Vision2030: Sustainable Community Development in Honduras

Our company has a philanthropic mission to positively impact the lives of others — not only members of our team and local communities where we operate, but also across the globe.

So this week, we’re in El Triunfo, Honduras in the department of Choluteca.

We find ourselves here because the local municipality on the Nicaraguan border, led by mayor Cristhian Castillo Alcalde identified a need for his community of roughly 60,000 people. He reached out to CEPUDO and pled for help for his community. Leadership at CEPUDO vetted the request and agreed. The NGO then sought support from international partners to fund the project.

Food For The Poor picked up the mantle and gave a voice to this impoverished population, and began connecting resources to the need. One such organization they approached was King’s Ransom Foundation, the philanthropic arm of a Texas-based training and personal development organization our engineering, construction and real estate development companies have a business relationship with.

That’s a 30,000-ft. view of how our team of engineers, construction and real estate development professionals in Texas came to know Thomas.

Thomas is a 52-year-old Honduran man. He’s a hard worker, mainly picking up odd jobs in construction and agriculture. He suffers from a bad back, a result of 52 years sleeping wherever he can find shelter. He’s never had a home to call his own, much less a bed.

It’s the same way that we were able to meet Leonardo, a husband and father that wants badly to provide a better life for his 11-year-old son than the dump scavenging existence he’s known his entire life.

We also met Israel and his wife, Milania. Israel is a carpenter. Milania sells trinkets and candy out of a small roadside stand, while also washing other people’s clothes for a small pittance here and there. They live on the banks of the Choluteca River, or where it used to flow rather.

Their cardboard and scrap metal home is situated just beyond a concrete bridge and aqueduct spanning a large, dry ditch. The only thing flowing in the river lately is plastic, tires and other waste products.

However, the occasional tropical storm blowing in from the Pacific Ocean will induce flash flooding, and more than once in their lives they’ve lost their shelter and possessions to the raging tide and mudslides that accompany a rare saturation of the area.

With two young daughters now in their care, they seek refuge elsewhere for their safety and hope of a better life.

Thomas, Leonardo, Israel and Milania have persisted all their lives, and despite many obstacles, tragedies and failures of the government charged with serving and protecting them, they’ve somehow managed not to lose hope.

And for that, their hope is being rewarded.

CEPUDO, supported by Food For The Poor, in partnership with King’s Ransom Foundation, and supported by the teams at Beachside and LynnGroup are building homes for Thomas, Leonardo, Israel and Milania, and their children.

More than these three families, the partnering agencies and organizations are developing a self-sustainable community with 156 sturdy concrete homes, streets, sewer, running potable water, and electricity.

For the first time in their lives, they’ll have windows and doors that lock. They’ll have toilets that flush and private showers. They’ll have a piece of property deeded to them to call their own, with tools, training and resources to generate income for their families.

They’ll have light in the dark, literally and figuratively.

The community features a large, air-conditioned community center, two large, deep water wells and towers, gardens to grow produce for consumption and sell at market, and a contained wastewater treatment plant to protect the health and safety of the residents and surrounding areas.

Each home is furnished with beds and linens, tables and chairs, lights and fans.

Thomas has never taken a shower in his 52 years of life. That’s about to change.

Leonardo’s son has never known life outside of the dump. That’s about to change.

Israel and Milania’s daughters have never slept in their own beds. That’s about to change.

Yes, at LynnGroup we engineer, design, develop and construct large communities and impressive structures in Texas. At Beachside, we’re developing a luxury, gated, waterfront community.

And yes, we’re giving back locally, we’re supporting local charities and little league teams. We’re contributing to food pantries across Texas and delivering Christmas gifts to those in need back home. We’re giving a hand up any time we can.

But in Honduras, we’re working toward generational change. We’re striving toward restoring human dignity. We’re giving a voice to a population that for generations has been without one.

The community name of El Triunfo is one of hope, translated it literally means triumph.

And that triumph is coming to fruition for Mayor Christian and his community. That triumph is the reward for the hope of Thomas, Leonardo, Israel and Milania.

Soon, Thomas, Leonardo, Israel, Milania and their children will know what it is to sleep in their own bed, protected from the elements, the ability to bathe in private with clean water. They will never sleep on dirt floors again. Nor will their children or their children’s children.

That is generational change. That is triumph, brought forth as the reward for long-suffering hope.

Esta es el triunfo de Honduras.