On January 15th the monthly Honduran minimum wage was raised from 3,500 L to 5,500 L ($185 to $291). Of course this was done to raise the standard of living for poor Hondurans, but the hike had unintended consequences (that couldn’t have been that hard to foresee). Many businesses and organizations didn’t have enough money to cover the abrupt change and therefore laid employees off or shut down completely.
One especially sad example of this is the case of the IHNFA. The IHNFA is basically a day care center for children from economically challenged families. They all have parents, but they work during the day or for whatever reason cannot take care of their kids, so they send them to the IHNFA from 8 am to 4 pm, where they are taken care of and receive three meals, a bath and help with homework.
I started working with the older girls at the IHNFA last year through a program called “I Deserve” which teaches self-esteem, abstinence and decision making to young girls in order that they will decide to delay initiation of sexual relations. They are a tough group to work with but I had grown very fond of them and knew how important the IHNFA was to their livelihood. Unfortunately the minimum wage hike meant that there was no longer enough money to pay the 5 employees who work at the IHNFA and they made the sad decision to close. This not only meant that 5 people were out of work, it meant that about 60 kids were on the streets and not being fed.
About a month after the day care closed they had a meeting with the parents and some community leaders to brainstorm solutions to raise money. One of the problems is that the day care is not its own recognized institution, so it has less power to solicit donations and funding. It receives $600 a month from Reach International, an Adventist organization, and must ask for donations from the community to cover the rest of the monthly operating expenses ($3,070). During the meeting they talked about the negative impact that the closing of the day care has had on the children that rely on it and that one of the girls even tried to kill herself. She is 14 and the oldest of 6 kids and has never been to school, so not having the day care to go to during the day means that she has nothing to do. She took 25 pills that she found in her house and was then taken to the hospital to have her stomach pumped. Luckily she survived and was taken out of her home to live in the orphanage just outside of town also run by Reach International.
Tanya and me at the orphanage
During my sessions with the girls, she was always the most helpful to me, hanging around before and after to help me set up. She would write in her diary each week about her sadness and worry and then let me read it. Hearing about what happened to her really affected me and I became frustrated that there was no money to support this day care center that served a vital need when millions of dollars come in to Honduras every year. I had to leave the meeting early so I got up to leave and knew that if I said anything I would start crying. I tried to duck out without having to address the group but it didn’t work. They asked me if I wanted to say anything and I just nodded my head “no” while looking at the ground because the tears were already coming. They kept asking me and told me to stay around a while and then talked about how great I was for supporting the center. By the end I was sobbing and couldn’t say anything or do anything to stop it. I just looked at my feet and then left trying to smile goodbye.
There have really not been that many things in Honduras over the past two years that have touched me deeply but two of them have involved the IHNFA. I can honestly say that a lot of money comes to Honduras and a lot of it gets wasted, but the money spent on this day care is money well spent and it makes me feel impotent to know how much money there is and that this place that really needs it is not getting it.
The day care is now opened again, but only from 11 am to 3 pm. I have two more weeks in my 14 week “I Deserve” program.
One especially sad example of this is the case of the IHNFA. The IHNFA is basically a day care center for children from economically challenged families. They all have parents, but they work during the day or for whatever reason cannot take care of their kids, so they send them to the IHNFA from 8 am to 4 pm, where they are taken care of and receive three meals, a bath and help with homework.
I started working with the older girls at the IHNFA last year through a program called “I Deserve” which teaches self-esteem, abstinence and decision making to young girls in order that they will decide to delay initiation of sexual relations. They are a tough group to work with but I had grown very fond of them and knew how important the IHNFA was to their livelihood. Unfortunately the minimum wage hike meant that there was no longer enough money to pay the 5 employees who work at the IHNFA and they made the sad decision to close. This not only meant that 5 people were out of work, it meant that about 60 kids were on the streets and not being fed.
About a month after the day care closed they had a meeting with the parents and some community leaders to brainstorm solutions to raise money. One of the problems is that the day care is not its own recognized institution, so it has less power to solicit donations and funding. It receives $600 a month from Reach International, an Adventist organization, and must ask for donations from the community to cover the rest of the monthly operating expenses ($3,070). During the meeting they talked about the negative impact that the closing of the day care has had on the children that rely on it and that one of the girls even tried to kill herself. She is 14 and the oldest of 6 kids and has never been to school, so not having the day care to go to during the day means that she has nothing to do. She took 25 pills that she found in her house and was then taken to the hospital to have her stomach pumped. Luckily she survived and was taken out of her home to live in the orphanage just outside of town also run by Reach International.
Tanya and me at the orphanageDuring my sessions with the girls, she was always the most helpful to me, hanging around before and after to help me set up. She would write in her diary each week about her sadness and worry and then let me read it. Hearing about what happened to her really affected me and I became frustrated that there was no money to support this day care center that served a vital need when millions of dollars come in to Honduras every year. I had to leave the meeting early so I got up to leave and knew that if I said anything I would start crying. I tried to duck out without having to address the group but it didn’t work. They asked me if I wanted to say anything and I just nodded my head “no” while looking at the ground because the tears were already coming. They kept asking me and told me to stay around a while and then talked about how great I was for supporting the center. By the end I was sobbing and couldn’t say anything or do anything to stop it. I just looked at my feet and then left trying to smile goodbye.
There have really not been that many things in Honduras over the past two years that have touched me deeply but two of them have involved the IHNFA. I can honestly say that a lot of money comes to Honduras and a lot of it gets wasted, but the money spent on this day care is money well spent and it makes me feel impotent to know how much money there is and that this place that really needs it is not getting it.
The day care is now opened again, but only from 11 am to 3 pm. I have two more weeks in my 14 week “I Deserve” program.
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