The beaches of Tela are rubbish ridden. But at seven am last Wednesday morning, one group of people sought to change this.
A loud Caribbean marching-band met with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) volunteers and school children from Tela to knock some sense into local residents.
It was a wake up call for the people of Tela and education for the youngsters on beach cleanliness.
One hundred Japanese volunteers, celebrating 30 years of JICA, took 200 Honduran children by their hands to clean up the trash on the beaches of Tela.
They marched through the streets of Tela making a show of their objectives: “Not only people live on the beach,” and “keep our beaches clean” their banners proclaimed.
Local residents were impressed by the show. An elderly local commented that he was pleased “to see such motivation early in the morning,” and welcomed the activism despite exceptionally high noise levels at such an early hour.
“We want to clean the beaches because we also want to promote Japanese tourism and cleanliness is important in this regard,” the Director of JICA Honduras, Tatsuo Suzuki told HTW.
Mayor of Tela, Daniel Flores, also marched with the group. “The image of Honduras is important,” he said, adding the question, “if Hondurans can come here then why shouldn’t others?” He was talking about the perceived potential of Tela becoming a major tourist destination, if only the image could be improved.
The mayor participated in the march but did not join in to get his hand dirty picking up the trash. A media colleague said that in some ways “Hondurans feel embarrassed by being shown what do and how to do it.”
Attitudes towards garbage also play a large part in this inaction.
Tourism official for the Tela Municipality, Vanessa Merlo, said that “you don’t invite someone into your house unless it is clean, it is a cultural thing which needs to be tackled at a profound sociological level,” and this is why education and awareness, as displayed this week, are important to change this.
The consensus in Tela is that people want to improve their image.
The streets of Tela are arguable some of the cleanest. Flores prides himself on this achievement.
During Semana Santa, however, national tourists flock to Tela for the annual gathering and the beaches are left a dump. “It is the national tourists that create the mess not the foreign tourist,” Merlo points out.
Flores was very pleased that JICA volunteers would come to clean up during these and other times, but his frustration was apparent. “People can take cleaning into their own hands, resources need not be overstretched for something that people can do themselves,” he said.
Other problems continue to persist further down the coast from Tela. Garifuna populations have been entirely neglected by local government and are still using the ocean as a sewage dump.
They are unknowingly destroying miles of beautiful, untapped beaches to the south of Tela which could be revived and enjoyed.
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