Christian Commission for Development

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The Christian Commission for Development was founded in 1982 by a group of Christians working with refugees from El Salvador who fled persecution in their country to Honduras, settling in refugee camps along the Honduras/El Salvador border. From that initial work of human rights, service and pastoral compassion, CCD's ministry expanded into neglected areas of Honduras. Before Hurricane Mitch struck at the end of 1998, CCD worked with 113 rural communities in the poorest areas of Honduras. In each village, CCD facilitated the organization of local leaders that worked with their neighbors, together analyzing problems and defining solutions. CCD then accompanied the village as people worked together to make change happen. CCD worked in cooperation with local Catholic and Protestant churches, local municipalities, and other service programs.

Given the tremendous devastation of Hurricane Mitch in late 1998, CCD’s work expanded to over 400 rural communities, helping villages rebuild housing, agricultural production, and community infrastructure. CCD also expanded its ministries in the capital city, Tegucigalpa, where CCD’s headquarters is located.

In 2001, as reconstruction efforts were completed, CCD once again re-invented itself, given that their large program could no longer be sustained financially. The theme of CCD’s ministry for the period 2003-2005 is “Local Development with Citizen participation.” CCD continues forward with its core identity as a Christian and ecumenical organization that believes that victims of poverty and injustice have talents and potential in themselves to work together to improve their situations. The role of CCD is to walk alongside grassroots people and from their own concerns, uncertainties, and despair, facilitate that they are active participants in their own histories and futures – emphasizing their dignity and in peace. From this starting point, CCD works with poor communities, offering training and experience to encourage the organizations of these communities to become strong and active in the local economic, social, cultural, and environmental development. CCD carries out this work in villages grouped in several districts of the country: Norte de Choluteca (four municipalities), Nueva Arcadia (six municipalities), and the Municipality of Mercedes where CCD has a pilot project. In these rural areas CCD has an interdisciplinary staff team that works with communities in assessing needs and implementing development areas, especially in areas of agriculture (grains, coffee, vegetables, sugar cane), livestock, craft production, and commercialization of local products. Other activities involve people in their local decision-making bodies and as advocates for public policy that favors justice for these communities.

A new area of CCD’s work involves border areas and populations with the Central American countries of El Salvador and Guatemala. These are areas of immense ecological and ethnic diversity, areas to be protected in order for traditional “development” to respect this diversity. With the area near and in El Salvador, CCD is working with local communities around issues of natural resources such as land and water, and around infrastructure and services such as roads and health services, to link peoples from the two countries who sometimes are from the same families, but separated by the border. In the border area Honduras-Guatemala, CCD concentrates its efforts with trans-border Indian communities, exploring options for mutual support and work together.

An additional area of CCD’s work involves theological education. CCD works closely with the branch of the Biblical University of Costa Rica, which has an extension program in Honduras. CCD supports students studying theology in the theological center in the city, and promotes basic biblical-theological training courses that are held in the rural communities where CCD works. In this way, CCD promotes grassroots theological knowledge, reflection, and action, with a special emphasis on theological training and formal religious studies for women. One purpose of this work is to strengthen local church leadership, as churches and their leaders are important participants in the local and regional development work overall that CCD promotes.

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317-713-2555
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