Access

by Russ Dilday, Communications Director for Buckner
(as seen on BucknerPrez blog)

I’ve been asked “the question” enough times since returning from Honduras that I’m now keeping score. Part of my journalism and public relations training has included the maxim, “No matter how far-off-track the question is, if it’s is asked enough, it has to be addressed.”

Sort of a writers’ take on the perception-is-reality model. That adage comes with a warning, too. If you don’t answer it, they’ll make up the answer for you. Just ask your favorite pop star about the paparazzi.

Back to the question. I’ve heard it 10 times in less than a week. It first came from my wife. Then from Bible study class members, then co-workers. It’s a simple question with a not-so simple answer:

“If the orphanages are so bad, why doesn’t the Honduran government do something about it?”

Some of the questions had an accusatory tone. Before we point fingers, remember that CPS funding in the U.S. is woefully inadequate. If we spent on children what we spend on prisons…

Some of the answer can be found in Honduras’ economic ability to support an orphanage population. According to the CIA World Factbook, Honduras is “the second poorest country in Central America and one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, with an extraordinarily unequal distribution of income and massive unemployment” (about 28 percent in 2004).

The other part of the answer, from my observations last week, is “The government is doing something about it.” What do I mean? Look at it this way: if you aren’t able to provide for the children economically, what’s your next option? Ask for help. It’s why Buckner has received unprecedented access into the country in a very short amount of time.

Last week, our exploratory group was hosted by Anna Castro (hugging a girl at left), sister-in-law of the President Manuel Zelaya. She and her sister, First Lady Xiomara Zelaya, have made orphanage reform and children’s issues their platform. Anna smoothed our entry into both private and government orphanages.

We also were hosted by Lastenia Pineda, (left, in a white tank top) Consul General for Honduras in Houston. Children’s issues are a personal mission for her. I figure they’re a passion, as well. She wept over the condition of the children in one of the orphanages we visited. That night, at a dinner in her home, she again lobbied for aid on behalf of the kids we’d visited.

The access continued. Our two translators were from the Office of the President and the First Lady’s staff. Our vans were government-leased vans that carried the Presidential Seal. The drivers were from the Presidential office.

And the access will continue. We’ve never experienced so much access so quickly. There is both a sense of welcome and of hunger for us to come now with missions groups and aid. If some of the orphanages we saw are an indication, we need to go now while the access is available.

Again: I didn’t just share this with you to give you a feel for the work needed in Honduras. I hope that by reading this, you will respond in support, and you have a way right now! Email Leslie Chace if you want to go or know more.