The Road to Honduras
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Last year, I read Soles4Souls' CEO Buddy Teaster's book Shoestrings. In the book he shared the following story: |
“The city decided these people, living in hovels, were not a good image for the city. So they picked them up and moved them out into the center of a palm forest, and told them that they could live there,” said Ty Hasty, of Soles 4 Souls partner 147 Million Orphans. Minimal as it was, the bridge had been their home. But now they awakened daily in a strange place all over again, with no clue of how to survive—and no help from the authorities that had put them there. They were out of sight, and would be quickly forgotten.
Ty’s organization was already on the ground providing relief, coordinating its efforts with the help of Sister Teresita Gonzalez, the founder of an El Progreso orphanage. One morning, she took Ty to Monte de los Olivos, the area to which the people had been forcibly relocated. Ty saw destitution at a level difficult to describe. “They had no clean water. There was nothing to eat. And I said to Teresita, ‘All these people are going to die.’ She said, ‘Yeah. I know.’”
Today, Olivos is a different place. Ty’s organization helped residents dig wells—and build twenty-nine homes, a school, and a community center—together with Hearts2Honduras, another Soles 4 Souls partner. “The biggest difference is in the people’s faces,” Ty said. “There’s hope.”
But in spite of the physical security this young community created, one question loomed: could it build an independent, sustainable future? Raul Carrasco, founder of our micro partner, World Compass Foundation, says they’re “at the point of creating that opportunity.” Based in El Progreso, Raul, with Soles4Souls' help, opened a micro-enterprise in 2014, supplying shoes to micro-businesses—which, in turn, helps villagers disrupt the cycle of poverty.
Ty’s organization was already on the ground providing relief, coordinating its efforts with the help of Sister Teresita Gonzalez, the founder of an El Progreso orphanage. One morning, she took Ty to Monte de los Olivos, the area to which the people had been forcibly relocated. Ty saw destitution at a level difficult to describe. “They had no clean water. There was nothing to eat. And I said to Teresita, ‘All these people are going to die.’ She said, ‘Yeah. I know.’”
Today, Olivos is a different place. Ty’s organization helped residents dig wells—and build twenty-nine homes, a school, and a community center—together with Hearts2Honduras, another Soles 4 Souls partner. “The biggest difference is in the people’s faces,” Ty said. “There’s hope.”
But in spite of the physical security this young community created, one question loomed: could it build an independent, sustainable future? Raul Carrasco, founder of our micro partner, World Compass Foundation, says they’re “at the point of creating that opportunity.” Based in El Progreso, Raul, with Soles4Souls' help, opened a micro-enterprise in 2014, supplying shoes to micro-businesses—which, in turn, helps villagers disrupt the cycle of poverty.
After reading that story, I knew I needed to go to Honduras.
One of the things that has drawn me to Soles4Souls is their travel program. And it's not simply that they provide travel opportunities. It's that they want people who donate shoes to witness the miracle that follows them. They know when we follow our shoes from the place where we no longer need or want them to the place where they work miracles in someone else's life, often thousands of miles away, our hearts will be changed.
When it comes to crossing poverty's finish line, there's nothing more powerful than a changed heart.
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But to make this miracle a reality, I need your help. Would you consider supporting my trip fundraising page below?
Thank you for running with me on this journey to poverty's finish line.
