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Conference on Honduras 2003 to be Held in Copan Ruins

By Project Honduras

Projecthonduras.com recently announced that its fourth annual Conference on Honduras which will take place in Copan Ruins, Honduras, on October 24-26, 2003. The event will bring together individuals representing non-governmental organizations (NGOs), companies, churches, universities, and governments, as well as themselves to exchange information on education, healthcare, and community building projects designed to help the people of Honduras.

"The Conference on Honduras has reached a level of maturity now", said Marco Caceres, cofounder of projecthonduras.com. "We have successfully completed three of these conferences in Washington, DC and have developed a significant following, a workable format, and a philosophical purpose for the event. We are averaging 110 representatives from more than 60 organizations per year."

The growth of the conference has convinced planners that it is time to stage the event in Honduras and try to attract more of a following within the Honduran community. The town of Copan Ruins was selected as this year's site because of its charm, its cultural history, its relative proximity to the international airport in San Pedro Sula, and its excellent conference center and lodging facilities.

"We want to establish a physical presence in Honduras, plant a seed there and see how things develop", said Caceres. "We need to include more Hondurans in the conference to balance out the many North Americans that are active in the movement, and Copan Ruins just seems like a nice small place to start the process."

The Conference on Honduras series is the third part of projecthonduras.com's three-step strategic plan to build an Internet-based model of development for Honduras. During the past five years, the volunteer group has created an online portal at http://www.projecthonduras.com which serves as a clearinghouse of information on Honduras and has established a growing international network of people communicating via listserv forums on ways to help the country.

"We have more than 2,200 individuals in our Worldwide Honduras Network, and it's incredible to see the impact many of these private citizens are quietly making on Honduras," said Caceres. "What we are trying to do with the conference is simply give people the chance to meet face-to-face, exchange business cards and information, and perhaps discover ways to complement each other's efforts."

The concept behind projecthonduras.com and the Conference on Honduras is based on the belief that developing countries like Honduras need to tap all of their "human capital"; around the world in order to break their cycles of poverty and find ways to implement solutions to persistent problems. The Internet now provides the ability to quickly and cost-effectively organize masses of people and channel their experience, talents, and expertise into specific areas of need in a country.

For further information on the Conference on Honduras 2003, please email Projecthonduras.com or go to our Conference Webpage . The conference will be presented by Projecthonduras.com and sponsored by Special Missions Foundation, Inc