The Lencas & Advocacy, Honduras
Project initiated on December 2019
Summary:
Nunca Más applied psychosocial interventions, advocacy strengthening methods and acted as a support to local activist organizations as a way to capacitate the marginalized indigenous Lenca people in Honduras. The purpose of this project was to give the Lenca’s a sense of empowerment, to encourage them to advocate for their ancestral healing practices, and to assist them in lobbying for their right to access to public health services.
Historical Context:
Honduras is one of the most violent countries in the world and is a country marred by natural disasters, drug related violence and with notorious political instability due to corrupt political leaders and a defunct law enforcement.
The Lenca population, which is the largest indigenous group in Honduras with its estimated 450,000 inhabitants, are under constant marginalization both socially economically, politically and culturally. The government and political power groups have economic and social incentive to not acknowledge the rights of the Lenca’s to their land, their culture or their traditional health practices, leading to them being displaced from their land, their agriculture and their traditional social customs. They are victims of discrimination and structural state violence, a continuous oppression that has led to severe mental health problems in the community, that the national health care system is unfit to take care of.
Our Approach:
Nunca Más hosted a number of workshops on psychosocial healing practices and political advocacy approaches. The workshops were attended by indigenous healers, and our collaborative partners MILPAH, a membership organization that advocates for the rights of the Lenca’s, and CIPREVI an NGO that comprises of medical professionals with human rights experience. The workshops were meant to be an exchange of knowledge between the parties involved and aimed at strengthening the capacity and skills of those involved in advocacy strengthening practices as well as the implementation of psychosocial approaches to overcoming trauma in the fight for the mental, cultural, political and economic safety of the Lenca community.
