In the wake of the holidays…we come back from our travels, unpack our bags, complain about the weight we’ve gained, and make half-hearted resolutions that we tend to forget after a day or two. Then we pretty much get back to our normal lives…until next holiday season. It’s a lame cycle. This complacency makes us stagnant. It makes us naive and unsophisticated. I vowed this year not to make some pointless resolution about going on a diet or flossing more. Because I knew that I’d forget about it in a week and go back to being my usual self. After all, one of the hardest things for a person to do is change. So instead of thinking about how I could make myself better…I wanted to focus on how I could help others. I figured if I made a resolution that impacted someone besides myself there was a better chance I would follow through with it. I mean, I’ll be honest….I don’t mind letting myself down but I’m embarrassed when I let other people down.
Just after I made this decision I stumbled upon an article about human trafficking. It might be bad to say, but I didn’t think much about it at first until my home country of Honduras was mentioned. This startled me a bit because, even though I’ve lived in Honduras most of my life and I’m well aware that we have our share of issues such as poverty and corruption, I didn’t know much about where my country stood on this issue. Call me blind, call me ignorant, but I really didn’t think there was a serious problem with human trafficking in Honduras. So after I finished the article…I did some research.
According to the U.S. State Department, the Honduran government fails to comply with the minimum standards that are put in place to eliminate trafficking. The minimum! Are you kidding me?! You’re talking about women and children being subjected into sex trafficking and forced labor and my country isn’t doing all they can to stop it? I was furious…no…I am furious! We should all be furious! This is one of the darkest spots of humanity and we should all work to shed light on it. After reading the article and doing my research…I had found the inspiration I needed to invigorate the efforts of the Danilo’s Cares staff over the course of 2015. Whether…it’s volunteering in shelters and orphanages, providing leather working courses so that these individuals can learn a trade, funding literacy programs, or whatever else it might take…we are going to do everything we can to make certain that the people of Honduras are not being exploited by human traffickers.
This country…these are our people…this should be our passion.
