At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Kat Pineda, a young professional living in Hoboken, New Jersey found the The Solidarity Project on Instagram and immediately reached out to learn more about our mission, projects, and impact in her parents’ home country of Honduras. Prior to the global lockdowns, Kat had visited her family in San Pedro Sula, Honduras often. Now, with travel shut down but needs in Honduras growing, she wanted to find ways to connect from abroad. After learning more about The Solidarity Project’s work, Kat felt inspired to volunteer her time to work in partnership with Honduran communities and local leaders as they implement their visions for change, and by our ability to be nimble when the pandemic forced us to change our programming as a result of covid-19 arriving in Honduras.

 

In just a few short months, Kat became an integral member of our growing volunteer community, supporting staff, Honduran leaders and even fundraising efforts to help The Solidarity Project respond to the emergent needs identified by our partners. Confronting military-enforced lockdowns, our 2020 programming changed from in-person Mesa Comunitaria micro-grant events to coordinating emergency food & seed distributions and providing educational materials about home gardening for increased food security. Kat helped us get out the word about these new efforts by working on our “Leaders in Action” social media campaign that highlighted the mobilization of 65 community leaders in seven partner communities to respond to covid-19 needs over a three month period. 

 

This year, as a volunteer, Kat gained the opportunity to support work that she is passionate about and experience working in community development, social media and other areas of nonprofit development. Due to her commitment, The Solidarity Project has invited her to serve on our newly formed Advisory Committee in 2021. 

 

The Solidarity Project looks forward to continuing to work with Kat as she takes on a new role to support ideas for fundraising, including expanding outreach to Honduran expats like herself who seek opportunities of connection to their families and heritage. Since Kat began her work on our team, she has started a real estate career where she lives in New Jersey, where she sees an opportunity to work with a large community of Honduras nationals and expats in the tri-state region. We are so grateful for Kat’s belief in our mission, enthusiastic support for our organization, and her example of solidarity. 

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