Opening the box

Opening the box

Maria, the girl featured on this year’s Trocaire Box, with Alexis – one of the Trocaire Team in Honduras

Last November, in the company of Trocaire, I visited Honduras with a group from Ireland.  I’ve written about this on the blog before (Check posts from November 2016).  I know that one of the reasons Trocaire asked us to come along was that we might help in promoting the message of the Lenten Campaign 2017.  I’ve been trying to do that over this weekend, with some thoughts in our Parish Bulletin and on www.achonrydiocese.org I also had the opportunity to have an interview on Mid West Radio’s “Faith Alive” programme with Monica Morley.  I’m grateful to Monica for that opportunity.

Meeting Maria – child featured in this years Lenten Campaign

I feel I want to make an effort to support Trocaire’s campaign this year and hope that you will join me in that.  Whatever support we can give, not least by “opening the TROCAIRE box” will, I have no doubt, make quite a difference.

There are many fine resources on www.trocaire.org and included among them are:

Resource Links:
The visit to Honduras brought me to a deepened awareness of global needs.  In going there, and I’ve said this before, I was well out of my “comfort zone”. Those who know me best, know that I like my comforts and so to be in a place where people live so frugally and exposed to such dangers – both from nature and society – is something I am not likely to forget.  That said, I had the luxury of flying to Honduras and the escape of flying away from it again.  For the people we met, this is not really an option.  It is their home and circumstances make it very difficult for them to leave that home.  Indeed I met one man after one of our meetings.  He lives close to where Miriam and Maria live and we had been told how dangerous this place is and how many in the village would like to move to an alternative location that would give them more protection against the elements and the sea.  I spoke to this man – just “hello” and a smile and he spoke back with a broad smile on his face and said something I did not understand.  One of the Trocaire team asked me did I know what he had just said and I replied “no”. The man had said “The only way I will ever leave here is dead” …. I knew what he meant.  It was his home, flawed and dangerous as it was, but always his home.  Trocaire, I concluded, is doing its best to make his home a better place.

“The only way I will leave here”, he told me “is dead”

SO “open the TROCAIRE box” this year and let’s see what we can do …..
Make it part of the home – your home, school, workplace – and never under estimate the difference your contribution during Lent can and will make.
Boxes are available in all our Parishes as Lent begins and it’s also possible to support Trocaire directly via its website

www.trocaire.org 

Journey continues

Journey continues

An early start had our group leaving hotel at 5.50am and heading for the airport to take a flight from the capital to San Pedro Sula.  In three hired cars we travelled to Omoa Cortés, a small community of some 85 families that is situated on the shore line of the  Caribbean.

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All things being equal it would be an idyllic and much sought after place to live but the uncertainty of the ocean combined with an extended rainy season makes it a nightmarish place to live.  Houses, homes – basic in construction, dot the shoreline and run the constant risk of flooding if not total devastation.  When floods come the only road for access can become unusable and dangerous, effectively cutting the people off completely, resulting in undoubted hardship and death.

 

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We were met in a Community Centre that had been the local school.  Surrounded by grass and showing the signs of flooding, the centre was not readily accessible.  That said, a very large gathering met us there. You could not but be taken by and impressed with their resilience and graciousness.  The loveliest of people. Language barrier aside, they communicated a lovely nature and were unquestionably welcoming of us all, especially the representatives of Trocaire, who have been a source of strength and solidarity.

 

One of the ways Trocaire has helped is by co-sponsoring with the local minincipal council and other religious and non-profit agencies, the development of a canal that can link the iinhabitants with safety.  One man spoke of this and whilst grateful for the hope this offers his people he made the point that the boats they have can only take twenty-five people at a time and the return journey is ninety minutes. This time exposes his people to heightened risk.

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They asked us to encourage support for their plight through supporting Trocaire’s Lenten Campaign which, in 2017, will  focus on this community and its specific needs. We had the opportunity to meet the girl who will be featured on next year’s campaign box and literature.  A delightful child and lovely family. Will come back to this again.

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Later in the evening we visited Cuyamel, the name of a town and river.  We met with a committee that is trying to reclaim its river from an international company who has taken control of its rights (committee would say due to corruption) and this has led to the devastation of the river.  It was a very impassioned presentation and the need for support for this community and the protection of the river were at its heart. “the war of the future “, one man told us, “will be for water” and it was hugely impressive to see so many committee members there, men and women and especially the younger people.

As we left that meeting we met a group of young people who had been practising  their routines for a marching band. Though they had finished their session, they agreed to play for us and played a number of pieces, the final one lasting over eleven minutes.  I hope to put it on YouTube but signal not good enough to do that now. Watch (literally) this space.

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