Garifuna Workshops

Last July when my cousin Ian came to visit, we went to visit Cayos Cuchinos, small islands off the north coast of Honduras. On the boat ride over there I met a woman named Perla and hit it off with her daughter, who goes to university in the states and has been to Ian’s hometown of Ashtebula, Ohio. Well, it turns out that Perla works with Garifuna youth from the north coast and HIV prevention, and so after months of talking we managed to put together three workshops with Garifuna youth, training over 60 of them with the Peace Corps Honduras Men’s Health methodology “Here Among Us”. It was a wonderful experience to go to Tela and Ceiba on the north coast and work with both the staff of her organization as well as the youth participants. The participants from the first workshop in Tela have all been part of youth theater groups for years and were full of energy, knowledge and spirit. I can honestly say it was the best group we have ever worked with and the activities have never run better.

The second set of workshops we did in Ceiba was with guys who hadn’t been part of the theater groups for as long and there was a marked difference. They were younger and more immature and it really showed us what a large impact the theater groups can make on the lives of these youth.

One of the goals of the Men’s Health Initiative is to train more Honduran NGOs and GOs in the “Here Among Us” methodology, so that it can grow beyond Peace Corps. So, as Peace Corps volunteers it was a big accomplishment to work with another organization to plan a large scale training in which Peace Corps didn’t pay for a thing. The participants liked it, we had fun, and the organization seemed to love it, so it was an all around success.