Art for Humanity

While it is true that violence is on the rise in Honduras, this is not the case for the ordinary Honduran, and especially not for Americans and Europeans in Honduras. The vast majority of violence is either within the drug community or domestic violence within families. In other words, Americans and Europeans spending time in Honduras are rarely subject to violence. This is especially true for those who make intelligent decisions. While the level of violence is unacceptable and certainly a cause for caution, it rarely involves those visiting or volunteering in Honduras.

The vast majority of people who are victims of violence in Honduras fall into one of these categories.

1. Those involved with drugs.
2. Those in romantic relationships with a married person.
3. Those who make poor decisions with respect to social activities in bars or clubs.

Bottom line: If one stays away from those involved in drugs, married women and doesn’t try to be “Mr. Macho” in a bar, one is not likely to encounter any sort of violence. In other words, visitors who behave in Honduras as they should at home, are not any more likely to encounter violence in Honduras than they are at home.

Art for Humanity has been in Honduras for 11 years, and we have not experienced any sort of violence. Our volunteers, many of whom are young females,  backpack alone allover Honduras and have never had even a small problem with violence.  The campus where our volunteers serve is the most peaceful place one can imagine and probably safer than the U.S. towns from which our volunteers come.

This is a brief video of John & Marchal and their experience regarding safety in the area surrounding the campus.

John and Marchal

If you have any questions about the violence in Honduras or would like to speak with any of our current or past volunteers,  contact Glen Evans or Joseph Rahm.

Theft Is A Different Issue

While it is unlikely a volunteer would encounter any violence in Honduras, if not careful, it is highly likely they will be the victim of thievery. For example, if one walks down the street of any major city in Honduras talking on a cell phone, it is very likely that some one will grab it and disappear into the crowd. Ditto for pulling out a wad of money when paying for something on the street. Similarly, if one sets something down for a moment to do something else, it will likely disappear. When going into the city, one needs to be on full alert and do not openly display things of great value….laptops, cameras, cell phones; wear no jewelry and dress down.

Some Things To Think About Regarding Violence

Perhaps these observations will help put things into perspective.

1. Although there are about ten thousand visitors to Honduras daily, there are only about 5 killed annually. Most of those would likely not have been killed had they not been involved with drugs, married women or being a Mr. Macho in a bar. When compared with Washington D.C. which has about 150 murders  annually, the 5 in Honduras seems somewhat insignificant.
2. For U.S. residents, by far the most dangerous thing we can do is drive or ride in a car. Each year, about 40,000 people are killed in highway accidents. It might actually be considerably safer volunteering with us on our remote campus in Honduras than being in the States driving a car.
3. Most European backpackers we meet in Honduras consider backpacking in Honduras safer than backpacking in the States.
4. For a variety of reasons, the bad guys in Honduras don’t target gringos and even avoid conflict with gringos, thus the extremely low number of gringo killings compared to most U.S. cities.