Update on Honduras: Afro-Honduran doctors/human rights activists speak

04/08/2010 - 6:00pm
04/08/2010 - 8:00pm
Ms. Sis Cafe / Sankofa Fight-back Center - 1401 E. 75th St., Chicago.
Come hear Dr. Luther Castillo and Dr. Juan Armendariz speak about conditions in Honduras after the June 28, 2009 military coup, November election, and January inauguration of President Porfirio Lobo.

 

Dr. Luther Castillo is a young Garifuna medical doctor and community organizer who directs the Luaga Hatuadi Waduheñu (Garifuna for "For the Health of our People") Foundation, dedicated to bringing vital health services to isolated indigenous coastal communities. After his 2005 graduation from the Latin American Medical School in Havana, Dr. Castillo returned to the Honduran coast, where he led the Foundation's construction of Honduras' first Garifuna Rural Hospital, now serving some 20,000 in the
surrounding communities.  The hospital opened in December 2007, a few months after Dr. Castillo was named "Honduran Doctor of the Year" by Rotary International's Tegucigalpa chapter. Since the military coup on June 28, 2009, the hospital has been closed and subject to many threats and other attacks by the military. Dr. Castillo will speak on what life has been like under the coup, especially in regards to his hospital. Dr. Castillo has just returned from assisting thousands of those wounded by the worst earthquake in 200 years that devastated Haiti on January 12, 2010

 

Dr. Juan Almendares is an internationally known Honduran medical doctor, human rights activist, environmental leader and alternative medicine practitioner.  He holds a medical degree from the University of Honduras, an M.S. degree in Physiology from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, and is the co-founder of the Honduras Academy of Sciences.  A torture survivor who has been targeted by death squads himself, he was internationally chosen to receive the Barbara Chester Award in 2001 for his groundbreaking and outstanding work with prisoners, victims of torture, the poor, and indigenous populations.  In 2004, the World Health Organization recognized him for his efforts on tobacco control in Honduras.  He has publicly addressed the impact and effects of mining on the Central American environment and people and has devoted considerable effort to reducing the prevalence of violence against women.  Also a poet, short-story writer and free-lance journalist and author, Dr. Almendares received Honduras’ highest journalism award from his peers in 2003.