A Lutheran communion fund continues to cushion low-income households in Honduras from the impact of two crises: COVID-19 and successive hurricanes. “Some households have no other source of income.”
With the prolonged economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Honduran Lutheran church continues to provide low-income families with food items and support for small businesses. Photo: ICLH
LWF’s Rapid Response Fund continues to bring food relief and new income sources
(LWI) – On her feet for 11 hours, from 4.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m., six days a week, Monday to Saturday, for a weekly wage of 500 Honduran Lempira (EUR 20) in a small tortilla factory in Comayagüela town, near the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa. This job brought María de los Ángeles Zavala barely enough income for her family’s basic needs and left her little time for her two daughters, eight and 12 years old. Even with her partner’s contribution from occasional work as a car painter, “It was difficult, and I was always very tired from work,” she recalls.
Today, María de los Ángeles owns a small business selling tortillas (cornmeal bread), and she has time for her daughters’ homework, with additional support from the Sunday school teacher at the local congregation of the Christian Lutheran Church of Honduras (ICLH). “I am a young woman who could not complete my studies, I only got to second grade,” says the 24-year-old. “With this business that is my own, I have more time to spend with my daughters, help them a little with their studies, and participate more in the church,” she adds.
With this business that is my own, I have more time to spend with my daughters, help them a little with their studies, and participate more in the church
María de los Ángeles Zavala, Honduras
She is among 17 women entrepreneurs who each received a non-refundable capital of around EUR 200 EUR from an ICLH solidarity fund. The assistance goes to low-income families in the Sula Valley region, who lost livelihoods due to the COVID-19 pandemic and two successive hurricanes Eta and Iota. More than 100 families also received parcels of non-perishable food items. The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) funded the ICLH project through its COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund (RRF).
“Some households had no other source of income,” noted Gloria Isabel Rodriguez Garcia, ICLH project coordinator. For the new entrepreneurs, mostly women and single mothers, they can now sustain their families. “In addition, it is a job that they own, without being exploited as low-wage laborers,” she said of the 17 different small-scale businesses that ICLH has helped to set up this year. The income-generating activities directly benefit nearly 90 people.
María de los Ángeles Zavala now runs her own tortillas-making business. Photo: ICLH
Doña Concepción Garcia, 65, guardian to two grandchildren aged 10 and 12 years, earns her living from selling tortillas in Villanueva, but business went down during the pandemic. She was grateful to receive an assorted food package from the ICLH. “It included everything, and I made different types of food for several days. I also shared some of the items with others in need because God commands us to help others with what we have.”
Concepción expressed gratitude to the church for its method of supporting people who are most in need irrespective of religious affiliation. “The Lutheran church supports all of us equally and they do not discriminate against anyone.”
The ICLH project coordinator noted that “These food parcels are of great help to these people.” Some of the household breadwinners “are still unemployed and do not have enough funds to feed their children.”
The LWF recently extended further RRF support to the ILCH solidarity project due to the prevailing needs in the local communities. The Honduran church is among 89 LWF member churches that have brought relief to tens of thousands of people in 57 countries through 193 RRF-funded projects since 2020. The short-term grants of EUR 10,000 are aimed at activities that focus on recovery and livelihoods and are normally implemented within six months.
At the annual Retreat of Newly Elected Leaders (RoNEL) among LWF’s member churches, ICLH Pastor President Rev. Julio César Caballero shared why such direct assistance remains an important part of the Honduran Lutheran church witness and service. The majority of the church’s members are women, he said, most families live in simple households and “not all have the purchasing power to live a dignified life.”
The LWF COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund was launched in April 2020. The goal is to support the communion’s member churches, particularly the most vulnerable ones that still require urgent assistance during the global health emergency.
The Christian Lutheran Church of Honduras (Iglesia Cristiana Luterana de Honduras – ICLH) has 1,200 members, and it joined the LWF in 1994.
