SHREVEPORT, La.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 6, 2026--
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas), through member Bonvenu Bank, has awarded $300,000 in Pathway Fund grants to four organizations in Northwest Louisiana to support ongoing efforts to address heirs’ property challenges and help families preserve generational homes. The funding is part of more than $1 million awarded to 13 Louisiana nonprofits by FHLB Dallas through Bonvenu Bank.
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“Ensuring families have the tools they need to secure clear ownership of their homes lays the groundwork for stronger, more resilient communities,” said Bonvenu Bank Vice President of Community Development Michael Colston. “These organizations are doing essential work to help residents preserve their homes for future generations.”
The following organizations received funding:
Heirs’ property refers to land or homes passed down without a will or clear title, often resulting in complicated shared ownership across generations. Without documented ownership, families may struggle to maintain their homes or protect their property from legal disputes.
“Heirs’ property issues can prevent families from accessing critical resources and long-term economic opportunities,” said Greg Hettrick, senior vice president and director of Community Investment at FHLB Dallas. “Through the Pathway Fund and members like Bonvenu Bank, we’re able to help organizations that are providing essential guidance and support so families can protect their homes and their futures.”
The four organizations that received funding will provide property financial literacy programs, help residents execute wills and/or provide legal assistance to clear property titles.
FHLB Dallas and 15 participating members awarded $4.3 million in Pathway Fund grants to 42 organizations last year. The 2026 application window begins Monday, August 3, and offers $3 million. Learn more about the Pathway Fund and how to apply.
About Bonvenu Bank
Bonvenu Bank is a community bank in Louisiana offering a wide range of banking services for individuals and businesses. Formerly Citizens National Bank, Bonvenu Bank was established in 1985 and operates 14 full-service branch locations across Louisiana. With a longstanding commitment to building a prosperous future for the communities it serves, Bonvenu Bank has been a trusted financial partner in Northwest Louisiana for 40 years.
About the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas is one of 11 district banks in the FHLBank System created by Congress in 1932. With total assets of $97.1 billion as of March 31, 2026, FHLB Dallas is a member-owned cooperative that supports housing and community development by providing competitively priced loans and credit products to approximately 780 members and associated institutions in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas. For more information, visit fhlb.com.
The Shreveport Bar Foundation Pro Bono Project received a $150,000 Pathway Fund grant awarded through FHLB Dallas member Bonvenu Bank to assist residents with heirs' property issues.
PRAIA, Cape Verde (AP) — Two patients with hantavirus and one suspected of infection were evacuated from a cruise ship and being flown to the Netherlands on Wednesday, the U.N. health agency said. The ship at the center of the deadly outbreak departed Cape Verde with nearly 150 people on board and headed to Spain’s Canary Islands.
Associated Press footage showed health workers in protective gear evacuating three passengers, including the ship's British doctor, who Spain's health ministry said had been in “serious condition” but has improved. An air ambulance later departed. On Wednesday evening, a medical evacuation flight arrived at Amsterdam's airport.
Three people have died, and one body remained on the ship, the World Health Organization said. Of the eight cases recorded, five were confirmed by laboratory testing.
Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings and can spread person-to-person, though that is rare, according to the WHO, whose top epidemic expert said the risk to the public is low.
Health officials in Europe and Africa are trying to identify people who may have had contact with people who earlier left the ship, which departed April 1 from South America for stops in Antarctica and several remote Atlantic islands.
Two Argentine officials investigating the origins of the outbreak said the government's leading hypothesis is that a Dutch couple contracted the virus while bird-watching in the city of Ushuaia before boarding.
They said the couple visited a landfill during the tour and may have been exposed to rodents. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, with the investigation ongoing. Authorities previously said Ushuaia and surrounding Tierra del Fuego province had never recorded a hantavirus case.
The Dutch foreign ministry said the three people evacuated were a 41-year-old Dutch national, a 56-year-old British national and a 65-year-old German national who would be transferred to specialized hospitals in Europe. WHO said Wednesday that testing in Senegal confirmed that two of the evacuees were infected with hantavirus.
Two of the evacuees remain in "serious condition," Dutch ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions said, and the third had no symptoms but was “closely associated” with a German passenger who died on the MV Hondius ship on May 2.
Health officials said passengers and crew members still on the ship are without symptoms and isolating in their cabins. Their journey to the Canary Islands will take three or four days, Spain’s health ministry said, adding that the arrival “won´t represent any risk for the public."
Still, the Canary Islands regional president , Fernando Clavijo, said he worried about the risk to the population and demanded a meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Authorities said passengers tested positive for the Andes virus, a species of hantavirus found in South America, primarily in Argentina and Chile. The virus can spread between people, though that’s rare and only through close contact, according to the WHO. The health agency has never seen a hantavirus outbreak on a ship.
“This is not the next COVID, but it is a serious infectious disease,” the WHO's top epidemic expert, Maria Van Kerkhove, said. “Most people will never be exposed to this.”
Two Dutch infectious diseases experts were joining the ship, Van Kerkhove said. Access to clinical care is important, she said, because infected people can develop severe acute respiratory distress and need oxygen or mechanical ventilation. The hantavirus incubation period can be one to six weeks, or more, she said.
The ship's itinerary included stops across the South Atlantic, including mainland Antarctica and the remote islands of South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena and Ascension.
Authorities in Switzerland said a former passenger who tested positive was being treated at a Zurich hospital. South African authorities earlier said two passengers who were transferred there tested positive. One, a British man, was in intensive care; the other collapsed and died in South Africa.
Swiss health office spokesperson Simon Ming said the patient there had left the ship during its St. Helena stop. It was not clear when or how he traveled to Switzerland and how many other countries he might have passed through.
The patient’s wife hasn’t shown symptoms but is self-isolating as a precaution, a statement by the office said.
“There is currently no risk to the Swiss public," the office said, while looking into whether the patient had come into contact with others.
At St. Helena, the body of the Dutch man suspected to be the first hantavirus case on board was taken off the ship. His wife flew to South Africa, where she collapsed at the Johannesburg airport and died.
Later, a British man was evacuated at Ascension Island and taken to South Africa.
The ship's operator has not said if other people left at those or other locations.
The South African health ministry says officials have traced 42 out of 62 people, including health workers, they believe had contact with the two infected passengers who traveled there. The 42 tested negative for hantavirus.
But 20 people still need to be traced, including five people who may have been on flights to South Africa with some of the passengers as well as flight crew members.
Some may have now traveled overseas, the ministry said.
DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Keaten from Geneva. Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria; Mark Banchereau in Dakar, Senegal; Joseph Wilson in Barcelona; Geir Moulson in Berlin; Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Michelle Gumede and Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg, contributed to this report.
This version corrects to say the evacuated doctor is British.
An air ambulance takes off with evacuated patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship from the airport in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
An air ambulance takes off with evacuated patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship from the airport in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
The MV Hondius cruise ship is anchored at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship into an ambulance at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear arrive to evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
A night view of the MV Hondius cruise ship anchored at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
An aerial view of the MV Hondius Dutch cruise ship anchored in the Atlantic off Cape Verde, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Arilson Almeida)
An aerial view of the MV Hondius Dutch cruise ship anchored in the Atlantic off Cape Verde, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Arilson Almeida)
