The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shut-down created hardships for people around the world. For the families served by Franklin native Molly Hornsby’s ministry, hunger became as much of a threat as the virus.
Hornsby, who founded Future of Hope Family Ministry in 2014, was recently in town for a visit with her family. Although mask restrictions are less strict now, she kept her mask on because she didn’t want to take any chances on getting the COVID virus – she needed a negative test to return to her home and mission near the Honduras capital of Tegucigalpa.
Last spring, the strict COVID safety restrictions in Honduras limited people’s time outside their homes, and many families in the Los Pinos neighborhood Hornsby serves were unable to work or to go out and gather food for their families. “It was really severe,” she said.
When the schools closed in March, she said the mission team went into “emergency aid mode.” They put together packets for elderly people, single moms and others in need in their community. “It’s a blessing to have the team we have. They were able to respond quickly and able to respond directly,” she said. In addition to Hornsby, the ministry staff includes two teachers and a sports coach.
The teachers who could no longer spend their time tutoring started a lunch program in July 2020 to provide a hot, healthy meal. The program served 75-80 children each week. “Even if it’s the only meal they eat all day, it’s something,” Hornsby said.
She said things are still far from normal and hunger remains an issue for some families. Children show up for their tutoring sessions shaking and close to passing out because they have not had breakfast and may not have even eaten the day before. Hornsby said sometimes they have to make the tough call between asking the kids to keep their masks on for safety reasons or allowing them to take them off and eat something while at the tutoring center. “It affects their learning. If your stomach is growling, if you have a headache, learning becomes very difficult,” she said.
Tutoring program
Many kids the ministry serves were already a year behind in school because of the limited educational resources, and COVID made the situation even more difficult. The school year in Honduras begins in February, which means when everything closed down last March they lost almost an entire school year. Schools have not yet reopened this year, which will put children even further behind in their learning. “A year loss is difficult, but once you lose two years or three years, it’s very hard to get them back to school,” Hornsby said.
Schools offered remote learning just as they did here in Macon County. Because many of the parents have limited education, it was difficult for them to help their children with their studies, and internet access is even more of an issue there than it is here in the mountains of North Carolina. Hornsby said she knows of one family that the only place they could get even a little bit of signal was out in their yard. The kids valued their education so much they built a makeshift shelter in the yard to sit in while they did their schoolwork.
During a regular school year, the ministry spends about $5,000 on back-to-school supplies including books, backpacks, uniforms, shoes, bus money and other items students may need to help them succeed in school. With remote learning now a necessity, many of the families in Hornsby’s community don’t have money to buy adequate data packages for their phones. The Future of Hope ministry offers prepaid phones and sends data packages every other week at a cost of $8 per month, per family. This allows the students to download assignments from their teachers and do homework. “At least they don’t get too far behind,” Hornsby said.
As children continue learning remotely, the tutoring program Future of Hope offers has become even more needed. “The moms have been asking for it non-stop,” Hornsby said. In February, they moved the tutoring program into a house and converted the rooms into two small classrooms. In the mornings they have special classes for the most need-based families. “They have what feels like a lit bit of normal school,” Hornsby said. Her long-term goal is to purchase land and build their own community center with tutoring offered throughout the day.
On top of the struggles related to the pandemic, in November, Honduras was experienced historic flooding from Hurricane Eta. While the immediate community where Hornsby lives was not hit as hard, there were other areas where she said every river became a lake.
“It was desperation on top of desperation,” Hornsby said. Some families lost their homes; others had to move because of the threat of landslides. Once again, her team went into emergency mode providing basic necessities such as clothes, blankets and personal items. “Last year every month seemed like an emergency.”
Future of Hope Family Ministry serves about 150 children from 95 families. “We spend a lot of time building relationships,” Hornsby said. Education is key to the ministry. The mission team regularly visits the families at home and stresses the importance of keeping children in school.
“We are trying to open up doors to them and open their eyes,” Hornsby said. A lot of the children never have the opportunity to experience anything outside their isolated community. “They don’t see they have options for a very different kind of life,” she said.
This can be especially true for girls growing up in a culture that defines success differently than we do in the United States. Hornsby said she enjoys working with young women and helping them realize they can fill the traditional roles of wife and mother, but they can also study, go to school, graduate, and get a job if they want.
Its fulfilling for Hornsby to see the students the ministry started working with when they were in middle school now graduating, and some are considering going to university. “Which is wonderful,” she said.
For more information about the ministry and how you can help visit www.futureofhopefamilyministry.com or email molly.hornsby@gmail.com.
Donations can be made online on the ministry’s website or at Discover Church in Franklin. Donations may also be mailed to Future of Hope Family Ministry, 44 Gibson Cove Estates Drive, Franklin NC 28734.