History

The Latin America Community Assistance Foundation (LACA) was established in February 1992 by Lillian Trillo, a bilingual Hispanic public health nurse based in Castro Valley, California.

In the mid-1980s, Lillian visited central Honduras as a tourist. Though she had extensive experience working with the poor in Detroit slums, central California migrant camps, and Oakland ghettos, she was deeply affected by the living conditions of the rural poor in Honduras. Entire families live in one-room, drafty, smoke-filled houses with dirt floors, no electricity, running water or sanitary facilities. She also discovered that neither medical nor dental care was readily available to residents of many rural Honduran communities.

Consequently, Lillian returned to Honduras many times to apply her professional skills, and she began enlisting colleagues to join in providing basic health care and health education. As more and more relatives and friends donated money to help with medicines, school supplies and clothing for needy children, she realized the necessity for the creation of a formal foundation. Lillian recruited a board of directors to share in fiscal management, fundraising, and planning projects to aid the rural poor of Latin America and thus LACA was founded.

Since 1992, LACA’s services have expanded to eight countries in Latin America: El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama.

The Foundation’s projects now include much more than basic medical and dental care for the poor. Among them are health education, clean drinking water supplies, housing construction, self-help co-operatives, micro loans, solar cookers, scholarships at all educational levels and disaster relief.

LACA is an all-volunteer organization with no paid staff. Even those board members and professionals who participate in our medical clinics pay their own expenses. As a result, 95.5% of the funds raised go directly to aid the rural poor. This is one of the highest funding success ratios among all non-profits.

As the budget allows, LACA will target new areas of operation in Latin America.