From Board Chair Mary Procter

To Friends of Sustainable Villages Honduras (SVH),

In my last website letter to you, in October 2022, when Roy Lara was in DC for his annual visit, he got the good news that the Honduran Institute for Forest Conservation (ICF) had approved the request by SVH to grant protection to the El Zapotal watershed. This watershed provides water for seven of the SVH Chinda villages. Roy had been assured that the grant of approval would be official by the end of 2022.

So four SVH Board members (Betsy Agle, Patricia Catalano, Tim Jenkins, and me plus two others) delayed our annual trip to Honduras until mid-March allowing plenty of time for the formal celebration of the protectorate to coincide with our visit. The national protection certificate indeed arrived —on the very day the SVH team arrived (March 5, 2023). (See below for the full story of launching the El Zapotal protectorate.)

SVH had also taken the big step in March of approving a 2023 budget to fund SVH steps towards sustainability for five new villages in the Municipality of Trinidad. They are El Carmen, Corozal, La Guama, Alegria, and Monte Cristo. SVH Board members accompanied Roy Lara to each of these villages to share his kickoff meeting with the leaders, designed to engage and excite the residents of each. (See below for our visit to the new Trinidad villages.)

Launching the El Zapotal Protectorate on March 9, 2023

When the SVH visiting team arrived in Honduras on March 5, 2023, they got the news that the ceremony to celebrate the El Zapotal certificate of protection would take place four days later, on March 9. During the ceremony, Mayor Mirian Lopez of Chinda spoke, followed by me speaking on behalf of SVH, and Carlos Vigil on behalf of our partner Vecinos Honduras. In addition, many of the Water Board leaders from the Chinda villages shared their pride in this achievement. Finally, the regional leader of the Institute for Forest Conservation (ICF) talked at length about the meaning of the protectorate status, after which we all lined up for a photo—one of the proud moments of my life!

However, since then, progress has been slower than we hoped. The mayor of Chinda, ICF, and the village leaders have been slow to start implementing the required two-year plan, which includes a project to build infrastructure to protect the watershed, as well as marking boundaries and repairing critical water distribution equipment. Roy Lara is working with the local ICF to reassemble the key players and get the two-year plan underway.

Steps Towards Sustainability in Five Trinidad Villages

Based on a contracted diagnostic study of the current condition of each village and after meeting with residents to ask what their most pressing needs were, Roy and SVH facilitator Fernando Pineda set priorities for the Trinidad villages, including learning how to use organic agriculture; organizing to improve health and sanitation, and working to engage the youth in agriculture and business development.

The SVH team arrival in March 2023 coincided with Roy’s initial visits with the leaders of each village. We accompanied Roy to these meetings and learned what they hoped to improve. We heard that many prepared their soil by “slash and burn” (cutting plants and burning the fields); they saw that their soil was getting less fertile and wanted help in switching to organic methods. Roy asked some twenty farmers in the largest village of Corozal (population of nearly 300) to raise their hands if they wanted to learn organic farming. See their answer in the photo below.

Our Multi-Skilled New Facilitator—Fernando Pineda

SVH is lucky to have had Fernando Pineda join the Vecinos Honduras team for the SVH Chinda villages as a Facilitator. He developed his facilitator skills for Unbound a US-based NGO that uses donor sponsorships of $40 per month for families that are providing for better futures for their children. Fernando’s job was to work with the parents, youth and children of these families to increase their motivation and help them identify their own skills. Since joining Vecinos Honduras in April 2022, Fernando has worked with health committees to improve the management of medical brigades and health challenges for children and adults and members of the water boards, to better manage their organizations. What’s more, he brings other skills to the SVH villages—music (he plays four instruments), soccer (he is a referee and member of the National Football Federation of Honduras) and photography (he is a professional photographer.)

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