Think Creative Spring 2024

THE Café

CONNECTION

The surprising influence that coffee and bread are having on transparency in Honduras

By Evelyn Rupert

At a market in Chamelecón, Honduras, Odalma Enríquez hands out piping hot cups of coffee in Styrofoam cups to members of the community. But the gathering is about more than enjoying a café con pan with neighbor—it also gives Enríquez and other local leaders a chance to talk with the community about important issues like transparency and corruption. “We’re going to talk about transparency through an afternoon of coffee and bread,” Enríquez says. “We realized that the less we know, the more vulnerable we are. When we know more, knowledge gives us power.”

Enríquez leads the Intersectoral Committee in Chamelecón, a platform that brings together over 40 community-based organizations and works to address critical issues and empower local leaders. The Intersectoral Committee is one of several across the country that has grown with sup port from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Transition Initiatives through a project called the Central America Regional Initiative (CARI) implemented by Creative Associates International since 2021. “We aim to mobilize all of that community

Photo by Jim Huylebroek.

22 | Think Creative | Spring 2024