HONDURAS: Regional Medical Center Will Improve Health in Rural Communities

In 2023, Archbishop José Vicente Nácher Tatay invited COFOA to work with the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa to empower people to improve conditions in their communities. From the start, he encouraged organizers to listen to people’s priorities, with special attention to the need for improved access to health care in rural areas.

Since then, Carmen Garay, COFOA’s lead organizer in Honduras has been traveling by bus to remote mountain villages outside Tegucigalpa to help people organize their communities. By the end of 2025, 11 local organizing committees were meeting weekly. Because buses don’t run late, Carmen often stays overnight in people’s homes. The training and coaching she provides is critical because grassroots leaders are challenging entrenched local power structures that have operated without input from residents. With her support, they’re winning local victories, including water and sewer systems, kindergartens, and new roads and bridges.

As leaders have addressed local development needs, they’ve also asked their neighbors about their health care experiences. They’ve visited local clinics, finding them poorly staffed, lacking medicine and equipment, and unable to deal with serious medical conditions like diabetes, cancer, and birthing complications. People report traveling 6-7 hours for medical care.

In February 2025, COFOA leaders from 15 villages traveled to the capital to share their concerns with the National Ministry of Health. With 100 people gathered outside the Ministry, a team of five leaders negotiated with the Vice Minister of Health, about the region’s need for a hospital. After an hour, the Ministry spokesperson announced to the assembled leaders that the Ministry would make significant upgrades in health services for the region. The government agreed to upgrade the Talanga clinic to a regional hospital, provide essential medicines to local pharmacies, expand service hours at local clinics to 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, and assign 11 additional nurses and 22 doctors to serve the region. Ten media outlets covered the event.

Since then, the government has increased staffing at Talanga but has not fully complied with its agreement—underscoring the need for continued pressure. In October, COFOA leaders returned to the Ministry with a letter requesting a meeting with the Minister of Health to follow up on the commitments. The Ministry promised a meeting after the national elections in November. COFOA leaders in Honduras are resolved to ensure that promises made are promises kept.