Thursday, July 12, 2012

Statistic of Honduras

Some of the numbers you are going to see may shock you. None of these are faked, and they are all accurate. This is the home of our children at the orphanage, and all the support of the people at Amigos try to do whatever we can to make it a beautiful place for them to live.


Honduras is ranked 88th in terms of infant mortality rate. Out of 203,000 children born in Honduras every year, about 5,000 will die before the age of five. Since 1990, the infant mortality rate of children under one has dropped, from 45 for every 100 born to 20. The life expectance of those who do live past age five is 73 years. One out of every ten children born is underweight.

86% of the population use improved drinking water sources. 95 percent of people in urban areas use them, and 77 percent of people in rural areas do also. The estimated prevalence of HIV and AIDs is 0.8 percent of the population, or somewhere between 51,000 people on the high end and 26,000 on the low end. Three-tenths of a percent of males ages 15-24 are believed to be infected, and 0.2 percent of females are. No information is known on the percent of males who have a comprehensive knowledge of HIV, but it is 30 percent for females. The GNI per capita is 1,880 US dollars. Inflation has risen 13% between 1990 and 2010. 457 million dollars have flown into Honduras from foreign aid.

There are an estimated 150,000 orphans in Honduras due to all causes. The literacy rate of males aged 15-24 in Honduras is 93 percent, and for females it is 95 percent. 125% of the population has a cell phone. However, only 11 percent have access to the Internet. 96% of all males and 98% of females who are eligible to attend school are enrolled. 87% of those males attend school, and 90% of females attend. In secondary school (junior high/middle school, high school), the number of males attending drops to 35%, and the number of females drops to 40 percent.

Currently, there are over 3.3 million children living under the age of 18 in Honduras. The annual population growth is falling, with three percent between 1970-90, 2.2 percent between 1990-2010, and an estimated 1.7 percent between 2010 and 2030. The life expectancy has risen considerably, from 52 in 1970 to 73 in 2012. The total fertility rate is 3.1 children per mother.

16 percent of all children in Honduras are subjected to child labor. 11 percent of children are married by age 15, and 39% are married by age 18. There are over 1.7 million adolescents (ages 10-19) in Honduras, and they make up a total of 23 percent of the population. 26% of women ages 20-24 gave birth before age 18 in 2010. 10.8% of girls ages 15-19 gave birth in 2010. 98% of female adolescents aged 15-19 use at least one type of information media at least once a week, and 28% have a comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS.

For further information, see here.

Tommy DeMarco


Thursday, July 5, 2012

Honduran Food

The average meal in Honduras will almost always contain meat - beef, chicken or pork. Spices such as cumin curry, "allspice", and herbs such as coriander and oregano, and lime juice to give food a very rich flavor. While many people assume that all Central American food is spicy, that is not the case in Honduras. When compared to food from Mexico, it is actually very mild. As with many countries, the coastal regions have more seafood options available. Seafood may include shrimp, fresh fish, lobster, or the incredibly-commonplace conch. Another common ingredient in the dishes is corn, or maize. Many Hondurans consider it very insulting if a tall stack of tortillas does not accompany a table of food.


Tortillas are made from the dough of ground corn. The dough is mixed with water that is eventually rolled into small balls and flattened into circles that are 6-inches wide, and varying thicknesses, depending on what region of the country you are in. once cooked, the tortillas will be wrapped in cloth to be kept warm, much like baskets of bread in America. Amigos produces its own tortillas from the corn it grows at its farm, and tries to produce as much of its own fruits and vegetables as it can.

Another popular dish is the tamale, which is a brick-shaped lump of cooked spiced cornmeal, with a filling made up of several foodstuffs, including meat (beef, pork or chicken), potatoes, olives, capers, raisings, rice and many others. It is one of the most authentic Latin American dishes, and is served in almost every Latin American country, with different variations of the recipe and fillings.

The Honduran national dish is called "Plato típico" (literally, "typical dish") and typically contains the following: beef, marinated, diced, and barbecued on a skewer; pork sausage (similar in taste and appearance to Spanish chorizo); pork crackling; refried red kidney beans; white cheese (similar to Greek Feta cheese); fried plantain slices; rice; salad; sour cream and cheese.