|
|
A Special Message From Rodger Harrison, founder
of Paramedics For Children Long before the horrors of Hurricane Mitch. I discovered Honduras. How little did I know it would change my life!..On my second trip to Honduras, I decided to study Spanish in the quaint little town of Copan Ruinas, high in the mountains of Copan. During my month tenure in Spanish school, I couldn't help but notice the people and their needs. |
| people and their needs. Never had I experienced such a proud people who were so very poor. The children of Honduras touched me the most. In their eyes, I saw something. Perhaps it was the hopefulness, expectation, or trust, or maybe even the future of Honduras itself, but whatever I saw in those little eyes, it changed my life. I knew right then and there, I was bound in my heart to help them. After all it takes so little, some beans, a little rice, a few notebooks, some crayons, a few pencils, and the next thing you know, you realize that each of us really can make a difference. |
| Making a difference through educational programs: Although Honduras offers public education for it's people, the state only furnishes the building, and teachers. Families must pay for the children's books, and supplies. In a country where the average daily wage is only $3.50 per day, you can understand why so few children get to attend school. Many families can only send one of their children at a time, and even that is at a great sacrifice. PFC has been there for these children since 1997. We have delivered over 143,000 note books and pencils to the poorest children in the Copan Valley. We discovered that the best approach was to select as many of the small mountain schools as we could, and implement an aid program that was grounded in constant support with much needed school supplies. |
|
| Four times per year we saddle our horses, and ride into the high mountains of Honduras, where we bring educational supplies to over 1,500 children in 24 different communities. |
| Making a difference through emergency medical care: Until Paramedics For Children made it's debut in Honduras emergency medical care as we know did not exist. Many of the needy children, and adults who suffered from trauma simply died from lack of professional emergency medical aid. In October of 1999 we were able to bring into Copan Ruinas the first of two "state of the art" ambulances that had been donated to us by other American based rescue squads. This allowed us to establish the first all volunteer rescue squad in the history of Honduras. Since then we have brought over 40 ambulances to Honduras and Guatemala and trained over 300 Hondurans in basic life support. On average PFC ambulances in Honduras and Guatemala run about 300 emergency calls per month. |
|
|
|
Making a difference by getting the job done. Honduras has many problems. A big one for us is finding the right people to help us get the job done. All of the supplies that we bring into the country are always placed directly into the hands of the people. Children in the high mountains are the ones who suffer the most. The remoteness of their homes often involves the use of horses to reach them. The work is hard, sometimes dangerous, and always exhausting. Often we may have to ride our horses up to 25 miles in one day to reach some of the more remote areas outside of the main town of Copan Ruinas. |
|
Paramedics for Children is a very small yet efficient organization that has withstood the test of time. We have been here for the children for over 11 years and will continue to serve the needs of these children well into the future.
|
|
