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Rafael (plaid) and Javier, two program participants, work on the electrical panel of an air conditioning unit in a Refrigeration Training Course provided by CASM. Emily Bowman.
Emily Bowman is the Connecting Peoples Coordinator in Honduras. This post draws on sources from MCC Honduras and CASM Reports as part of the ongoing MCC LACA Series on migration
Note: All names are pseudonyms to protect the identity of the participants.
In April 2015, Alexa left Honduras. She was 15 and pregnant. Driven by a fear of rejection by her community and the promise of steady work in a supermarket outside of Honduras, she got on a bus with a friend and headed north. It didn’t turn out the way she had imagined. She found herself in a nightmare: sold into a human trafficking market and ending up in a brothel in Belize. After two months there, she was rescued by an undercover detective in a police raid. She was in custody for her protection for a time and then transported back to Honduras.
Hector always wanted to be a teacher. He was raised in a loving home, one of the youngest of 11 children. When he entered high school, gang members took control over his neighbourhood and demanded that his older brothers join. The brothers refused and the whole family was forced to flee to another neighbourhood. Death threats followed them. Hector continued to go to the same high school but he feared the gangsters would recognize him and take him instead of one of his brothers.
The day after he was followed home he never went back to school again. Work and opportunities were scarce. Two of his brothers migrated to the United States. When another one of the brothers was brutally murdered, the family hired a coyote to bring Hector and another brother to the US. Their journey was intercepted by migration officials, who detained them in Mexico and deported them back to Honduras.
Alexa, Jairo and Luis working out some equations for their mechanics class. Emily Bowman.
Migrants cite many reasons for leaving. These include: family reunification (children looking for their parents living in the United States); extreme poverty; violence; insecurity; organized crime; lack of social opportunities; and sexual abuse and sexual trafficking, among many others.
2014 marked record numbers of unaccompanied migrant minors arriving to the US border. The International Conference of Infancy and Family reports 47,014 from Central America, up from 21,537 in 2013. Though the numbers of those apprehended on the US-Mexico border have fallen off in subsequent years, mostly due to crackdowns on migration in Mexico, the number of busloads of deported migrant dropped off in the centre of San Pedro Sula has not abated. About 16,000 returned unaccompanied minors arrived in 2015. In Honduras, the Sula Valley region accounts for 63% of all deported children. 81% of these children are from one municipality: San Pedro Sula.
What happens when the buses are emptied at the border or in receiving centres? Where do they go? What do they do? Many migrants are traumatized by what happened on the journey or by the reasons that they left home in the first place. Most see no option but to try to migrate again.
Jairo selects a gear in the Industrial Mechanics course with CASM. Emily Bowman.
Given this context, MCC supports the Mennonite Social Action Commission (CASM), an organization that assists young returned migrants. MCC and CASM created a pilot project with the goal of providing vocational training for 100 young people over the course of one year, allowing them to improve their socioeconomic situation and thereby reduce their interest in migrating again. The project began in April 2015 and in now in its second year.
The participants, from the Sula Valley and between the ages of 15 and 25, receive training in electricity, mechanical engineering, refrigeration, cell phone repair, industrial operating, cooking or cosmetology. CASM also organizes job fairs, conducts home visits, provides psychological accompaniment, gives complementary workshops on job interviewing skills, marketing and other employment skills, as well as facilitating volunteer opportunities so the young people can give back to their communities. They hope that young people will leave the program with a job offer from a company or empowered with entrepreneurial skills to start their own business.
Sara works on her model, Micaela, while her instructor, Valery, of the Cosmetology course, observes. Emily Bowman.
For many, it is an uphill battle. They face pressure to search for work and start earning right away to support their families or struggle with a challenging academic workload. Many participants enter with elementary school education levels. Some abandon the program to re-migrate or due to security concerns. But for those who stay, the program can completely change their life. It not only provides job training, but community and hope.
When Hector arrived back in Honduras he took hold of the opportunity. He was able to move to a safer area and received support from CASM. He decided to attend trainings to be a kitchen assistant because he liked to cook and thought that it may be one of the courses that could most easily provide work afterwards. He is still in training and says that once he finishes, he hopes to find work and continue his studies or maybe start his own business. He would like to graduate university and pursue a career. With the skills he has acquired he feels that he can better provide for the security of his family. He says “I want my life to be a story of overcoming odds and having success”.
As for Alexa, she was approached by CASM upon her return to Honduras and quickly enrolled in the training for mechanical engineering. Refusing to be stereotyped, she has risen to the top of the mainly male class, spending much of her time in the classroom helping fellow students to understand the concepts. She says “the program has been my support system and it is a great benefit to those who want a better life but haven´t been able to achieve it yet.” CAMS provided psychological care and accompaniment through the process. As she looks ahead, she says “now I can see in the future having my own workshop, a home and a family here in Honduras. And that´s exciting. That gives me hope.”
Karmen works with some wires in an air-conditioning unit in the course on Refrigeration. Emily Bowman.
CASM’s project is expanding and includes advocacy efforts. In early 2016, CASM developed 3 public radio and TV spots targeting political decision-makers, civil society and the general population. The goal was to generate awareness regarding the issues surrounding migration and plant prevention strategies. They were first aired on the most widely known radio stations of the city in February 2016, featuring some of the participants, including Hector, as voice-overs.
If young people are are fleeing violence, however, is this project relevant? It is important to understand that violence in Honduras occurs on many levels. As MCC partner Association for a More Just Society (ASJ) puts it, violence ranges from domestic and soccer-fan levels, to gang violence, to governmental level violence and narcotraffickers, up to transnational levels. It is complicated. And with an impunity rate estimated at 96% by ASJ, there is very little reason to not use violence as a force to get what you want.
However, providing young people with alternatives to delinquency so they can make a living and acquire skills to support a family dismantles many of the reasons that create violence in the first place: namely, poverty. Many, when they receive the training and resources find themselves empowered with tools to support their families and communities, or move to a safer community out of harm´s way. They no longer see migration to the North as their only alternative, but also a future by staying in Honduras.
Very helpful to understand friends who have migrated.