Honduras
Partnership Profile
Current work in Honduras is based on partnerships with programs in Tegucigalpa and in the western highlands region of Santa Rosa de Copan.
Tegucigalpa
Initiatives have focused on collaboration with the Universidad Nacional Autonoma (UNAH) School of Nursing, and more recently with the Public Health program in the School of Medicine. With support from the Sparkman Center in 2007, Dr. Lynda Wilson, Dr. Karen Saenz, and Dr. Lygia Holcomb collaborated with UNAH nursing faculty to initiate and evaluate a parent/adolescent educational program (Familias Fuertes) in a poor neighborhood in Tegucigalpa. Drs. Lygia Holcomb and Lynda Wilson have been providing curriculum consultation to UNAH faculty in the development of a new master’s program in the School of Nursing.
Santa Rosa
UAB Nursing faculty members Drs. Karen Saenz and Lygia Holcomb have offered study abroad courses each July since 2007, and students conduct service learning projects in Santa Rosa. Other Santa Rosa initiatives involve collaborations with the Auxiliary School of Nursing, the Central American Medical Outreach (CAMO), the Hospital Occidente, and the Universidad Nacional Autonoma of Honduras, Santa Rosa campus. Four nurses from Santa Rosa participated in the International Nursing Leadership Institute at UAB in 2008 and are collaborating with three School of Nursing faculty members to develop a project to address the problem of family violence in Santa Rosa.
In 2008, Dr. Ellen Buckner received a Sparkman grant to strengthen collaborative partnership development with Santa Rosa. Funds have been used to promote student and faculty research collaboration in Honduras; to purchase laptop computers and internet connection to facilitate ongoing collaboration with UAB faculty/students; and to provide seed money to support the pilot project to evaluate a family violence risk assessment and referral process.
Central American Medical Outreach (CAMO)
CAMO is a humanitarian organization that improves the lives of people by strengthening health care systems and promoting sustainable community development. CAMO, in conjunction with the Sparkman Center and other insititutions, supported the construction of a women's shelter in Santa Rosa de Copan--the largest shelter in Central and South America. The shelter opened on April 30, 2010 and was attended by over 200 people, including representatives of businesses and people in the community. Please see below for an excerpt from a letter sent from the Director following the opening of the shelter.
"The shelter is in its second week of operation and already the cases we are seeing are unbelievable. Our first case was a young woman who has been held captive by her father and sexually abused for years. She has 4 children by him and now he has started to sexually force himself on his granddaughter. They came to us naked physically, spiritually, and mentally all with lice and malnutrition. The children have never seen running water or bathrooms. We are so thankful to the Sparkman Center for helping us with wages, transportation, communications, and education."
In the first six months of operation, the shelter has taken in 47 women and 55 children with an average stay of 47 days. Services provided by the shelter to the women and children staying there include:
- Educational courses on domestic violence
- Support groups conducted by the social worker on staff
- Education for the children
- Vocational and craft classes for the women