Honduras Fishing Village

Food For The Poor Creates Fishing Villages Along Honduras Coast

	Fishing is the primary source of income for hundreds of families living in the coastal communities of Omoa and Puerto Cortes, Honduras. Food For The Poor soon will replace rickety wooden boats and makeshift poles with fiberglass fishing boats with engines, modern fishing tackle, and safety equipment.
Related Item: See Photos of the Rickety Boats

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (July 10, 2014) – Omoa and Puerto Cortes, two coastal communities less than 10 miles apart along the Caribbean side of Honduras, have been selected by Food For The Poor as the sites for its first fishing villages in Latin America. The charity selected these small towns after learning about the overwhelming need there, and the cooperative reputation of their fishermen.

For generations, fishing has been the primary source of income for many of the families in the region. But rickety wooden boats and makeshift equipment are threatening the fishermen’s livelihoods and the health of their children, whose primary source of protein is fish. With hopes of a more lucrative catch, the fishermen fell into the rut of renting bigger boats and spending more of their already-limited income, making it very difficult to support their families.

“Food For The Poor is very excited about the establishment of these fishing villages in Honduras. The fishermen within these communities will have their own boats to share and their own equipment to safely navigate the deeper and more bountiful waters of the Caribbean,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. “There are currently 16 fishing villages in operation in Jamaica and 42 in Haiti. We see the benefit of these projects in those countries, and thanks to the support of our donors; we believe the result will be the same in Honduras.”

Food For The Poor donors have agreed to provide one dozen 25-foot fiberglass fishing boats with engines for three fishing villages, two in Omoa and one in Puerto Cortes. Each fishing village will receive four boats, which will be shared by a team of 16 to 28 fishermen. All the fishermen will receive engine maintenance training. In addition to the boats and motors, the villages will be equipped with coolers and freezers, locking storage sheds, fishing tackle and safety equipment.

Instead of catching fingerlings from the reef, the fishermen will be trained in deep-sea fishing techniques that will best protect the marine environment. The fishermen also will learn how to catch mahi-mahi, yellow-tail snapper, tuna, and kingfish. These deep-sea fish can then be sold to markets, hotels and restaurants in San Pedro Sula, Honduras’ second largest city. The teams will be required to donate a portion of their catch to organizations within their own communities that help orphans, the elderly and the sick.

“Our goal has never been, nor will it ever be, to rule over people’s lives; we are simply putting faith into action. By providing individuals in the countries we serve with an opportunity to get out of poverty, we’re not giving people fish, but teaching them how to fish,” said Mahfood.

Food For The Poor began serving in Honduras in 1999, one year after the Central American country was slammed by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. The charity works very closely with its partner CEPUDO (Capacitación, Educación, Producción, Unificación, Desarrollo y Organización), which is based in San Pedro Sula, in order to reach those in need throughout the country.

Food For The Poor, named by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 95 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.