Outreach centers keep Honduran youth off the street

By Susie Ma
Rotary News -- 2 January 2013

Rotarians from seven clubs in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa joined together to fund two outreach centers for young people in some of the poorest neighborhoods in the city.

The centers are thriving because of startup funding from Rotary clubs and additional support from Regional Youth Alliance, a project of USAID, and the nonprofit Save the Children.

They opened in 2009 in Buenas Nuevas and Villafranca, which have a combined population of 22,000. Rotarians chose these locations because they are some of the poorest areas in the city.

“These two neighborhoods are high-risk, where gangs and drug organizations work,” says Rotarian Guillermo Enrique Valle, who coordinated the project for the Rotary clubs of Tegucigalpa and the Rotary Action Group for Population Growth and Sustainable Development. “For young people, instead of going to school or learning vocational training, they are recruited into gangs and drugs -- it’s a vicious cycle which is hard to leave.” Read More...