Healthy Niños de Honduras

by Javier Márquez

It started with a bumpy journey due to flight delays that forced me to wait until the early hours of Sunday to travel from Bogotá, Colombia to Honduras. When I finally arrived, Don Felix was waiting for me at the small airport exit with a little orange paper sign with my name on it. Don Felix is a middle-aged man, short, with a gray mustache, who has lived practically all his life in San Francisco de Yojoa.  

The Conference-Related Ministry Healthy Niños Honduras (HNH) is located in San Francisco de Yojoa, in the Cortés Department, an hour and a half drive from the airport. The journey there took us through colorful landscapes, between vast valleys and mountains. I was first surprised to see so many cornfields and factories along the road, followed by large areas of cattle ranching, all fed by rivers and small streams. The landscape is green, full of wild and exotic birds, with the magical and tragic element of yellow butterflies abundantly flying across the road. When driving at 80 km/h, they collide with the car’s windshield as if it were a shower of golden raindrops. 

Upon arriving in San Francisco de Yojoa, the classic structure of a Latin American town becomes visible, with its small, colorful houses, roads—some well-paved and others dirt or trail—a main park with the Catholic church, a communal laundry area located by a stretch of the creek, and small shops. 

When we finally arrived at the Healthy Niños Honduras building, the team was at the Nutritional Center, but I couldn’t join them until later, after resting from the long, tedious day I had endured from having my flight rescheduled. 

On the way from the airport, I had the opportunity to get to know Don Felix a bit. I asked him to take me to buy a cap, and we stopped three times along the way, with all his patience until we found the right one. After the second stop, when I didn’t take the cap offered, he calmly said, “I’ll take you to a friend.” We stopped at his friend’s place, a small market near San Francisco de Yojoa. There, an older man with a beautifully humble demeanor greeted us and sold me one of his caps. He had known Don Felix for many years, and not only him but basically everyone in the small market. 

Don Felix is known in all the towns of Cortés after so many years of working with HNH. He walks or drives through these towns, performing a ritual resembling a greeting parade. 

During my visit to HNH, I met many people like Don Felix who are also the face of this organization. HNH stands at the top of the town’s mountain as a place of service to others, with people who dedicate their lives to attending to hundreds of people each day, building floors, or cooking for the volunteers, all to serve the most vulnerable and those in greatest need: the children. 

From my first night to the final report

On the eve of the workday, the team gathered to pray and pack hundreds of vitamins to be distributed during the following days in the communities. 

After four days of work, with a team of 26 people, 14 of whom were volunteers, a summary of the results was made: 

1. 517 people were registered. 
2. 282 children were examined, of which 192 were in a state of malnutrition: 68%. 
3. 46 reading glasses were donated. 
4. Eight floors were built, benefiting 23 people, including 15 children.
5. 17 water filters were donated. 

by Javier Márquez

Each brigade serves around 120 people per community, most of whom are children. The brigades provide families with donations such as clothing and toys, medically attend to the entire community, build floors in the poorest houses, and donate water filters. Undoubtedly the most important goal, though, is to identify children suffering from malnutrition, based on height and weight assessments. Once identified, the families—which often exceed 60% of those present—are invited to take their children to the Nutrition Center, a place designed for children to recover.

The Volunteers

The volunteer teams are a key part of this ministry. On each visit, a group from a Mennonite congregation in the U.S. volunteer for a week along with the medical team. Many of these congregations are part of Mosaic Conference. Last year, 56 teams from congregations volunteered.

The teams are diverse. At least twice a month, people of all ages, genders, and professions arrive. They are students, pastors, entrepreneurs, and retired people, some who are here for the first time and others have been serving with HNH for years. Many have developed friendships with people from HNH or the community.

They arrive enthusiastic, ready to lend a hand at one of the nine stations, prepared to learn and ask questions, to pray every morning before heading out to the brigades, and to pray and reflect with the Bible every night when they return.

The Communities and the Medical Team

It is amazing, even in areas where there aren’t many houses, how many people come to the school or church where the brigade will take place. That is how villages and mountains are throughout much of Latin America. Rural communities that, despite growing some crops, have a high level of malnutrition and poverty. Families who have been waiting for the brigade for months arrive clean and smiling. The brigade also strengthens community leadership and is a gathering time for locals. 

The volunteers arrive alongside highly qualified doctors, nurses, interpreters, engineers, and community leaders. A staff person coordinates the brigade, including oversight of registering medical information, reviewing patients’ medical histories, attending to families, cleaning or extracting teeth, building floors, or encouraging families to go to the Nutrition Center. 

by Javier Márquez

“We want to offer alternatives to families and children living in poor communities, so they have a better future and, most importantly, to save lives; so they don’t die because there is no food at home or because they don’t have access to good nutrition,” says Dr. Herman Sagastume. “We dream that one day no family will suffer from a lack of food.”

“The organization in Honduras plays an independent role; we don’t want to be an organization from the United States that says, ‘As Americans, we’re doing this work…’, but rather we want the communities in Honduras to identify and name the support they need,” says Amanda Sagastume.

Healthy Niños Honduras is a Mosaic Conference-Related Ministry. Over the years, various teams from congregations have developed that serve at HNH year after year. Additionally, HNH has connections with local Honduran churches who offer leaders for each community’s medical brigades.

Healthy Niños Honduras is a Mosaic Conference-Related Ministry. Over the years, various teams from congregations have developed that serve at HNH year after year. Additionally, HNH has connections with local Honduran churches who offer leaders for each community’s medical brigades.

“At HNH, we offer a soft introduction to the missionary world,” says Dr. Sagastume. “People can see what we do in the name of God, serving those in greatest need. Universities have also sent students in pedagogy, nutrition, and health.”

Another key feature of the program is the Nutritional Center, where children are rehabilitated nutritionally and where mothers receive information on essential nutrients for children’s development. The center also has gardens with nutrient dense crops like corn and beans, which serve both the center’s pantry and as a classroom where mothers learn planting methods and optimization techniques from professionals.

“Little by little, we have been able to teach mothers how they can change the mentality of ‘my land does not produce.’ When they leave, we have seeds available for them,” says Dr. Sagastume.

“We teach families that when they have extra money, they should buy seeds, bananas, and nutrient-dense foods, rather than sweets. Constant education is important for change,” says Amanda Sagastume.