Impact Spotlight
Solarizing homes, coconut and cassava processing sites, and the Garífuna University in Vallecito
Powering agroforestry, food sovereignty, and sustainable development for 47 Garífuna communities
Defending ancestral lands and cultural autonomy through clean energy infrastructure
About
The Garífuna people are an Afro-Indigenous community with roots in the Caribbean, descended from Africans and Indigenous Arawak and Kalinagu people. After being forcibly exiled from the island of St. Vincent in 1797, they established coastal communities across Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Belize. Today, the Garífuna remain on the frontlines of cultural and environmental resistance, facing displacement from large-scale infrastructure, extractive industries, and climate change. OFRANEH is a grassroots organization advancing territorial defense, spiritual and cultural sovereignty, and the right to autonomous development. In Vallecito, a reclaimed land base on Honduras’ Caribbean coast, the community is building a just, regenerative future from the ground up.
“With this solar energy project in Vallecito, we’ll be able to process the coconuts we’ve planted, revive traditional cassava-making, and reclaim our Garífuna identity. These practices are being lost—but if we bring them back, we bring back the legacy of our ancestors.”
HF Partnership
This project expands the Soberanía Energética Vallecito initiative, bringing off-grid solar energy to Vallecito’s Garífuna University, community homes, and two artisan production spaces for coconut and cassava. The infrastructure will directly support food sovereignty, income generation, and education rooted in Garífuna culture and ancestral knowledge. By solarizing key facilities, OFRANEH is strengthening autonomous governance and deepening the community’s ability to resist displacement, climate disasters, and cultural erasure. The project will benefit 47 Garífuna communities, creating a replicable model for community-led, regenerative energy transitions.
In the News
