Santos Mejía is part of the maintenance team at our Campus in Copán Ruinas. He embodies much of what all of us admire and hope to see in our own leadership. Santos shows up early, works diligently, goes the extra mile (even when nobody will ever notice), and carries a powerful yet quiet dignity into each task.

In Honduras, too many workplaces fail to honor the kind of work ethic Santos brings, and some take advantage of it. Fair wages are rare, leaving larger personal projects out of reach for a lot of employees. At UrbanPromise Latin America, Santos found something different: a place to cultivate a deeper sense of purpose, knowing his efforts matter, paired with a fair wage that also contributes to the well-being of his family. This is revolutionary for many Honduras workplaces.

A few weeks ago, he sent our team a message: "Así quedó mi casita." This is how my little house turned out.

Santos had been working on an important house project: a new roof! He was able to do this in part thanks to his employment at UrbanPromise. We hope that our work environment and compensation structure can serve as an example for other businesses.

Santos sent our team pictures and a message of gratitude when the project was finally complete. That same posture of gratitude is what shapes how he shows up to work.

Maintenance can be easy work to overlook. The tasks get done and most of the time nobody asks how. This May, around Honduras's Día del Trabajador (Workers Day), one of our other Campus staff, Erlin, decided that his colleague's work would not get lost in the background this year. Erlin put together a poster thanking Santos for keeping the Campus clean, safe, and cared for.

Afterward, the two of them traded a few more words of appreciation.

Simple, but genuine affirmation. And likely not common in most workplaces around Copán.

Campus Shalom needs solid infrastructure, but we also need teamwork grounded in gratitude and encouragement like we see in Santos and Erlin. Our campus is in great hands!