Only a few months into the year and Victory Institute’s Global team has been BUSY!
As we’ve moved into Spring, a season full of new exciting opportunities for the Global team, we’ve also come to the bittersweet period of the year where many of our training programs end, and the elections begin. Most recently, we joined our local Honduran partners at SOMOS CDC (Center for Development and LGBTI Cooperation) to close out the LGBTQI+ Leadership Program in Tegucigalpa.
Our training program by the numbers
Dates: March 22 – 24, 2024
Participant demographics:
- 20 total graduated participants (19 participants from across Honduras, 1 elected official participant joined from El Salvador)
- 40% women
- 40% transgender people
Module – #4 – Political Campaigns:
- Political Campaign Structure and Administration
- Construction and Analysis of Political Messages
- Objectives and Tactics for Integral Communication
Over 2 days of intense training, our participants were guided on the key elements needed for building an effective political campaign. It’s important to note that this module took a more integral focus of campaigning, not only integrating how to build and run a team during an electoral cycle, but also the necessary elements for a successful campaign and movement in Honduras as a whole. What does this mean? It means:
- Unifying as LGBTQI+ political actors in the country, understanding each other’s differences but working through them to achieve unified gains in a political system and structure that is not inclusive towards LGBTQI+ people.
- Constant, effective and integral communication with target audiences and with each other; and
- Analysis of winning political campaigns.
Lastly, in a series of practical exercises led by our trainer, the participants learned how to build in auditative, physical and visual elements to their campaigns.
A Dinner and Space for Trans Participants
On day two of the training, Deputy Director of Global Programs Mateo de la Torre organized a dinner gathering with nine transgender participants and community leaders. The purpose was to gain insights into the expectations of transgender leaders regarding the support provided by organizations such as Victory Institute and the Regional Observatory on Political Participation.
A Celebration of Each Other and a Continued Commitment to Those Who Should Be With Us
It’s hard to transmit in words just how special these training programs are. To have the opportunity and privilege to hear participants’ stories, to get to know them as people and not just as text on an Excel spreadsheet. To witness and support their continued efforts towards greater political participation. And always, to CELEBRATE with them.
We ended our training in Honduras with a certificate ceremony, sharing toasts among each other while also remembering that we were missing one key person – Cristina Portillo, a trans woman from San Pedro Sula, one of our participants that was kidnapped and disappeared in November 2023. She has yet to be reported found by local authorities.
With words from Dylan Duarte, one of our trainees, he reminded us that beyond the celebration, the difficult reality is that the risk is still too high for Honduran LGBTIQ+ people. In a final toast, we committed to Cristina and to continued political organizing efforts to ensure a future where situations like Cristina’s are no longer the reality in Honduras.
Next: Continuing to Support Honduran LGBTQI+ Political Actors and Closing other Trainings Across Latin America
A huge part of our travel and work is meant to make sure that we get to connect with networks of LGBTQI+ political actors in the various countries where we work, and in Honduras, we intend to continue doing just that and bring them into the fold of our global network. The Global team will soon have more updates after our visit to Mexico City the last week of April to close our training program and meet LGBTIQ+ political leaders before the country’s elections in June!
