Meatpie

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Honduras has the world's highest murder rate. Many victims are poor. And one politician campaigning for election made an unusual vote-winning promise - free funerals for anyone unable to give a loved-one a dignified burial.


Early one Saturday morning the phone rings at the People's Funeral Service on a noisy main street in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital.
On the phone is one of the workers from the city's mortuary. A family needs help. Another young man was gunned down in the street the previous day, and his relatives do not have the cash to give him a decent funeral.


At the back of the building there is a stack of new coffins, some beige, some grey.


Within hours, a black pick-up truck with Funeraria del Pueblo painted in orange on its sides is on its way to the mortuary, with an empty coffin on board.
The vehicle is also carrying a stand for the coffin, curtains and candles, and coffee and bread for mourners at the wake.


This will be held in the family's local church, before 26-year-old Ramon Orlando Varela is buried in a plot also provided by the People's Funeral Service.
It is a comprehensive service offered free of charge to the poor of the city by the office of the mayor of Tegucigalpa, Ricardo Alvarez.


"When I was campaigning to be mayor, nearly seven years ago, I found that people were being buried in plastic garbage bags," he remembers.
"I said, 'That cannot happen in my country, in my city.' So I've been running the funeral service for the last six years, and this is my seventh year."

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17870673
 
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