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In the second-poorest country in Central America, Mercy Corps and its local partner, Proyecto Aldea Global (PAG), have provided integrated development assistance to impoverished Honduran communities for more than 27 years.
Honduras has a rich history of indigenous culture, and made up part of the powerful Mayan empire. The Spanish arrived in the 1500s and ruled what became Honduras when the new nation declared independence in 1821. Since then Honduras' history has been characterized by rebellions, civil wars and swings between military and civilian governments. In the 1900s, its agriculture-based economy was dominated by North American-owned banana plantations.
In 1998 Hurricane Mitch caused massive and widespread loss — an estimated 70 percent of crops and 70-80 percent of the country's transportation infrastructure was destroyed, and more than 5,000 people died. Today the economy is still largely reliant on bananas, palm oil, pineapples, timber and coffee and remains dependent on trade with the U.S., but the country has recently increased light-manufacturing exports and has pinned its economic hopes to new regional free-trade agreements.
Spun off from Mercy Corps in 1984, Project Global Village (Proyecto Aldea Global, or PAG, in Spanish) started running literacy, community health, child survival, and family-based agricultural projects in 12 central Honduran villages, but today works in over 650 villages with programmes in commercial agro-industrial food security projects, community water and sanitation, a programme against domestic violence with women and children, low cost housing, rural road construction, natural resource management rural educational development, rural and urban microenterprise business development, urban development programmes in slum areas and an emergency response programme.
PAG currently employs 190 people in six offices as it continues to seek holistic solutions to the complex development issues that face many Hondurans. The different programmes reach approximately 560,000 people with a wide array of assistance.
Promoting Diversified Agricultural Development
PAG works to better the livelihoods of agricultural workers and family farmers in a range of products, including coffee, hogs, bees, chickens and fish. Six hundred coffee farmers in its "Coffee and Bread" programme are working to diversify their agriculture by planting avocado trees and plantains with the help of a European Commission grant. Its "Birds and the Bees" programme has helped 240 families in coffee-growing regions diversify their crops and their income. Its Celaque Highlands Agro-Industrial Programme installs irrigation projects, builds processing centers and helps farmers market their value-added products.
Expanding Youth Opportunities
PAG has trained 72 rural teachers, built 66 school classrooms and trained dozens of rural school committees that supervise and pay local instructors. It also provides 170 youth from poor communities with scholarships and vocational training.
Reducing Domestic Violence
In northern Comayagua, Mercy Corps/PAG works to reduce domestic violence cases against women and children and strengthen the capacity of local groups to prevent and manage family conflicts. Families reconciled in about half of the more than 1,400 cases handled; in others, support provided by absent fathers is up 30 percent over last year.
Promoting Environmental Stewardship and Ecotourism
The PANACAM national park, administered by Mercy Corps, is recognized as the best environmental park centre in Honduras. PANACAM benefits more than 25,000 people and is part of Mercy Corps' efforts to protect key hydroelectric watersheds in Honduras. Profits earned by the "La Naturaleza" tourist centre provide sustainable funding for the park.
Supporting Healthy Communities
PAG's Community Health and Micro-Credit programme (CHAM), funded by the Jack and Marie Eiting Foundation, works toward the integrated improvement of family health in 320 communities.
Through medical clinics, health fairs, medicines, and other programmes, the project supports maternal and child health, people living with HIV/AIDS, village pharmacies, latrine construction and family planning. A microcredit component lends money to families to increase their crop yields or to run small businesses.
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