I recently wrote a Facebook post about a family I know in Honduras undergoing hard times, because I felt it illustrated some of the reasons that people attempt the difficult, dangerous journey to cross the border into the U.S.  I didn’t anticipate that people would message me to ask how they could help this family, but I am grateful that they did, and that's why I created this page. Here’s part of what I originally wrote:

I have good friends in Honduras, because I lived there for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1985-1987. At that time, things weren’t great, but people were getting by. Very few came to the US. Today, the situation is so bad that even people lucky enough to have training—as teachers, accountants, nurses, whatever---simply cannot find jobs. My friends are small-scale coffee farmers, but this years’ crop was a disaster and prices for what they did harvest did not cover the costs of production. There is a terrible coffee disease that is making coffee production much more expensive these days—it’s related to climate change. Farmers have to replace all their plants with resistant varieties, an expensive endeavor. They sink deeper into debt. My friends tried moving to the city, San Pedro Sula, hoping there would be jobs, but it was so controlled by gangs that it felt dangerous. When the husband was robbed at gunpoint they decided to go back to their small village which at least was safe and free of gang activity. They are barely getting by. Is it any wonder that they scraped and borrowed to send a family member north? They literally bet the farm that their 24-year-old daughter would make it to family in New York who could help her get work. She was apprehended on the Texas border and placed in ICE custody. Everything the family had was on the line. (The daughter is home although she spent more than two traumatic months at the Port Isabel Detention Center in Texas.) They are now trying to pay back the loans for this unsuccessful attempt to enter the US on top of everything else. 

Their financial situation is increasingly precarious and they are unable to make their bank payments for the loan they took out. There is a strong possibility that they could lose their land, which is their home and only source of livelihood. I am putting together some money myself to help with their very difficult situation and have created this Go Fund Me page for anyone else who would like to contribute. A little goes a long way in Honduras.

My friends gave me permission to do this but asked me to keep their names and location private.  

Of the $1500 goal:

$1,000 will go towards paying off their bank loan, which still leaves them $3,000  to pay but will provide them with some much-needed respite.

$500 will allow them to purchase and plant 100 disease resistant coffee seedlings.

If we are lucky enough to go over that goal, it will be put towards paying off more of their loan or more coffee seedlings.

Thank you!