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To our extended El Hogar family,
It is with great pain and sadness that we share the news of the death of Denis Javier Hernandez Garcia, a third-year student at El Hogar's Agricultural School and Farm.
All of the El Hogar Agricultural School students live at the Farm but many leave to visit family on weekends and holidays. It was Denis's practice to do this. This past weekend, Denis was visiting his sister who lives in the capital city Tegucigalpa. Denis left the Farm on Friday, and on Saturday February 18 was on his way with his sister to the Metro Mall in Tegucigalpa to make some small purchases.
The two of them took a taxi from her residence to the bus stop along the Fuerzas Armadas Boulevard, a major route in the city that does go through some areas where assaults sometimes occur. Shortly after climbing onto the bus, he was accosted by a thief asking for his cell phone. According to his sister, he had his earphones in his ears, listening to music, and did not hear the demand for his cell phone. His slowness to hand over the phone was apparently motive enough for the thief to shoot. Denis was shot one time in the chest and died on the scene.
Yony Aguilera, the Director of the Agricultural School went to Tegucigalpa and brought Denis' body to his home village early Sunday morning. This village is just outside of the town of Texilgua, about ninety kilometers from Tegucigalpa, over rough terrain and across several mountain ridges. Shortly thereafter, the rest of the third-year students from the Agricultural School arrived in the El Hogar van. The other Directors from El Hogar: Lazaro Juarez, Claudia Castro, Raul Castro, and Executive Director, Matthew Engleby, travelled to the home to grieve with the family. They brought with them a large supply of food and beverages to help feed the community gathered in the home. The boys from the Agricultural School remained over-night with the family to keep vigil with them until morning when the internment occurred.
On Tuesday February 21, a prayer service will be held at the Agricultural School and we ask all of our community to keep the children of Honduras in your prayers.
A student at El Hogar since 2010, Denis would have celebrated his 19th birthday this March. He was a gifted sweeper on the soccer team, known for his steady defense. He was excited about returning to his community to share with them the knowledge of terrace farming and sustainable practices that he acquired at the Agricultural School. He will be greatly missed.
We are on constant alert for the safety of our children, both while they are with us and once they graduate and are on their own. As such, we are ever-mindful of our responsibility to balance lessons about the dangers of living in and moving about Tegucigalpa and other particularly dangerous areas in Honduras with opportunities for the older students to put those lessons into practice. Our students are reminded over and over about the dangers of traveling in Tegucigalpa, even though we realize that most of them come from dangerous neighborhoods to begin with. For our students, it is not until they join our family that they come to know a world where fear and survival are not the primary motivations for being in community. The El Hogar community has rallied around Denis' family and his fellow students and grieves deeply over this loss.
As always, we are grateful for your continuing presence and support of these children. Please don't hesitate to contact us with questions and concerns. Liz Kinchen, our Executive Director in North America can be reached via email at lkinchen@elhogar.org and by phone at 781-729-7600; Margo Mingay, our Service Team Coordinator, can be reached at mmingay@elhogar.org or by phone at 416-696-7682.
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