Hello Friends,

My name is Brian Landry, and I just recently joined the Board of Directors for Friends of Honduran Children here in Peterborough. – also known as FoHC by its friends. My family have sponsored children there for a decade or more, and when I saw they were looking for new Board members, I contacted them right away.

Even before I had attended my first Board meeting, I was told about a brigade that would be going to Honduras this December, and having wanted to go to Nuevo Paraiso since we started sponsoring children there, I jumped at the chance to go! I signed up both my wife, Mary, and myself up to join 10 others to go for a little under a week and at long last we will meet kids we have sponsored for all this time.

When we first started to sponsor, to me, it was no big deal. $40 a month was an amount we could afford, and we just coasted along like that for years. But, as I got more and more involved, and saw the newsletters from FoHC, which outlined some of the programs, and told the stories of some of the successes, some literally bringing tears to my eyes – tears of joy, I wanted to be more involved.

When I heard some of the stories told of children being literally lifted from the gutter in the street, taken back to what is now Nuevo Paraiso where they were nurtured, fed, clothed and loved. Some of those same children, years later, graduated from the elementary school, went on to high school, and some even further to university. One has even opened a school of his own, mirroring the work of Sister Maria Rosa, and doing his part to ‘pay back’ for what he has been given.

I have said to friends and family for many years now that if one could bottle and sell the feeling I get from volunteering and helping others – they would be the richest person on earth.

A phrase I have coined lately, and repeated many times, is that working with FoHC has been ‘salve for my soul ‘. It makes me feel hopeful in this sometimes dark world that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

The Board president of the organization made a comment a month or so ago that has stuck with me. I paraphrase: “Any one of these children could grow up to be the one to change the world for the better. “ I will consider it an honour to have even a small part in improving the life of just one of these beautiful young souls.

There can be no question that what started almost a half a century ago, with Dr. Jim McCallum and Sister Maria Rosa recognizing a need, and jointly putting in an effort to help first one child, then another, has now, over the years, resulted in thousands of young girls and boys who were destined largely for lives on the streets and possibly being victims of human trafficking, gangs, drug addiction and worse – working together, Canadians and Hondurans, and with your help, we have given these children a shot at a better life. It is one of the great honours of my life to be able to be associated with this organization.

At 69 years of age, I am getting more active than I have been for most of my life. I just learned this quote from Albert Einstein which inspires me and I had to share with you – “endeavour not to be a person of success, but rather endeavour to be a person of value.” I am so passionate about helping to fund and encourage these sometimes forgotten children to move forward in their lives and to grow and live a better life than they have known.

In closing, I will say that I hope this to be my first of many trips to Honduras. I am hoping that on this Brigade, I will learn more of what is specifically needed in Honduras, and possibly focus future trips and efforts here at home at achieving those things that will improve the lives of the children and all those relying with FoHC.

So, please join me in this journey to help make one part of this world a better place.

Sincerely,

Brian Landry

Member of the Board of Directors

Friends of Honduran Children