Touching lives in Honduras
A woman in Chaguiton, Honduras, pulls the string to turn on her new ceiling light.
By Neal Beard, Rotary Club of Lawrenceburg,
Tennessee, USA
Since 2006, I have traveled to Honduras on
numerous occasions as part of a village elect-
rification project organized by the Rotary
Club of Lawrenceburg and our Rotary district.
The Rotary Club of Madison, Alabama, has
also been working with us in the same area
for about nine years, doing incredible work
delivering healthy burning Eco-Stoves, eye
clinics, and dental clinics.
Last year, I wired this lady’s home for electricity
(photo at right). All she wanted was one light
bulb to illuminate her kitchen. On her first at-
tempt the string broke. I had to repair it and
let her try again.
This year my friend and fellow Rotarian, Rick
Copeland, sent down a bag full of shoes and
asked me to carry a pair to this lady. I empti-
ed out the bag and she picked out a pair of
shoes. She then took them into the next
room where she could put them on without
s watching. When she came out, I checked
the shoes for fit and asked her to pose so
that I could take a picture of her to prove to
Rick that I didn’t keep the shoes for myself.
New shoes bring a smile
Sometimes little things like a new pair of
shoes can mean so much to the person
receiving them and humble them to tears.
But what this lady didn’t know was how
much her smile and excitement at getting
a new pair of shoes had touched me —
deeply inside. I was the one truly humbled.
The giver is not capable of setting a gift’s
true value; only the receiver can do that.
Sometimes, you get a rare chance to see
with your own eyes just how important
our gift means to the receiver. We have
touched the lives of a lot of people on
this year’s Honduran village electrification
project. But if the only person we had help-
ed was this lady, then the trip would still
have been worthwhile.
For more information about our Honduras
Project, visit our website.
Notice: Please Note: Our website address
has been updated to:
www.northjacksonrotary.org
