Delmys Licona, center with her young son David, with the rest of the CASM staff. Together with CWS, they are working to create a new future for Azacualpa. Photo: Angela R-Schafer/CWS
Delmys Licona brings her passion to life in an instant, detailing the development work she holds so dear while embracing her baby boy. Her passion shines in her relationships with her staff and the communities she serves. And it’s obvious hiking up steep terrain to visit remote villages that this woman is committed to reaching everyone who wants to work with her – and Church World Service – in her native Honduras.
“Everyday we have the opportunity to represent God and help others,” Licona says.
Working with rural communities in northern Honduras, she knows the realities aren’t so easy as a blessing. The hardships. The constant need for food. The strain of the search for clean water.
Challenges, to be sure. But not insurmountable problems. Licona is part of a team that provides technical knowledge and training for communities to help themselves. As the regional coordinator for CASM, a CWS partner in Azacualpa, she helps vulnerable communities as they struggle against the impacts of climate change, limited access to safe water and hunger.
On a recent afternoon, Licona joined staff from CWS and CASM to visit a protected water source in Ermitaño, Honduras. After two months of working nine hour days, 205 families have dug and laid in the piping necessary to get fresh, safe water from a stream high up in the hills down to the community below.
Each family in the water cooperative provided labor and worked in fencing in the three acres that contain the water source. And now, the community is enjoying something that many people take for granted – a steady and reliable source of safe water.
CWS is helping ensure the next generation in Ermitaño knows and appreciates the crucial link between the environment and their water as well. On new special school days, children visit the water source to plant trees with their parents, learning how best to protect their water, their land and their future.
“This water project is the first time this community has banded together and worked together,” Licona said. “They’ve made it their own and are passing it on to their kids. We’re walking together here. We’re strengthening these people.”