In the quiet La Botija mountains of southern Honduras, something beautiful is happening. It’s not just coffee being cultivated at San Lazaro Coffee — it’s hope. Neyli Cruz, 23 years old, is a shining example of that hope. Originally from the small community of San Pedro del Norte, Nicaragua, Neyli was no stranger to hardship.

For many children in Potreritos, a deeply isolated community with no access to dental care, tooth decay isn’t just a minor inconvenience—it’s a serious threat. Without treatment, they risk losing their teeth at a young age, making it painful to eat, speak, or even smile.

What if your life depended on medical care that was nowhere to be found? For thousands of Hondurans, this isn’t just a fear—it’s their reality. Scattered across the remote mountains and dense jungles of southern Honduras, entire villages live completely off the land, farming just enough to survive. These subsistence farmers and their families work tirelessly to grow beans and corn, yet when sickness strikes, there is nowhere to turn.

In the small village of La Danta, located just 30 minutes from Namasigüe, Choluteca, most families struggle to meet their basic needs. The intense heat scorches the land, and nearly everyone relies on subsistence farming, growing corn to feed their families. But since corn alone doesn’t provide enough income, many also find work in fields harvesting melon, watermelon, sugarcane, or on shrimp farms.

Namasigüe is hot, dry, and economically challenged. Most families survive by growing corn, earning just enough to put food on the table. Others find seasonal work in melon, watermelon, sugarcane, or shrimp farms, doing whatever it takes to survive. But for Jorge, his wife Rosa Castellón, and their five children, survival meant sacrifice, discomfort, and hardship—until one day, everything changed.

In the heart of rural Honduras, in a small village called La Constancia, a mother of two set out on a journey that would change not only her life but the lives of everyone around her. Rosalina Estrada, 32, had always lived with the heavy burden of single motherhood after her husband left when their son Esaú was just 4 years old. For years, she struggled to provide for her two young children, Yeilin and Esaú, while carrying the weight of her challenges alone.

Body functions and noises, quite taboo or unsophisticated to discuss in the US, are a fair game topic of discussion when doing development and humanitarian aid work it seems. Especially in the two thirds of the globe that does not benefit from many of the amazing luxuries that we take for granted in the western world. What’s even more alarming than discussing your body functions and noises is that more people die every year from diarrhea than from AIDS. And, a large part of that diarrhea could be prevented if people had two simple things.