Transformemos Honduras

This is the final blog post that describes my observations of and reflections about a particular ASJ project. After I complete this penultimate posting, I will share my final pensamientos (thoughts) on my most recent trip to Honduras. But the thinking and the sharing doesn't stop there....

Transformemos Honduras is the newest ASJ venture, asi que (so) I have decided to talk about it last. I will do my best to talk about it as a project that is not exclusively ASJ's doing (as it isn't), but just in case I mess up and give ASJ all the glory, here is the official description of the movement: "Transformemos Honduras (Spanish for "Let's Transform Honduras") is an ecumenical Christian movement spearheaded by AJS-supported justice workers in Honduras, that, in the wake of Honduras' divisive 2009 political crisis, seeks to unite Hondurans and friends of Honduras worldwide around a proposal for Honduras' new administration to enact 15 important changes in the areas of Employment, Health, Education, Corruption, and Crime." Ecumenical it is, as the movement has received the support of organizations and entities like "World Vision, Care, Save the Children, Project Global Village, the UNDP, USAID, the World Bank, many of Honduras' most influential Catholic and Evangelical leaders, hundreds of congregations, and thousands of individuals." This is a whopper of a project that hopes to have a whopper of an impact.

As Abe wanted me to hear the majority of the information about Transformemos from the people spearheading and organizing the initiative, he only fed me a teaser amount of detail. He described the movement as a response to the chaotic political situation in Honduras and as a wake-up call to the reality that the political structure in the country is corrupt. He mentioned the movement's platform and how the leaders of the movement would like to express their desires directly to the president so that he in turn begins to enact the changes they want to see in the country's infrastructure. One such change involves a group of individuals who are near and dear to my heart: profesores (teachers). I say that because I belong to such a group, although hearing what I have about the educational system in Honduras, I did not feel entirely comfortable declaring my profession at any point during my visit. Upon hearing "corruption" and "teachers" in the same sentence, I immediately thought back to my first visit to Honduras when I was told about the frequency of huelgas (strikes) by the nation's teachers. I recall thinking that conditions must be pretty bad for the teachers in Honduras if they are taking so many days off work to protest. And then I came back and heard about these "horrible conditions" that teachers must endure (hint hint: quotations are used to express sarcasm in this case). According to Abe (and also from Kurt VerBeek, who gave me the back story on the teachers' situation), the teachers made a deal with a former president through which they would support him and his policies if he provided the compensation and benefits they wanted...permanently. I knew educators were influential, but this influential?!?!? Kurt informed me that the teachers of Honduras represent a humongous uniform voting bloc that cannot be stopped. If they aren't happy, you can bet that your children are a. going to hate their first day of school or b. not going to see their first day of school for a while. So these "deplorable conditions" that teachers face are nonexistent. They are (and I am sure there are some who are honest and righteous, so I will not include every single maestro in this claim) a greedy bunch of government employees who want to be treated like royalty because they know how much power they have. Abe shared (and the rest of the Transformemos Honduras crew expounded on) several of the issues that the movement is bringing to light that involve teachers: 1. During the coup, teachers were instructed to protest all day, every day, which means that students all over the country did not go to school. Ultimately, when students rushed out of the school buildings singing Alice Cooper (in Spanish, obviously) at the end of the year, they had gone to school less than half the required academic year. What's worse is that they were allowed to advance to the next grade!!! 2. Some teachers are being paid extra for benefits that only exist for certain jobs or conditions. For example, a teacher is given additional pay for teaching in a rural area of the country, but it appears that certain instructors who are working in the city are receiving the added sum in their paychecks. As he was eager to move me on to my next gig, Abe wrapped up his presentation on Transformemos Honduras by talking about the signature drive. The members of the movement would like to get 1 million signatures from Hondurans pledging support for the changes that the movement is proposing, and although the movement only has around 300,000, it is still pushing hard for those final firmas. I brought up that it is going to be especially hard to recruit support now that the political storm has died down, but Abe (and the rest of the ASJ staff) was semi-confident that the support exists. As Chet of Project Global Village put it during our meeting that I blogged about earlier, the issue is apathy.

Apatia. How do we solve a problem like apatia? According to Blanca--an ASJ employee who serves as the liaison of sorts for Transformemos Honduras, it is delivering the message to la gente (the people) that something is wrong--a strategy that the movement seems to be putting to good use. Blanca and one of her colleagues spent a good deal of time with me on Thursday talking about Transformemos Honduras ("TH" from now on; I am getting tired of typing it every single time), which was conveniently the time period after which I had spoken with Chet Thomas (remember that depressing exchange? ech.). The two women spoke at length about the goals of the movement, the methods of the movement, and the current progress of the movement. Speaking quickly of progress, one of the things I was hoping to witness while I was in Honduras was the press release during which members of TN were going to announce the situation involving the teachers; alas, the event was rescheduled for the following Thursday, but it appears that the video footage of that press release has not been uploaded to the site just yet.

As Abe and others had informed me already, Blanca put the commencement of TN at the time of the coup. Some--los golpistas--were supporting the coup, others--la resistencia--were supporting the former president, and even others were realizing that the real problems of the day were being overshadowed by the political circus. This third group--of which ASJ was a member--met during the tumultuous period to discuss the problems unrelated to the specific political situation--the problems that truly needed to be solved. Focusing on issues such as education, health, security, the justice system, and the economy, NGOs and individuals alike began to envision an initiative to unite the people against their destructive apathy and against the catastrophic corruption of those in power. Behind the motto "Orar, Soñar, Trabajar" (Pray, Dream, Work), TH developed a plan of action to educate, empower, and activate the people of Honduras and hold the government more accountable. In the areas of health, education, jobs & economy, government transparency, and security & justice, TH vowed to monitor the progress made by the authorities and unite the people of Honduras to play their part in demanding more from their government. And what should the people of Honduras demand, you ask? With 68% of the Honduran population living in poverty, how about better investments and additional job creation? With Honduras sitting in 130th place in the ranking system of corrupt systems of government, how about more accountability (cough how about using subsidies for their predestined projects? cough)? With Honduras' infant mortality rate at such an astronomical level that the country is almost ranked dead last in Central America, how about increased health services for mothers and their newborn children? With the average Honduran completing only 4.8 years of their education and students currently in the system only going to school for 80 out of 200 days of the year, why don't Hondurans demand better teachers? More accountability, maybe? Perhaps Sr. Romero needs to be slapped with a ruler... Perhaps los profesores need to be writing lines... "I will not deprive my students of another day of school. I will not contribute to my country's demise."

How do you solve a problem like apatia? You tell the people what their apathy is contributing to. You tell the people that the politicians who are supposed to be representing them are deliberately abusing their power. You tell the people that their children are not going to surpass them in intelligence because they aren't going to school today.

Transformemos Honduras is trying to wake up the people of Honduras at a time when the proverbial dogs and roosters are making more noise than they ever have. If only the sleeping pill would wear off...