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Due to Covid-19 our sponsor school in Honduras was closed for the rest of the academic year. With more than 250,000 Honduran families facing food insecurity, it is more important than ever that we continue our free lunch program. Thanks to your generous support we have been able to safely deliver over 3,700 free lunches and supply more than 178 masks to our students thus far! We will be able to continue to supply our students with healthy lunches and masks for the rest of the school year and we wouldn't be able to do it without you!
How Far your $ Goes...
At $1.12 per meal, 60 meals a day, 3 days a week we've been able to safely deliver over 3,700 meals and counting!
COVID-19 IN HONDURAS
“My husband is working for food, but he doesn’t always have work. Because of that sometimes we can eat and we sometimes can’t.” - Digna Grijalva, parent.
In March, Honduras received their first case of the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19). As a country that was already facing poverty, drought and climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic only compounded those issues.The virus knows no boundaries and does not distinguish between the rich and poor. That fact has never been more clear than in Honduras.At the beginning of this year 40% of the total workforce was already unemployed and 60% of the population dependent on day-to-day income to survive. With their economy also shutting down in a desperate attempt to save lives, 1 in 3 workplaces have already closed their doors... 250,000 people are now facing food insecurity and expectations are that by the end of the year 75% of the country will be living on day-to-day income.
With stay-at-home orders being implemented in Honduras, all public schools were shut down for the foreseeable future, including our sponsor school in Juticalpa. Although we weren't able to continue our activities program, we knew we couldn't abandon our community in their greatest moment of need. So we pledged to continue our free lunch program to ensure our students continue to get the nutrition that helps them learn, play and grow.
The program hasn't been without its challenges. The stay-at-home order only allows Jose, our Director of Operations, to shop for the lunch supplies one day a week. On top of logistical hurdles, Jose had to ensure that we were distributing the lunches in the safest way possible. This entailed teaching the students about social distancing and handing out nearly 200 masks. Jose even put on a presentation to educate the parents about Covid-19 and the proper guidelines to prevent its spreading in the community.
MEET JOSE
We are very pleased to introduce you to our new Director of Operations in Honduras, José Sarmiento.José was an instructor with us last year and has shown a real passion for the students and his Honduran community. He is energetic with his new role at GO and has embraced more responsibilities in these unsettled times.He shows great initiative and a true commitment to our mission.
"Though we haven't been able to do activities with the kids', the good thing is we haven't stopped delivering food. Seeing the kids' grateful smiles is very emotional and it encourages me to continue my work with greater enthusiasm!" -Jose
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