As we arrive at the end of 2023, it’s exciting to look back at the ministries the Society of the Good Shepherd has been working on during this past year. In addition to our ongoing work of microloans and supporting widows, here have been some of the highlights of our other ministries during the past year:
In January, the Society built private, soundproof meeting rooms at the hospital in Comayagua. The social service representatives at the hospital use these rooms to counsel people about sensitive matters like sexual assault or sexual abuse. The rooms the hospital had been using in the past were neither soundproof nor private.
February brought an energetic work team of 22 volunteers to Honduras, who began laying the foundation for the new, badly needed dental clinic for the rural community of Taulebé. After the volunteer team left, we hired a Honduran work crew to complete the construction. We’re excited to report the crew is now close to bringing the clinic to completion.
In spring, we began a new work of financially supporting the creation of small savings and credit cooperatives in the Taulebé area. The mayor of Taulebé and his wife—Denis and Brenda Membreño—were instrumental in organizing and overseeing these cooperatives. These cooperatives work like tiny banks, and they make micro business loans to qualified people in the area. The first group of loan recipients did extremely well with their businesses, and they all paid back their initial loans. The seed money has now gone into many other businesses, which are likewise prospering. (We plan on reporting on these new businesses next month.)
This past summer, we began providing sanitary units for extremely needy families in the Taulebé area. These units include a toilet, shower, and pila (a laundry setup) on a concrete slab. The $500 cost per unit includes getting the units attached to the community water system and sewage lines. When we wrote a newsletter in August about this project, we received quite an outpouring of donations from our readers, so we have been able to keep building new units.
While all these ministries were operating, the Society was helping to support a recently established sewing ministry for the Lenca Indians in the rural communities of El Duraznal and Guajiquiero. Alex and Pascuala Martinez had at one time been a professional tailor and seamstress, respectively, and they now devote their lives to missionary work. They head up the sewing ministry, which focuses on teaching the Indian women how to use sewing machines to make various marketable clothing items.
We want to thank all our donors for making these ministries possible and blessing so many of the poor in Honduras!
The Society of the Good Shepherd, P. O. Box 122, Amberson, PA 17210 • (717) 349-7033
Click on the following link if you would care to make a donation to the work in Honduras: Honduras Donations