Two members of the Rotary Club of Comox and two students from the Mark R. Isfeld Interact Club will be heading to Honduras this weekend to continue their extensive volunteer work in the Central American country.
On Sunday, the four Comox Valley residents will land in the nation’s capital, Tegucigalpa, where they will present a $6,200 cheque to the Alternativas y Oportunidades program. The program provides education and health support to families who work in the public markets.
“We’ve been a major sponsor of that program,” said Comox Rotarian Brian Mather, who also mentors the student-led Interact Club. “This year, we have a cheque for them. The kids raised in one night $6,200 Canadian to take down to support the program.”
This weekend won’t mark the first time the clubs have been to Honduras.
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The Rotary Club of Comox and Isfeld’s Interact Club have helped fund various initiatives in Honduras for the last three years.
Projects have included raising $13,000 to build a roof and washroom facilities for a school in the city of Comayagua, adding a kitchen to a another school, and funding the renovation of an old building in Rio Negro — a rural area in Honduras that does not have internet — into a school library and community resource centre.
The two clubs are also helping fund the construction of a rural dental clinic that will provide care for approximately 1,000 Honduran children.
“One of the Rotarians down there is a dentist and he’s going to be volunteering two mornings a week in that clinic, so that kids can get dental care,” said Mather. “We’re also taking with us about 1,000 toothbrushes and I don’t know how many tubes of toothpaste donated by dentists.”
Mather will return from Honduras on April 17. The other three Comox Valley residents will return April 14.