Story provided by IPA member Marty Pease.
Finally, after a year absence, a team from International Project Alliance (IPA) was able to go to Honduras to oversee an ongoing multi-faceted multi-club Rotary project. In February 2021, two members of the IPA team were able to return to Honduras. The difficult part is summarizing the trip in a page or two.
In regards to IPA business, they visited schools in Mayan villages every weekday delivering school supplies to 2300 students kindergarten through high school because it was the start of the school year. For the visits, they had asked the teachers for no students to be present except the middle and high school students and no food because of Covid concerns. Most understood and complied. Cinthia, Mauricio and Cindy, the IPA's contacts in Honduras, did a great job preparing for this task. Now upon their return is the enormous task of updating the data base with all the new information obtained.
In regards to Covid, IPA members who traveled to Honduras had to have a negative Covid test both to go and to come home from Honduras. Many of the villages have had no cases. Everyone wore masks and there was lots of hand sanitizer. Keeping social distance was at times more difficult. The Hondurans are anticipating no available vaccines until next year if at all.
In regards to the hurricanes, there was visible damage everywhere. Landslides and wash outs were a big problem both on the main road and the roads to the villages. The IPA team couldn’t get to three villages because the roads hadn’t yet been cleared. Several car and foot bridges had been taken out by water and flooding, and the river beds were 2-3 times their previous size. Some houses were destroyed. The IPA has been actively repairing water systems, a school building and a foot bridge thanks to the generous hurricane relief donations.
Copán Ruinas, the base town, is depressed. It relies heavily on tourism of which there is none due to the pandemic. There were lots of people in the streets but mostly locals. When tourism will return is unknown. The plaza at the ruins was totally empty and very few people were at Macaw Mountain. The team members were the only guests in the hotel, which was opened after a year just for them.
Cinthia and Mauricio, IPA’s two contractors, proved once again how invaluable they are to the project. They have kept the programs going very well without direct IPA presence for a year. The Rotary Club of Copán was also very helpful providing transportation to the villages and helping distribute school supplies. They had a donation from Tom’s Shoes and handed out shoes in two remote villages.
Overall, the team is very glad they went. It was really good to reconnect with people and have hands on participation. The plan is to resume IPA trips every three months.
To see more photos from the trip, click here.
For more information on what they did each day, visit the FB page: IPA Foundation. For more information in general, visit the IPA's website. If you have any questions, please contact Marty Pease at mcconlogue@msn.com or (720) 291-1979.