We were lucky to catch up with Thiery Sparks recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Thiery, thanks for joining us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

The story of Honduras Good Works (HGW) begins in 1998 when Drs. Donald and Bobbi Hopkins visited the rural, mountainous region of El Paraíso, Honduras in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch. There they saw first-hand the need for immediate medical care as well as long-term assistance in rebuilding the communities devastated by flooding and famine. When they returned to the United States, they immediately began searching for like-minded volunteers and in 1999, the group that would become HGW officially began.

When it comes to the need for medical care in Honduras, there really is no upper limit. We chose to focus on the communities where the need was greatest and, over time, developed a close relationship with local leaders. That relationship is, in many way, the bedrock of the success of HGW. All of our initiatives grew out of collaboration with our Honduran family of volunteers, many of whom have been with us since the beginning. When deciding where our annual medical brigade will serve, we work with the local churches to determine the areas we can do the most good, usually to the tune of 2,000-4,000 patients a year. In 2003 a member of our board, Cindy Smith, APN, began our scholarship program which now provides over 225 high school students with educational funding. An offshoot of that effort became our vitamin program, which provides multivitamins and anti-parasite medication for 2,200 students annually. In 2018 we began providing water filters in our communities and now fund 250 filters a year to households in our service area.

What brings all of our programs together is a commitment to our communities in Honduras and a dialogue with them for every decision. When assessing needs, we are able to put boots on the ground and leverage a 25-year relationship with over thirty (and growing!) local communities. It is a process which can be arduous, trying, and opaque, as we often don’t see the long-term outcomes we strive for for years or even decades. But we trust our Honduran and American volunteers to continue building on the successes of the past and to look to new areas for improvement. We are still beginning new programs (educational funding for trade schools in 2024) and strengthening our existing efforts. Throughout the years, our greatest resource has also been our best metric: the communities we serve alongside.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My first experience with Honduras Good Works was with a medical brigade in 2007. There I was fortunate to work, as a high schooler, alongside professional doctors, dentists, and our Honduran partners to provide medical care to over 2,000 patients in the course of a week. That experience ignited a passion and a sense of empathy that has only grown over the years. I continued to volunteer with HGW and in 2015 was given my first post-college part-time job working for the organization. After finding employment elsewhere, I was asked to join the board of trustees in 2016 and since then have served as secretary, treasurer, and now as board chair. Honduras Good Works has been a constant source of personal growth and drive for the entirety of my professional life, and it is an honor to continue serving with such a storied group.

The greatest strength and selling point of HGW is our holistic approach to combating the ravages of poverty in the communities we serve. What started as an emergency response to communities wracked by natural disaster has evolved into a community of care serving a litany of needs: 2,000-4,000 patients a year receive one-on-one consultation with our doctors and dentists during our medical brigade. 2,200 children receive vitamins and anti-parasite medication. 250 families receive water filters which last 10+ years annually. 225 students are provided with partial scholarships to the equivalent of high school, and 6 scholarships go to students in university. In 2024, we are beginning a program for trade school scholarships. During covid, we provided alternative funding for food and internet access to keep our students and their families engaged in school. In over thirty communities, we provide training for monitoring and treating chronic conditions.

While many great organizations work with the people of rural Honduras, few have the long-term and deeply-ingrained relationship we do with our communities. We have watched children grow up to become the very doctors who now treat these communities. We have watched communities rally to care for, and ultimately mourn, their elders as we treat them over the course of years. We have built relationships that go far beyond that of simple volunteers. These relationships, in turn, allow us to look back on years of experience and data when determining how best to serve our communities today. Our first point of contact when making a decision for our organization are the people who will be impacted. What better way to work to improve the future for our communities than by partnering with them?

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Perhaps the greatest myth I have had to dissolve for myself is that of the suffering servant. In many circles, charity and volunteer work is considered best accomplished when only those you serve gain. While there is a time and place for solemnity, the idea helping others cannot and should not feel good is poison to the cause of any charity.

I began my volunteer work in Honduras when I was sixteen. While certainly a humbling experience (carrying urine samples around all day or assisting in necrotic wound debridement is far from flattering), I found myself feeling guilty when asked about what I had done. I wanted to tell people what a great time I had, how good it felt to be working to better others. I felt like I was somehow doing a disservice to those we were helping because I was enjoying the work, and it wasn’t supposed to be about me.

It wasn’t until I began working for HGW as a part-time employee that I was able to right myself on this topic. I was an ambassador for our many programs, and I knew that if we could get people down to Honduras to experience it for themselves, they would love it. But statistics, numbers, and elevator pitches only go so far. I began to tell people the truth: that I wouldn’t do the work if I didn’t love it. I loved seeing the same communities year-after-year. I loved working alongside doctors and nurses and dentists to address needs that had often been festering for months or years untreated. More than that, I knew that it was a source of joy for our communities too. Our Honduran volunteers loved sharing their experiences. Our patients loved showing us their beautiful country, their modest but extraordinary homes, their livestock and livelihood. The happiness of a man who had just had six teeth pulled with limited anesthetic and a mouthful of bloodied cotton is hard to describe but a wonder to behold. Nothing about that demanded that I had to deny my happiness or put up a facade of dour servitude.

My personal growth out of the mindset of the suffering servant allowed me to better communicate with potential volunteers and donors, but also with the communities themselves. Our education programs brought pride to many families, and I took pride in making sure we saw these children through their goals. Patients who were receiving a year’s worth of medicine wanted to thank our donors, and I loved taking pictures with them with assurances I would get them to the right hands. While there are certainly predatory forms of promoting service, I truly believe that unless you make room for and embrace the joy of meaningful work done well, you are undercutting both your efforts and the benefits you provide.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Managing an organization comprised entirely of volunteers creates a wide array of challenges and the toolset is somewhat limited when dealing with people. Honduras Good Works draws our volunteers from many areas of expertise (medical professionals, spiritual advisors, education workers, technical professionals, etc.) who are often working outside of their comfort zones. It is easy to get exasperated or overwhelmed when you have vast amounts of very focused knowledge and are being asked to do a task that does not involve any of it. Going from the expert to the novice is a sometimes humbling but often frustrating experience.

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned for managing a non-profit is to trust people to be people. A bit kitschy, but it’s an important reminder that you are working with passionate people but they are not inexhaustible. In the first sense, trust that everyone who is volunteering is doing so because they care about the work and they want to do what is best for the organization and those we serve. In the latter sense, these are people who often have numerous other commitments and a limit to how much they can and are willing to undertake. Where the “trust” comes in is that you cannot necessarily expect a volunteer to communicate either end of that spectrum. It is your responsibility as a leader to check before, during, and after making an ask of a volunteer to make sure that they feel supported, that they know their expectations and resources, and that (sometimes most importantly) that they know they can say no or when they need help. Doing so will help avoid small problems becoming last-minute emergencies, and also help allocate resources and identify areas for improvement. Your volunteers are just as important to your organization as your beneficiaries, and taking care of them frees them up to better serve.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hondurasgoodworks.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hondurasgws/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HondurasGoodWorks
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/thiery-sparks
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/HondurasGWs