Relief for Hurricane Felix Sent to Honduras

The wind is gone, but it isn't the wind that Hondurans have to fear - its flooding. There are approximately 800,000 Hondurans living in shacks on the sides of mountains in Honduras. The mountains are subject to severe soil erosion because of deforestation. Within the week, flooding is going to place every one of these 800,000 Hondurans in imminent danger of losing their lives.

You can help! You can't go there, but you can see what is happening and you can talk to people who are already on the ground there to find out what they need. There is a map of Honduras that is one of the best on the web. It is the Honduras Aid Map and is one of the most comprehensive resources online today. Every section of Honduras is clickable and each has a list of townships, along with who is there and how to get in touch with them.

The hardest hit areas of Honduras will be Tegucigalpa, Francisco Morazan and Comayagua, so be sure and check the map for agencies that are already there. In addition, Cortes, Santa Barbara and Copan are also expected to flood, so check for aid agencies there and ask what you can do to help.

There is another link that is also a vital resource for those who want to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Felix. That same Project Honduras site has a list of Medical and Dental Missions that are already scheduled to go to Honduras from the United States. They will be arriving in the midst of the worst of the flooding. They are still in the States now. You can e-mail or call them and ask what you can do to help. This is a chance to transfer aid from your hand to theirs, without a middle-man charity organization, a rarity in emergency relief anywhere in the world.

Yes, the Hondurans caused their own crisis by cutting down the trees. However, your hindsight in an advanced society does not help when a poor Honduran family needs firewood to cook with or pieces of wood to build a shack to keep them out of the rain. Now is not the time to judge. Now is the time to help. When Hurricane Felix is past, and the flood is over, then it will be time to keep the Hondurans in your thoughts by becoming active in helping to build Honduras into the nation she could be.

In the near future there will be a reforestation project, partially funded by several Episcopal ministries. The government of Japan has donated almost $7 million in fire fighting equipment. USAID has donated $25,000 for hygiene equipment, and the UN Development Program has donated 300,000 rations of food. Honduran are trying to get better and to do better. Their tourism rates are skyrocketing and millions are beginning to flow into the country... but that is not enough. Hondurans need help to survive the flooding that will come after Hurricane Felix. Promises of millions in tourism are of no use to them now. Only the worldwide community can save them. The links in this article are more than enough to do that. Prosperity can come tomorrow. Survival must come today.