Representatives from ACORN International Chief Organizer Wade Rathke and Mexico ACORN Head Organizer Suyapa Amador recently spent five days in meetings with activists, unions, politicians, professors, and community based organizations in Honduras assessing the interest in ACORN International assisting in the development of a new affiliate Honduras ACORN in this country.Excellent meetings were held in San Pedro Sula and surrounding towns, Marcala in La Paz, and the capital city, Tegucigalpa.

The response was enthusiastic. Part of the reason for this response lies in unmet needs from historic and intractable problems of inequity and inadequate basic services. People returned to complaints about water, housing, and basic social security responses over and over. The other reason for the interest is clearly the lingering dissatisfaction with the military coup last year which displaced an elected President, still popular with many working and moderate income communities. The need for change was underscored by all of these events provoking a deeper interest in building community organization.

We promised to do what we could to respond by identifying potential organizers from Honduras who could be hired and trained in our organizing model. If everything goes well we would hope that they would be ready to initiate organizing drives to open Honduras ACORN operations in San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa by late spring or early summer.

We also met and enjoyed the hospitality of leaders and staff of the women’s coffee and aloe vera growing and marketing coop, COMUCAP in Marcala.We have committed to working as a partner with them in finding new markets for their products in the North American countries of Canada, Mexico, and the United States.