Thank you to the witnesses for your great presentation here so far today.
Again, I think once the free trade agreement can be ratified and can take place, it may be a very important factor for Honduras.
I know that crime usually results from two things: being undereducated and being unemployed. Unemployment is a very big reason that some of these gangs exist because it gives them something to do.
Just a couple of years ago, I think, we celebrated a very special occasion in Washington. It was part of the work Canada does in the Americas. I'm from Stratford, Ontario. We have the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, which has a very good program in El Salvador. They've taken gang members off the street, given them an opportunity to set up an arts theatre company, not just artists but a company. They have the whole...right from carpenters to scene painters and all those types of things. That's been able to give some of these young street people an opportunity to learn a trade. They go through the whole procedure. Some of them are actors and they act in various plays. They're even starting to generate some money through that theatre.
After a year or two, that person who's learned some carpentry skills through that—and there are people who go from the theatre to El Salvador to teach some of these things—it has given these people a purpose. It's surprising how that particular program has helped.
You're not going to have the theatre group all over the place, but if you can start at the bottom and give some people a reason for not being in a gang, then these people will start their own business, sometimes partway through, and then they have to get somebody else in to help fill that position. It's worked very well.
One evening they put on a play. It was quite good. I didn't understand anything because I don't understand Spanish, but it was a wonderful way to do it.
I know we talk sometimes in military or government terms, but sometimes the people we're dealing with in these places are ordinary people. Maybe a program like that could be initiated in some of these places also, to give these people a reason not to be in a gang.