Nearly thirty years ago Nola White served in the Peace Corps in Honduras, helping isolated mountain communities develop gravity-feed water systems. Later, she returned from time to time to visit her friends in these communities, and with each visit she was reminded of the things the communities needed that a modest amount of money could provide. In 2002, with a group of US friends, she founded HCSC, as a non-profit tax-exempt organization, to raise money for those things.
HCSC immediately sought participation from the folks we worked with, and by 2004 the Honduran Non Profit, Fundación Eco Verde Sostenible, or FECOVESO, had been formed and began to share Nola’s role. The Board of Directors is composed of elected representatives of the communities in which and for which the organization will hold and protect land, plus a representative of HCSC and from 1 to 3 other Hondurans committed to the organization’s mission. Their mission statement reads: “To support community efforts to protect the environment of Northwest Honduras and promote the health, education and well-being of the people.” By 2016 FECOVESO was ‘doing it all’ with little guidance from HCSC. With two part-time employees, the Board receives requests for the resources needed for community projects. They then participate in community planning meetings, help develop realistic project budgets, arrange for purchase of land or building materials, and sometimes help arrange further support from other organizations and government agencies. Projects have included...
For descriptions of specific projects, see our annual newsletters.
FECOVESO (Fundacion Eco Verde Sostenible)
is a regional land trust and community development organization initiated through Nola’s community organizing efforts and now an important partner in our work. All of the watershed lands acquired with HCSC funding are owned and stewarded by FECOVESO, which also negotiates new watershed acquisitions. We now provide ongoing support for FECOVESO operations, including salary for part time staff and travel expenses for board members and we have established an account that allows FECOVESO to provide project assistance to communities (using the same "must be agreed to by all and benefit all" criterion used by HCSC). For more on FECOVESO activities see our annual newsletters.
We are an all-volunteer organization, and we operate with very low overhead. We put your tax-deductible donations to work directly for the people of Honduras – and we depend completely on those donations to support our work. To contribute, click the Donate link above, or you can send a check to…