Good evening all... If you'll notice on the draft
program for the Conference on Honduras 2007 (www.projecthonduras.com/conference/program-conference2007.pdf), I've decided that the theme for the conference this
year will be "Caring for the Children of Honduras".
While the focus of every Conference on Honduras has
always been and will continue to be education,
healthcare, and community building, it has become a
tradition to give each conference an emphasis that
highlights a specific need in Honduras. Last year's
theme was Clean Water, and we dedicated an entire day
to it.

The theme of Caring for Children in Honduras is
broader, and I suspect it will be touched upon
throughout many of the presentations. However, there
is a Panel on Homes for Children & Youth Empowerment,
and I'd like to see if we can turn that into the
strongest panel of all. I'd also like to find someone
to give a special presentation at the start of the
conference providing an overview of the plight of
children in Honduras, addressing specifically issues
that have to do with negligence, abuse, abandonment,
homelesses, malnutrition, etc. This presentation
should set the tone for the three days of the
conference.

The articles that I have been reading about the poor
state of Honduras'Family and Children's
Institute(INFHA) which has oversight over thousands of
orphaned and(or) abandoned children are troubling, as
have been several e-mails that I've been receiving
about specific cases of abuse. The plight of children
in Honduras should come as little surprise to anyone
who tracks Honduras, even slightly.

According to the ProNino Foundation (www.pronino.org), 40% of Honduras' children
live on the streets. See the following video clip
produced by Laura Long... www.projecthonduras.com/clips/pronino.htm). If you have any suggestions and information having to
do with the plight of children in Honduras, please
share them with me. If I am unable to find someone to
open the conference with a presentation on this theme,
then I'll go ahead and do it myself... but I'll need
all the help I can get from many of you who are on the
ground working in this area.

Thanks.