Honduras: a study in dependency

Honduras is an interesting case in the world of international development. It has been, for the large part of its existence, a poor place. Many folks struggle to feed and clothe themselves every day, so I can imagine that soliciting funds from a Honduran community is a tall order. However, I have found that as a result of billions of international aid dollars and social welfare programs and free money from family in the States (together with little governance on how to spend it), it seems that people don’t really expect to pay for much of anything. Schools are built by the Social Investment branch of the government. Bridges and highways are built by Taiwan and Canada and other far-flung places. Roofs are repaired with money from a brother in Florida or a son in Houston. Trainings are always free, always include lunch and snacks and oodles of reading material. Why then, should local governments think to ask their community for funds and tax dollars when nearly all projects are covered by outside funds?

This puts me, as a foreign development volunteer, in a sticky spot. People expect me to build things, to fund things and to give things away. They expect me to possess a number of connections, to write proposals and, many times, to do it all for them. Certainly there are people who are willing to organize, to hold fundraisers and to garner community support. But in the end, it is nearly always an outside resource that determines whether a project will take off or fail. After years of studying and working in the field of “development,” only now do I see first-hand the potential harm of throwing money at a problem, or a project, or in this case, a country. Qué interesante…