By Lyonel Doherty

When you compare Oliver’s access to water with what residents in Honduras face, it’s a paradise in Canada’s Wine Capital.

That’s what Edwin Escoto observed during a recent visit.

The 42-year-old father of two came to Oliver as part of a World Neighbours Canada tour, meeting with members of the Oliver chapter that started in 1989.

Escoto is a director of Vecinos Honduras, an agency that empowers communities to take charge of their own rural development.

For example, workshops are conducted to teach people how to build kitchen stoves and food storage facilities.

“The common goal is we want to have a better life,” said Escoto, who mentioned some of the struggles that people endure in Honduras

The main problem is the lack of water, especially clean water. This leads to malnutrition, respiratory infection and many other maladies, he noted.

“People have a lot of dreams, but the vast majority don’t have access to land and water.”

Obtaining clean water is always a struggle in Honduras, says Edwin Escoto. (Photo by Lyonel Doherty)

Escoto said people have started defending their human rights, but in Honduras this can be dangerous.

“If people know their human rights they know they have dignity, and when people know they have dignity the people are able to defend and demand human rights.”

Most people in this Central American country (of nine million) are farmers who work the land to grow food, Escoto said. But the land is only held by a few people in Honduras, he pointed out.

Approximately 70 per cent of Hondurans live in poverty with no land or food, Escoto said.

He explained that much of the water is contaminated because big enterprise grows crops using pesticides.

“A lot of men get kidney failure because the water they drink is contaminated because it comes from wells.”

So what is being done?

People are working with leaders in the community to start a network. “Together we are stronger,” he stated, adding they work as a group using local knowledge and resources, which creates enthusiasm.

According to Escoto, everyone lives in the same house on planet Earth, and he thanks World Neighbours for supporting them for more than 10 years.

Escoto recalled his childhood, growing up with a lot of food since his family grew everything they ate. Back then, he had the freedom to say what he thought.

He was respectful of the natural resources around him, and his grandparents taught him that this was his home because he was born on the land.

Escoto said he was very impressed with how people in Oliver grow diversified crops, and the support that farmers receive from the government.

“In Honduras, farmers suffer to have access to water and land. In Oliver, farmers have access to land, credit and water.”

He said while Oliver drinks wine, Hondurans drink coffee. In fact, he estimated that 120,000 families in Honduras are coffee farmers.