ARD team in the help alliance project Acción Humana

The “Weltspiegel” programme reported about the street children project in Honduras

According to the UN definition, around 60 percent of the eight million Hondurans currently live below the poverty line. Four out of ten of them are not yet fifteen years of age, and 350,000 of these children and young people do not go to school. Instead they leave their huts in the slum areas only after dark to do child labour in order to survive.

Acción Humana was initiated to give these street children, many of whom are orphans, better prospects in life. In the short term this means getting the children off the streets and giving them somewhere to live. In the long term, they are given the opportunity to go to school to allow them to stand on their own two feet later in life.

Currently, around 70 boys aged 6 to 19 live in the AHLE children’s village; the village was built in 1998, and Acción Humana has full custody of the children. This is further supplemented by a scholarship programme for 50 girls. The neighbouring population, who can also use the educational facilities, indirectly benefits from this project, too.

AHLE creates the right condition to enable children to lead a dignified and fulfilling life. This includes introducing the street children and orphans to family structures, where they experience security and comfort. They can also go to school and train for a job, which they would not have been able to while living on the street.