My Trip to Talanga, Honduras!

Buenos!

First of all, I want to apologize for my lack in blogging.  I have not had access to the Internet since last Thursday evening, so I couldn’t post anything.  I know that some of you have been calling my parents non-stop because you haven’t heard from me.  If you could stop the threatening them, I would really appreciate it.  They’re old, and all they want to do is sit on their back porch, drink some sangria, and knit/smoke a cigar.  Thank you kindly!

As I mentioned before, last week I had the opportunity to travel to Talanga, Honduras and meet with Gracie Murphree, who runs The Heart of Christ organization, and a women’s refuge.  Even though I was only there for two days, it felt much longer, and the things I saw and heard will never leave my memory.  I have several stories of young girls I want to tell, but let me preface with a few statistics Gracie gave me that are specific to Honduras.

·      In 2005, a woman was murdered every three days.

·      In 2010, 400 women were murdered, which means more than one woman per day

·      90% of Honduras has no police, phones, or vehicles – how is anyone, let alone a woman, supposed to get help?

·      Only 12% of special crimes (domestic violence, family violence, rape, murder, child pornography, human trafficking, sexual exploitation of minors, and child abuse) ever make it to court

·      Only 1% of special crimes ever get finished in court because the preservation of evidence is horrible

·      More than 50% of women will give birth before the age of 18

·      1 in 3 girls will be sexually abused by age 12

·      50% of women will have had sexual violence committed against them by the age of 18

·      More than 50% of all households have violence in them

·      Less than 10% of domestic violence victims report it to the authorities

·      70% of all households have single mothers

·      70% of all women and children who migrate illegally to the United States fall into human trafficking

*These statistics came from the UN report on violence and the National Institute of Women, as well as the World Bank.

Now that you have some background information, I’m going to make you more depressed.  I cannot apologize for this though - these stories need to be told.  I hope you are moved as much as I was.

Gracie and me before I left last Tuesday!