Hands to Honduras

Posted by Sonny Holt 
 
On Thursday, July 12, the Randolph Rotary Club was pleased to host four Rotarians from the Charlotte/Shelburne Rotary Club to tell us about their program in Tela, Honduras.  Anne  introduced,   Linda and Al Gilbert,Colleen Haag,  and Sam Feitelbert, having all had four missions working on a project known as "Hands to Honduras", over the past four years.
 
Hands to Honduras started in 1998, and has been a partnership bringing North American and Honduran communities together.  Rotarians and non Rotarians are all welcomed to join in on this "hands on" project.  Another group of volunteers will travel to Tela in the last week of January/first week of February 2008.  If you are interested in how you might make this trip and help with painting, and building, or some other "hands on" part of the program, be sure to let our international committee know.  The round trip airfare can be found as low as $500.00 and room, and board for a week is approximately $150.00.  What an opportunity to travel to a land on the edge of the Caribbean, and do something constructive and needed at the same time.  There have also been medical/dental teams travel there to do physical therapy, and some emergency dental work....one group reported extracting 250 teeth.  As you can imagine, assistance sometimes starts with the emergencies and then follows with education, and steps toward better living. 
This group came to us with a "wish list" , to help fill needs in Tela and the surrounding communities, a 40' container will be sent over to Honduras in November.  Some of the more simple items needed are student supplies, such as markers, and there is also a need for a computer printer.   The volunteers who visited us spoke of a tremendous need for equipment and supplies from our local fire, police, and emergency rescue centers, items no longer needed here, but welcomed in a developing country.  
Last year the team collected more than $150,000 worth of supplies to fill the container.  The items included equipment for the Tela fire department, 60 computers, wheelchairs, crutches and IV supplies,  medical equipment and tools, dental equipment, and and many more items needed there. 

Thanks to Anne Silloway for writing this fine Article