About Niños de Carlos
Hondurans suffer from many dire problems, often stemming from their decrepit educational system. According to the U.N., Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world. My own son Carlos was murdered at 31 years of age in Tegucigalpa. UNICEF ranks Honduras in the 99th percentile for infant mortality (children under the age of five.) Government corruption affects the school system. Hondurans need education in order to change their government. The Honduran educational system is one hundred years behind its Central American neighbors.
TOM'S STORY
After years of prayers and a mountain of paper work, Bonnie Whitaker adopted Tom from Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The year was 1982. He was about 4 ½ years old. He was quick, engaging and so full of life. He quickly learned all of the names of his new family and seemed very interested in all of them. Because of Tom’s early trials as a young child, his teenage years were filled with a lot of rebellion and anger. Bonnie later learned she hadn’t completed his paperwork correctly. Tom was then deported back to his home country of Honduras at age 25. He knew no one and couldn’t remember the language. He made the best of a bad situation but on December 4, 2010 Tom was shot and killed in his own neighborhood. Life would never be the same.
THE CASTRO FAMILY
While living with the Castro family in 2011, day after day the Castro children would go into Bonnie's room and exclaim, “no hay escuela,” which means, “There’s no school today.” The Honduran children attend fewer days of school than almost anywhere else in the world. The school system in Honduras is both corrupt and broken. Bonnie learned that the only way Honduran children can get a decent education is currently through private schools and funds.