Mr. Héctor Herrera Gómez is the Coordinator for Citizenship Building, Human Development Center. He works on a range of programs and interventions to support human rights and youth development, including gender equity, reduction of violence, and citizen participation in public processes. A major component of his work focuses on training young people and women to become facilitators to strengthen citizen engagement and human rights. While visiting the United States, under the administration of World Learning, Mr. Herrera Gómez envisioned discussing best practice for advocacy, program management, and citizen engagement.
Mr. Herrera Gómez comments that one of the program highlights was becoming acquainted with Men’s Anti-violence Network of Utah (MAN), a local nonprofit organization committed to stopping all forms of interpersonal violence. It was this kind of cross-collaboration that permitted his work to advance leaps and bounds once he returned home. He continues that his center is “promoting the idea of a network of people against violence towards women in southern Honduras.” He firmly believes the best practices exchanged at his meeting with MAN will allow Human Development Center to bridge disparities in gender inequalities and bolster greater unity against violence among Hondurans.
Workshop in Honduras for women survivors of domestic violence
Thanks to efforts from an interinstitutional coordination comprised of prominent municipal actors, Mr. Herrera Gómez has helped to successfully establish 4 Local Support Committees scattered throughout southern Honduras. He reports that these committees “involve local governments, the justice sector, organized women, prosecutors, police and civil society organizations.” Mr. Herrera Gómez and his organization are currently implementing coordination agendas for the care of women who have survived violence via training workshops. These hands-on informational sessions assist surviving women understand the legal resources available to them and to shield them from the possibility of future violence.
