Heart to Honduras has been partners with Compassion International for about 10 years now. At three of the Honduran churches that are associated with Heart to Honduras there are Compassion International Sites.
Their names are locations are:
1. Casa del Alfarero, La Concepción - Pastor Fredy Martinez
2. Peña de Horeb, Peña Blanca - Pastor Terencio
3. CDI Corazón Para Honduras - Pastor Alfredo Reconco
We have witnessed first hand for almost three years now how a site like this works. Every Compassion site is different, so you have to get to know them. Many people think they are always schools, and many are not ¨schools¨ especially like we would imagine in our US mind. They all do offer holistic development to a child. Their programs and activities integrate spiritual, intellectual, social-emotional, and physical development in creative ways for each child.
Most of our experience has been with the site in La Concepción, mainly because it´s only a 15-20 min. drive from where we live. Not to mention our closest friend and co-worker in Honduras is Fredy Martinez, the Pastor and founder of this site. He is now out of the daily operation of the site, but his wife and many church leaders are staff running all the ins and outs.
At this particular site they host kids aged 3-18, 3 days a week for 4 hrs. It would be more of what we would describe in the US as an "after school program." If the child attends school in the morning shift, they come to Compassion in the afternoon and visa versa. Currently, in Honduras, public school days are only half day.
There are age specific tutors that take care of a group of children from the time they arrive until they leave. They have homework help time, Bible and moral lessons, play time, snack time, etc. These tutors have to give an account for each kid in their group which involves taking attendance, noting changes, making home visits, etc.
A huge percentage of what these children receive is intangible, not a lot of give a ways materially. They receive medical and dental check ups as well as health training/etc. They take field trips, do crafts, and even learn trades like woodworking, gardening, or jewelry making. As you can tell, like I said, ways to develop the child holistically.
We also know they work very hard on writing their sponsor letters several times a year. This is a big part of Alexandra´s (Fredy´s wife) job . She is great about sitting down with each kid and helping them learn to write beneficial information to their sponsor. It´s very neat to see these letter´s on Fredy´s kitchen table as Alexandra proof reads them, then go to the post office in San Pedro with her where she drops them off to be sent off for translation and mailing to the sponsor.
They also have frequent audits and supervision from professional Compassion staff who stop in and reports they constantly send in. They must run a VERY tight ship to be able to keep functioning as a site. For this reason,
many communities are not approved to be Compassion sites. If there is
not enough local leadership capable of running all of these things,
Compassion will not open a site. The local staff learns to budget, plan, and give account for everything they receive and spend financially. They are given guidelines from Compassion, but also have some freedom in deciding field trips, healthy snacks, etc. It is a neat balance of structure and freedom between Compassion corporate and the locals. It develops the adults and entire community, not just the children. The church leaders, staff, and entire community have pride in their ability to provide this type of development to their children. We love this kind of work instead of seeing outsiders come in and run everything.
Trust me, Fredy will tell you it doesn't happen overnight, this kind of holistic, long term development takes time. LOTS of time and commitment. Fredy had to plant the church, disciple, and raise up leaders LONG before they could even think about having a program like this. But, this way it is true development, it does stand the test of time and it involves the entire community. It is the local church reaching out and caring for their children, taking an interest in the future of their own, and taking ACTION!
If you have any questions or would like to talk to us more about our experience watching this in action, please contact us!
We have a link here where you can see the children who are looking for sponsors specifically from the three sites in Honduras that are assositated with HTH (listed above).
If you have been considering sponsoring a child through Compassion, it might be neat for them to be near us. If you are someone who has visited us or plans to visit us someday you would even have the opportunity to meet them if they were located in La Concepcion or Pena Blanca.
Please consider sponsoring!
http://www.compassion.com/child-sponsorship/heart-honduras-campaign-search.htm?referer=102056
If you can't sponsor, no worries! Please be in prayer for these programs happening all over the world and be an advocate spreading the word to others.
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