Honduras Struggles To Aid Refugees
Episcopal News Service. August 8, 1985 [85174]
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (DPS, Aug. 8) -- If you visit the offices of the Episcopal Diocese of Honduras here these days, you will find more there than the Bishop and his staff.
Recently, a new wave of refugees has been created by the United States' embargo against Nicaragua. Hundreds have come across the border into Honduras making a bad situation worse. Many of those refugees live in the diocesan office here while their papers are put in order, and many of them are members of the Episcopal Church in Nicaragua, a country in turmoil.
"What can we do?" asks Honduras Bishop Leopold Frade. We cannot let them sleep in the park as many refugees are doing. We have no funds to help all the undocumented refugees that come with families seeking safety in Honduran sanctuary for refugees, this the poorest of Latin American countries. Many of these people are our brothers and sisters in the Faith.
"I knew that being the Bishop of Honduras was going to be a rocky road, but I had no idea the rocks would be so big!"
The Episcopal Churches in Honduras give help to the refugees no matter what their national origin or political status.
'We have very little to share," says Prade, "but what we have we are not going to keep for ourselves. Right now it is a little crowded in the office; we are running out of places to put people. But it is not hard for me to take then in; it is very easy. Twenty-five years ago, I was a refugee myself, and I never had to sleep in the park."