Acción Joven Honduras facilitates the sustainability and growth of small-scale youth networks in Honduras to promote human rights and young people’s activism.
Honduran youth hold enormous potential to realize change. More than half of the population is under the age of 30, and young people across the country are building networks and mobilizing movements to address the political, social, and economic issues that affect them each day.
Accion Joven is a catalyst for emerging youth-led networks and movements. The Tegucigalpa-based collective facilitates the sustainability and growth of small-scale youth networks across Honduras to advance human rights and youth activism. Since their founding in 2017, they have developed a strong focus on the “Right to Decide” – for sexual and reproductive rights, including legal and safe abortion. They fight for women’s rights, including the legalization of emergency contraception (Plan B pill), which was passed in 2023, and continue to build also built support for the LGBTIQ+ community through local engagement, including hosting health fairs for trans women and men.
For Accion Joven, their greatest impact is empowering young people with the tools to carry out their work for the long term, especially in rural and remote areas. They have targeted their energy on the Intibuca and Valle Departments, two regions with limited presence of social organizations and high rates of poverty, teenage pregnancy, and sexual violence. With patience, flexibility, and an emphasis on building mutual trust, they work with young people as well as health professionals to create and sustain networks that support local visions for change. Their reputation enables them to incrementally grow their reach; en Valle, they were specifically invited by a youth network they had previously supported to speak to 150 local women who wanted to organized and advocate for the ‘Right to Decide’ as the network recognized the power of Accion Joven’s guidance for newer actors.
CAMY Fund has supported the collective since 2019, and for the leaders of Accion Joven, the partnership has strengthened their capacity to work with youth and to reach communities that have less civil society presence. In the five years of partnership, they have also recognized the emerging importance of mental health and care focus in their projects, recognizing the challenges for young activists promoting sexual and reproductive rights in a patriarchal, anti-rights environment.
Over the years, Accion Joven has seen their work bear fruit in the growing openness of young women to learn about and discuss stigmatized topics and also share personal experiences, as well as in the growth of networks and alliances of young people. And while the work remains immensely challenging, the persistence of youth networks provides hope that the futures they dream of will one day become a reality.
Learn more about their work here: https://accionjovenhn.org/
