by Barbara Rice
Deep Run Mennonite East (Perkasie, PA) has been blessed to send 43 teams to Honduras since 2001, most under the leadership of Mosaic Conference-Related Ministry, Healthy Niños Honduras (HNH) (formerly MAMA Project).
In January 2024, our team from Deep Run East arrived at the beautiful mission house in San Franscisco de Yoja, about 90 minutes from the airport in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. We were greeted by the first set of partners, the amazing HNH staff. They had been preparing for us with rooms ready, food purchased, and coordination with rural communities to receive our medical brigade and select families to receive new cement floors in their homes. Without the HNH staff and volunteers (about 24 people) ranging from the key directors, nurses, doctors, dentists, translators, and of course, the cooks, our service would not be effective or successful. These partners are dedicated Christians who desire to improve life for their fellow Hondurans. They care for our team and allow us to partner with the rural communities.
When our vans arrive at the rural community, usually a 90-minute ride on rough mountain roads with breathtaking views, we meet the second set of partners, the community leaders. The HNH staff work with them to organize our visit. The leader is usually a pastor, teacher, or someone respected in the community. They have selected where we set up the clinic (most often a school building) and which families are in most need of a cement floor. They organize those who have arrived to visit the clinic with a numbering system. They assist the HNH staff with registering people and taking pictures for the medical record system. Often local people help with weighing and measuring during the medical clinics, because they know the families and can help them navigate through the stations in the clinics. These are people who care about their communities and without them our service would not be as effective or successful.
We have experienced much joy in serving with HNH and have come to love the Honduran people for their hospitality and desire to work together to bring healing and hope to the most vulnerable in their country. With these partnerships we can show God’s love.
And thank you to one more set of partners—all of those who pray for our teams.
Would you like to be a partner? As we visit communities, we find that over 50% of the children with have some level of malnourished children. The most severe cases are invited to the Nutritional Rehabilitation Center where children can be brought to health and mothers can learn more about nutrition and childcare. We are happy that more families are willing to come to the nutrition center, but as a result, HNH is experiencing a gap in funding. If you want to help, please visit the Healthy Niños website.
Barbara Rice
Barb Rice lives in Quakertown PA. She is a member of Deep Run East (Perkasie, PA) and serves on the Healthy Niños Board. She has organized many Deep Run East teams to Honduras.