Juan Laínez: Action to Help The People Around Us
Juan Laínez came to the Presidential Precinct in the fall of 2016 through the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI). Alongside nine peers from across Latin America and the Caribbean, Juan represented his country with an outstanding entrepreneurial mindset, but like only a couple of Presidential Precinct alumni, Juan also brought his experience as a medical doctor.
When he arrived at the Precinct, Juan was focused on growing his NGO called “Voy Por Honduras”, a nationwide effort to engage young Honduran professionals in volunteer work – giving back to their community and country.
The NGO engages a wide variety of sectors in the Honduran economy, including its work to organize medical care from volunteer doctors like Juan. Recently, Juan coordinated and worked alongside a team of medical doctors, nurses, dentists, and other professionals to treat nearly 900 people in one year’s time. While privatized healthcare is available in Honduras, only a minority who can afford the up-front costs have access to it, and the public health system is saturated.
The World Bank reports a rising GDP in Honduras, but progress is a limited reality for its population of nearly 10 million. Up to 50 percent of Hondurans live in poverty, and far too often, civic and economic progress is stifled by systemic challenges of corruption and violence. Organizations like Voy Por Honduras are working to leverage the skills of young and civically engaged volunteers to collectively move towards a brighter and healthier future for their country.
Juan’s hard work shines particularly bright now as we celebrate World Health Day 2021 – this year focused on “building a fairer, healthier world”. The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledges that “some people are able to live healthier lives and have better access to health services than others – entirely due to the conditions in which they are born, grow, live, work and age.” And so many of us have seen how this reality is emboldened in our global fight to end the COVID-19 pandemic.
“COVID has shown us problems in health systems all over the world,” said Juan on a recent Zoom call. Juan is now in Spain, adding to his medical degree a Ph.D. in neuroscience. Experience in Spain and at home have reinforced Juan’s belief that our global community must work together to be successful in vaccinating against the Coronavirus – really, for that matter, to be successful in any shared goal. As fatigue of social distancing worsens for so many of us, now over one year into fluctuating levels of lockdown, Juan shares a potent reminder. “Every action that we take to protect ourselves [against contracting COVID-19] is an action to also help the people around us”.
Juan is genuine and consistent in his sentiment. We know him as a helper and healer by means of his medical degree. His founding of Voy Por Honduras, long before the Coronavirus was on our minds, was done to get Hondurans working together for the benefit of one another, realizing their own potential to serve. Now, Juan’s call for global collaboration projects out to an even larger audience.
On this World Health Day, with voices like Juan’s leading us, a future marked by equitable access to care seems achievable. In credit to his entrepreneurial vision, Juan has found ways to engage and inspire young leaders wherever he goes – from college students to refugee communities and others in between. Thank you, Juan, for your commitment to making our world a better place.
