About FAPOH
In Honduras, families are building their own way out of poverty. FAPOH has helped them do it since 2009.
It started with housing
In 2009, Randy Lauritzen and Leyla Varela started FAPOH with one focus: safe, affordable homes for families in Honduras. The belief behind it was simple — every family deserves a solid roof, a school, a doctor, and the chance to build a better future.
Housing came first, but a safe home doesn't help a child who can't afford school or a parent who can't find work. So the work grew, program by program — education, healthcare, job training, small-business capital — in whatever order each community needed it.
More than fifteen years in, the clearest lesson is that the best solutions come from the communities themselves. FAPOH works as a partner, not a provider — listening first, building on what's already strong, and making sure every project is led by the people who will live with it.
What that partnership has built
- 500+
- Families served
- 200+
- Homes built since 2009
- 15+
- Years community-led
- 95%
- Of donations go directly to programs
“FAPOH helped my family build a safe home. Now my children have a place to study and we have security for the first time.”
Our journey
Key milestones in FAPOH's history.
2009
The first homes
Randy Lauritzen and Leyla Varela found FAPOH to build safe, affordable homes with families in Honduras.
2015
Beyond housing
Education and healthcare programs join the housing work — a safe home alone can’t carry a family’s future.
2020
Hurricanes Eta and Iota
Back-to-back hurricanes hit Honduras. FAPOH pivots to emergency response and helps communities rebuild.
2022
500 families and counting
Five hundred families have now built homes, learned trades, or gotten care through FAPOH programs.
Leadership team
Dedicated leaders guiding FAPOH's mission and vision.
Leyla Varela
President & Co-Founder
Leyla co-founded FAPOH in 2009 and has led it since. The trust the foundation holds in its partner communities was built by her, through years of listening before building.
Randy Lauritzen
Chairman & Co-Founder
Randy co-founded FAPOH with Leyla and chairs the board. He leads the planning and fundraising that have kept fifteen years of commitments funded.
Marshall Valdez
Vice President
Marshall runs the programs day to day — build schedules, community partnerships, and the follow-through that turns plans into finished homes and classrooms.
Jack Barton
Secretary
Jack handles operations and communications: the unglamorous work that keeps a small foundation efficient, transparent, and easy to reach.
Our values
The principles that guide everything we do.
Dignity
Families lead their own progress; we follow their plans.
Empowerment
Skills and assets that build independence, not dependency.
Partnership
We work alongside communities, not for them — equal partners in the work.
Sustainability
Programs communities own and carry forward themselves.
Work alongside us
FAPOH runs on volunteered time and skills — on build sites in Honduras and from home in the US. Tell us what you're good at, and we'll find where it's needed.
