Alejandro's Journey
CASC Honduras participant, Alejandro, leads a group activity with students.
Honduran youth face numerous day-to-day challenges, such as high unemployment and increasing violence, which exacerbates poverty and drives them to consider leaving home.
Alejandro, 18, from the capital city of Tegucigalpa, once considered leaving Honduras to make the perilous journey north. During high school, many of his classmates and friends dropped out of school to enter the workforce, join gangs, or leave the country in search of better opportunities. While many people described Alejandro as positive, dedicated, and a natural leader, he often felt discouraged and uncertain about how to achieve success in Honduras.
During his senior year in high school, Alejandro's life took a new turn when USAID’s Creando Mi Futuro Aquí High School Pathway to Employment program visited his school. The program’s offer of job skills training, a modest stipend, and career mentoring caught his attention. Alejandro applied right away!
Under CASC, the Creando Mi Futuro Aquí project empowers Honduran youth to break the cycle of poverty and violence and discover pathways to higher education, the workforce, or both. The program includes workforce development training as well as guidance to design and implement service projects that address local challenges and provide valuable work experience.
For his service project, Alejandro volunteered with Pilar Salinas School for the Visually-Impaired, a non-profit organization that provides free education to children and adolescents with visual impairments. Alejandro mobilized fellow Scouts to volunteer to read books and play games with the children, too. The troop plans to visit regularly.
“Although it was just a grain, I know I helped,” he said. The experience taught him that young people can be leaders in their community, helping to unite others to tackle problems.
Alejandro, a CASC participant in Honduras, is pursuing a college degree thanks to the program.
In addition to the transformative service opportunity, Alejandro took advantage of the program's career counseling, resume writing, and interview preparation services. He used the stipend to enroll in university, where he is pursuing a degree in psychology.
In early 2024, Alejandro completed the CASC program, which renewed his sense of belonging and gave him a pathway to stay and succeed at home in Honduras. He believes that through CASC, “volunteers can make great changes, not only in their communities, but in the entire country.” Alejandro concluded, “It is difficult, but not impossible… We are the future of the country.”
This story was adapted by Chelsea Milko McAllister and written by Andrew Duryea and Craig Davis. Photos by Eduardo Cálix.