With our children and grandchildren gathered around for the holidays, it is easy for Patti and me to count the many things for which we are grateful. Having just returned from Honduras, where thousands of people lost their homes, their food supply, and their means of work in recent floods, we are even more mindful of things too often taken for granted: food on our table, a roof over our heads and the ability to call a doctor anytime we are sick.

Even before devastating floods swept through Honduras last month, the Garifuna people of Ciriboya – a remote area of Honduras – were forced to travel more than four hours for basic healthcare. And just as organized labor has been at the forefront of the fight for universal healthcare in our country – it was working men and women of Sacramento who took the lead in building a comprehensive health center to give the 80,000 people of this impoverished Honduran region access to care. As always, when a big job needs doing, our friends in labor are there.

Patti and I were thrilled to be on hand for the opening of the health center – which began service in the first completed clinic, and will expand operations as four buildings are added to the complex. Bill Camp, the Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Sacramento Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO began this project in 2005, helping the community of Ciriboya obtain a site for the hospital and the materials to build it. Bill returned to Honduras several times, bringing teams of skilled members of Sacramento’s labor unions with him to help the community turn raw materials into a building. The Garifuna people provided the labor for what will be their first, and their very own, community-operated health center.

Jesus Figueroa Cacho, a Sacramento resident who was born and raised in a remote village near the clinic, expressed that she was “so grateful for the hard work and generosity of the people of California who made the clinic a reality.” She said, “the clinic will truly mean the difference between life and death for the people of Ciriboya and future generations.”

Camp said, “The core of what we do in the labor movement is to enable each individual to be a success, regardless of their heritage. I am proud of the work our unions have done to strengthen the relationship between the local unions in California and the home communities of the immigrant workers who contribute so much to the success of our state.”

Before we traveled to Honduras, Patti and I assisted Northern California labor unions, ILWU Local 17, Teamsters Local 150 and ILWU local 10 in preparing 40,000 pounds of rice donated by the Farmers Rice Co-op in Sacramento, for delivery to the people affected by recent floods. The rice is currently in route to Honduras.

Forty years ago, when Patti and I joined the Peace Corps and set off for Africa, we did so hoping to have a part in healing the hearts and minds, as well as the bodies, of people around the world. In 1985, we returned to Ethiopia to assist in famine relief efforts. During the Clinton Administration, Patti served for five years as the Associate Director of the U.S. Peace Corps, then operating in 93 countries. In 1998, she was a member of the U.S. government team that assisted in recovery efforts in Honduras after Hurricane Mitch devastated vast regions of the country.

In 2007, we are heartened to see that while suffering is all too prevalent throughout the globe, the generosity of the American people – in time and treasure, is still just as strong.

Working men and women have proved for decades that we are stronger when we all stand together. Similarly, Patti and I know that we are a stronger nation at home when we help our friends abroad. Along with the people of Ciriboya, we send a heartfelt thank you to Bill Camp and Vice President Lloyd “Bud” McKinney of the Sheet Metal Workers Local 162 and the men and women from Sacramento’s Labor community for their vision and leadership, which has created a healthy tomorrow for thousands of Hondurans.

For more information about the California/Honduran Institute for Medical and Education Support or to donate please visit www. projectchimes.org

PHOTOS: CHIMES team working with the local Hondurans to put finishing touches on the road to the Ciribaoy Clinic
1. Team Picture: CHIMES/HONDURANS/CUBAN MEDCIAL PERSONELL
2. Loading 40,000 lbs of rice to be sent to Honduras for the flood victums on fall rains in Garifina Area.
3. CHIMES team working with the local Hondurans to put finishing touches on the road to the Ciribaoy Clinic