Linda Gilbert: Vermont Hands to Honduras-Tela

By Phyl Newbeck

Linda Gilbert had never been to Honduras before heading there as part of an aid group called Hands to Honduras in 2005. She had done community service all her life and wanted to try international work. Gilbert was so touched by the beauty of the town of Tela and the needs of the people that on her return to Charlotte she founded Vermont Hands to Honduras-Tela (H2HT). Although there is poverty throughout Honduras, Gilbert is pleased she has been able to establish a relationship with Tela, a city of 35,000 surrounded by a much larger rural area.

As director of H2HT, Gilbert does all the marketing and communications for the project. She makes annual trips to Tela every February, overseeing a crew of up to 90 volunteers. Gilbert usually spends a month in Honduras, arriving a week before the volunteers who work for one or two weeks at a time, and remaining after they have finished. H2HT’s most recent endeavor was a two-phase construction project involving a center for expectant mothers, which was finished in 2012, and a neonatal unit for high risk babies, which should be completed this fall. The center was needed because previously expectant mothers had to sit on a curb outside the hospital until they were ready to deliver. Now they have hospital beds, showers, full bathrooms and kitchens.

Gilbert said Honduran buildings are constructed very differently from those in the United States. Everything is done by hand, including cutting wires and twisting rebar. H2HT volunteers work with a contractor and Honduran masons and do all the construction with the exception of the roofs. Although H2HT has completed a number of projects over the years, Gilbert is most proud of two schools, which were recently completed in one of the barrios. “We worked on one for almost seven years,” she recalls. Before H2HT came in, students were learning in a structure that was more like a chicken coop than a school, but volunteers built classrooms and latrines and brought water into the structure. They even constructed a paved walkway so students don’t have to travel over muddy grass on their way to the latrine. Also in that barrio, volunteers have spent four years helping to construct an agricultural high school where students learn farming techniques.

Gilbert credits her husband, Al Gilbert, and Dave Jonah, and Lois Knapp of Shelburne with helping to plan H2HT projects. “One thing I really love about H2HT is the wonderful volunteers we’ve had over the years,” Gilbert said. Most of the 400 or so helpers come from Vermont but others come from as far as California. “The volunteers are so dedicated,” she said. “Many have never met before but we work side by side and everyone has the same kind of focus of wanting to help other people and doing it genuinely. It’s a very gratifying opportunity for people and it’s especially nice when you see families bring their children. I’ve seen a lot of youth change direction in their life in a very positive way so there’s a great sense of fulfillment for me.”