Nayely’s Story: Opening doors for youth in Honduras

La versión en español de este blog está aquí.

This blog was authored by Lyssien Nayely Hernández Gutiérrez, a participant in Lutheran World Relief’s Creating Spaces for Youth Employability (CREE) project. 

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Like many young people from Jesús de Otoro Intibucá, Honduras, I didn't have a concrete plan about my next steps after I graduated from high school. The truth is, there are few students in my community who finish their secondary education, and the percentage of students who complete their higher education is even smaller. Most stay at home or are engaged in agriculture or are part of the “nini” group – young people who neither work nor study. They are underpaid but it's not for a lack of interest in getting ahead. It is because most of their parents do not have the financial resources to pay for them to attend a technical program or university. 

I was in the process of planning what I could do to support myself after high school. For economic reasons, I had resigned myself to the fact that I would not be able to continue my studies. My grandmother is the head of my family, and she takes care of me alone. She had told me that she could not afford for me to continue with my studies. With this in mind, and with my graduation date getting closer each day, I still didn't know what to do. However, about fifteen days after my graduation, one of my professors approached me about the Creating Spaces for Youth Employability (CREE) project. 

I had heard about a project that operated in western Honduras that was aimed at young graduates of technical high schools from member institutes of the Red Institutos Comunitarios (Red-ITC) – an association of 28 educational centers that promotes entrepreneurship, sustainability, equity and diversity. It was exciting to be nominated for the opportunity. 

I attended a meeting at the Federico C. Canales Institute. During the meeting, the CREE project staff presented us with the purpose of the project, and I decided to take on the challenge. I then participated in training for a week. I met other young people with similar life situations to mine. 

That day marked a before and after in my life. When I graduated from high school, my economic situation was not the best. I was unemployed like most young people in Honduras. According to the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (COHEP), there are more than 980,000 young people (12 to 30 years old) who found themselves unemployed in 2022 – a statistic that has been increasing in recent years. 

The CREE project opened the doors for my professional development. It offered me training and support in life skills, work skills and mental health. First, I completed the training process. Then, I was linked to internships with the hope of gaining a job in one of the largest companies in the area, Ferretería El Baratillo. I secured an internship in Roster cafe which belongs to that same company. I was selected based on my skills. 

During the two months of my internship, the CREE project provided me with a stipend totaling 14,000 lempiras ($567). This allowed me to cover my expenses, and, at the end of the internship, I was hired by Roster. Now, I’m the manager of the cafe with a salary of 15,000 lempiras ($608), which has made it possible for me to contribute to my family’s expenses and improve my household’s economic situation. 

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Lutheran World Relief and Red-ITC for all the support provided, from training to accompanying me in securing a job. I hope that there will be many other projects like this that continue to change the lives of young people like me.