House building in Honduras

House building in Honduras

How this holiday makes a difference

We believe that travel can change lives! Travelling can change you as a person and, if done responsibly, can have a profound effect on the people that you meet and the places that you visit. We want as many people as possible to experience the heart and soul of another culture in the way that we have, and in doing so, help them to make a positive and lasting impact on our world.

The biodiversity of the Honduran countryside is renowned for its beauty and diversity, with its numerous types of plants and animals. The climate in La Esperanza might not be the hottest in the country, but the welcome visitors receive more than makes up. Honduras is one of the ten poorest countries in the world, income is low and national unemployment rate is extremely high. Many people are without shelter and that is where you dedication and hard labour is needed. We have teamed up with a locally run project striving to help local families build houses to live in and buildings for educational purposes.

As a volunteer on this project you will find yourself working alongside local families desperate to build a home for themselves. Building work is hard labour, but there are a variety of activities you could get your hands on such as making bricks, painting walls, renovating buildings or decorating houses to turn them into homes. Whatever volunteers discover as their hidden talent in the building process, it will give them an opportunity to support the local community and help them achieve their goal of fighting homelessness and giving as many people a home as physically possible. You’ll stay in a shared room in a homestay ensuring that you directly support the local community while you’re there. You’ll also be supported by your local in-country coordinator; Elisa who with her team is best placed to understand the specific economic, social and developmental needs of Honduras.

On average 48% of your placement fee is distributed in-country for the services included with your placement (i.e. Local support, Food, Transport & Accommodation) meaning that the local communities are directly benefiting from your travels to their country. The remaining funds are required to cover the administration costs associated with sourcing, training, marketing and coordinating your travel experience.

We do not give a financial contribution to this or any of our projects as we believe that money is rarely the answer to complicated development issues; if it was, the poverty problems in the world would be getting better! Short-term aid relief can cause aid-reliance and financial instability and the corruption seen in many developing countries means the guarantee of your money going to the heart of the cause is massively reduced. From our experience (and by learning from our mistakes) projects benefit far greater more from a sustainable framework to ensure they develop rather than short-term financial aid relief.

If money is paid directly to projects then they may become dependent on that income. If that country or project becomes unpopular, or through restrictions in the opportunity to travel to that country, the money dries up and they are no longer able to continue with their work. Supplying projects with enthusiastic volunteers creates a constant supply of helpful hands and as they are not reliant on an income can continue without the assistance of the volunteer travellers, although significantly slower in achieving their goals.

Instead of giving money direct we operate a grants scheme from our Helping Hand Foundation. This is designed to allow all our partner projects to submit applications for funding to achieve a specific objective. In 2007 we have supported a number of partner projects including the installation of 20 toilets at a school in India, the construction of a community centre in Brazil and providing a radio communications unit for a turtle conservation project in Costa Rica.

House building in Honduras