotiate with the people of this area, and are requesting the people consider the importance of this project for our city”, said Luis Lopez, the Municipal Mayor.
Ricardo Martinez, the Honduran Minister of Tourism, said that this year they project to surpass the 430 thousand cruise ship tourists that Honduras received last year, and expects at least 450 thousand.
An 8 million lempira project, including installation of a new sewage system and the paving of 800 meters of a two-way cement road was finally concluded after a year of work.
Without great fanfare, the avenue was simply opened, and vehicles immediately began to make use of it. The roadway has received good reviews from the majority of people using it on a daily basis. The only negative comments were that it wasn't completed sooner.
Trujillo welcomes the completion of the project, as good road infrastructure helps stimulate tourism to the region. The main tourist complaints had been the long distance to our town and the bad conditions of the roads after getting there.
This roadway in particular is very important in summer since it is the main one used to access the municipal beaches, and is used to get to the communities of Santa Fe, San Antorio and Guadalupe. Trujillo businesses hope that with the improved state of the road, this will be a record year in the number of vehicles visiting the areas of interest.
