Dear Listos,
It just occurred to me that projecthonduras.com is 10
years old this year. While I usually say that
“officially” our website was up and running by
Christmas of 1998, the fact is that our network was
born around March-May of 1998 when my friend,
colleague and fellow Honduran, Paulina Bendaña, met at
my office in Northern Virginia. As I recall, Paulina
(who is a strategic planner for a major aerospace
firm) came for lunch. Somewhere in one of our
conversations, we started talking about using the
Internet to try and network the Hondurans and
Honduran-Americans in the US and find ways to channel
this resource to help Honduras.
On Saturday, July 11, 1998, Paulina and I met at a
California Pizza Kitchen restaurant near Pentagon City
Mall with Jessica Villeda and a friend of hers who
worked for a nonprofit organization that provided free
eye examinations and glasses to children in Honduras.
Jessica became the third cofounder of
projecthonduras.com.
Paulina, Jessica and I were the first three contacts
within the projecthonduras.com in 1998. Things
started to speed up a bit after Hurricane Mitch hit
Honduras at the end of October 1998. Today, the
network consists of more than 6,000 contacts in the
US, Honduras, Canada, Germany, France, the
Netherlands, Spain, Guatemala, Mexico, England, Japan,
and probably a few other countries.
The idea is to focus on attracting, coordinating and
channeling “human capital” (contacts, energy, talents,
experience, time, creativity, etc.) in ways to empower
the people of Honduras with the basics of education,
healthcare, and community building. The idea is to
remember that financial capital is merely a tool and
should never be viewed as the solution to a developing
country’s problems. Our belief is that financial
capital without human capital is doomed to fail (and
even makes things worse), as we’ve seen with so many
government-to-government aid programs during the past
half century. The idea is to utilize to the fullest
extent possible the power of information and
communications technologies (ICT).
projecthonduras.com represents an alternative model of
development. Thanks for being a part of this
“unconventional movement”. And please continue to
spread the word!
Most great discoveries or movements in history have
begun with an idea.
Best,
Marco
Sponsored By:
Adventures on Roatan: An exciting tour of the island on DVD
http://www.roatanvideo.com
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