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About Quebrada Honda

Quebrada Honda is a community of 128 homes and about 500 inhabitants. It is located in the district of Chepigana along the Panamerican Highway in the province of Darien. Quebrada Honda is largely an agricultural community, where residents work on farms to produce crops such as beans, corn plantains and yams. These agricultural activities are the main source of income for 90% of residents.

Within Quebrada Honda is a single primary school, where students from kindergarten to 6th grade attend classes, though there are only six teachers for the whole community. Quebrada Honda does not have its own health center, forcing residents to travel to Santa Fe for medical or dental care. There are no lawyers within the community, and the closest legal resources are located in Santa Fe. Community members can also access legal support from the Family Tribunal in Meteti, but this office typically does not resolve much. The most common legal needs within the community pertain to alimony, divorce and domestic violence cases. 

Quebrada Honda's Barriers to Justice

Legal services are difficult to access in rural eastern Panama for two primary

reasons: location and cost.  Most often, there are no legal services set up

within rural communities and are instead concentrated in urban areas. 

Therefore, rural Panamanians must travel multiple hours to access these

services. Not only does traveling to these urban areas cost money, but the

legal services themselves are frequently too expensive.  

In addition, there is an attitude of mistrust amongst the rural clients. 

Historically, there have occurred many cases in which lawyers have come to

rural communities, the community members have paid for the legal services,

but the lawyers have returned to the city without resolving the cases. 

Therefore, it is a challenge to gain  trust of the community members when it

comes to dealing with their personal human rights issues, and to prove not

all lawyers will take advantage of them.

Civic Engagement and Empowerment

By focusing on specific aspects of legal access and inclusion, Global Brigades’ Human Rights Program aims to empower communities like Ipeti Colono to overcome the obstacles mentioned above. Starting in January 2015, Brigaders have been able to tackle family law cases, execute pro-bono legal clinics, and perform educational workshops.

Family Law: The most common legal issues within the community include issues of alimony and childcare, land issues, domestic violence, and some violent crimes. Without a lawyer in the community, many legal issues go unresolved or unattended for many years, and seemingly simply legal troubles can go unanswered.

Legal Clinics: Global Brigade’s Human Rights Program has been able to offer their pro-bono legal services to community members in Ipeti Colono with the help of Panamanian lawyers as they are shadowed by volunteers. Both community members and volunteers work together to challenge the stigma of lawyers in the region by offering real, professional services for free.

Educational Workshops: Volunteers will present educational workshops in collaboration with the governmental organization MIDES (Ministry of Development). Capitalizing on the use of education as a tool for community empowerment, volunteers lead discussions and workshops with students and families about issues that have direct consequences and effects in their everyday lives, including: the right to education, the right to a life free from violence, sexual health, gender stereotypes, etc.

Visit Other Programs in Ipeti Colono

Global Brigades strives to implement a model of Holistic Development in communities through a system of collectively implementing health, economic, and education initiatives to strategically meet a community's development goals. Learn more about the other programs being implemented in Quebrada Honda:

 BusinessDental  Environmental Medical  Microfinance Public Health