Trrainings in Roatán, Honuras

Buckner International held a training on foster care in Roatán Island, Honduras. This three-day activity was aimed at the directors and teams that lead and execute projects in Guatemala and Honduras. The Vice President, Randy Daniels, and the Director of Buckner, Leslie Chace, as well as the Director for Peru, Claudia León, and for Honduras, Sergio Ramos (who is also working in the Dominican Republic and Haiti) and Joe King, the President of Kids Matter International (an organisation linked to Buckner in Roatán), also participated. Besides, Matilde Luna was invited as key speaker.

The activity was started with the presentation of the projects that the organisation carries out in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the US in order to fulfil its mission. Afterwards, there were presentations and debates on foster care in Latin America and the right to community- and family-based care in the framework of the changes in public policies aimed at the protection of children's rights. The situation of children without parental care in Guatemala and Honduras was analysed, and the foster care project developed by Buckner in Peru was analysed and debated as well. All this knowledge and debates were contemplated to improve the strategy of the programmes of the organisation in order to improve them, remove obstacles and take on the challenges to increase the benefits for children for whom Buckner works.

Although foster care is its initial and central focal point of development, in addition to carrying out foster care programmes, Buckner has developed community centers in those countries that provide assistance for families and work with teens in the promotion of their autonomy. The organisation also condcuts missions with American people that carry out social tasks in Latin American countries.

We transcribe a summary of the evaluation of the activities made by the participants Frances Azzad, Director of Programmes in San Pedro Sula and Roatán, Amed Bendfeldt, Director of Missions and Humanitarian Aid for Buckner Guatemala, and Claudia León, Director of Buckner Peru:

"Besides the training we had, I consider the quality of the presentations as well as the value of the information we shared as excellent. The whole experience was very stimulating, and now I know that the technical team of Roatán is very motivated. I think that in the future (in Honduras), we will be able to take better advantage of these trainings, not only for professionals like psychologists and social workers, but also for key people such as members of the childhood courts, members of the Honduran Institute of Child Well-being…"

"It was very important to get to know everything the Peru team has made for foster care…Now, we have started the search for families for our children (in Guatemala)…so that will be very useful to us" … "These days in Roatán were very special…this meeting let us see once more that the love we feel for children is what leads us to join our forces and leads us at Buckner to make our programmes grow".

Besides the improvement of their visions, knowledge and abilities, during this event a fundamental objective was fulfilled: to strengthen those who undertake this difficult task with children and families every day by sharing their experiences in this beautiful exchange sphere.