Insight
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Messages of hope, inspiration, and love connected by a rainbow of palm prints across a wide, white banner: That was the culmination of my very first Sleep Out, which was hosted by Covenant House Honduras, one of our three Covenant House sites in Latin America.
Sleep Out is an event where supporters of Covenant House and our youth spend one night on the pavement to raise funds for Covenant House programs in 34 cities across five countries and awareness of the youth homelessness crisis. Sleep Outs have been hosted across our federation since 2011, including, since 2022, at one of our Latin America houses each year. This November, we celebrated the first-ever Sleep Out in Honduras.
As I lay down to sleep that night in Tegucigalpa on flattened cardboard boxes and a thin sleeping bag, I thought of the dozens of children who my fellow Sleepers and I had spent the last few days with. Children who had lost siblings to gang violence. Children who couldn’t go to school because they lived in the wrong gang-controlled territory. Children whose parents had sent them out on the streets to work or beg for money to help support their family. Children who were targeted for sexual violence by gang leaders, or a neighbor, or even their own father. Children who lost their mother as they made the treacherous migration journey from Venezuela.
All of them have found a home at Covenant House Honduras. A home that provides safety and love. It is also a home that keeps them connected with their families, whenever possible, working to support parents through their own challenges. Because our youth at Covenant House Honduras are only 12 to 18 years old, family reintegration is a key part of our work there, as is the focus on human rights, specifically children’s rights.
Covenant House Offers Youth Hope for the Future
Like our Covenant House sites in Guatemala and Mexico, Covenant House Honduras also offers children hope for the future and a chance to follow their dreams. During the Sleep Out program, we heard from Saúl, a former resident who is in law school now, and Celeste, who is studying to be a psychologist while currently working at a nonprofit for young children. With tears in her eyes, Celeste spoke of the pride she feels for all she has overcome and in her 5-year-old nephew, who looks up to her as a model of who he wants to be.
Covenant House in Latin America is where change happens. Breaking the cycle of poverty, violence, and human trafficking and keeping kids safe starts when we open the doors — and our hearts — to children who deserve the opportunity to reach their dreams and thrive.
*Carolyn Barker-Villena, who authored this piece, is senior vice president of Covenant House programs in Latin America.