Blog Entry
Vacation Activities Program (VAP)
December 8, 2011 by admin, under News.
The school year in Honduras runs from February thru early November so each year, while the children are on break, HondurasChildren volunteers from all over the world gather to plan and operate a Vacation Activities Program for the children of El Porvenir. Vacation Activities (VAP) is designed to reinforce academic skills thru games and projects, offer opportunities for creative expression thru art, writing, music and drama, and provide fun group skills and team building activities thru movement and sports.
Our project coordinator in El Porvenir is Carly Sellers. Carly is a returning volunteer and brings a wide range of team building skills as well as experience with at risk children. Here is a link to CARLY’s BLOG with lots of great pictures and descriptions of VAP!
In addition to Carly, we have an extremely talented cast of characters! Many thanks to Sarah (USA), Fabienne (Switzerland), Anna (Belgium), Chris (USA), Adam S (USA), Jim (USA), Ivana, (Slovakia), Carly-Lou (Canada), Jurgen & Lilias (Germany), Kerryn & Aaron (USA), Lipika (Germany), Jennifer (USA), Emma (Scotland) and Elizabeth (USA)!! (Note that Elizabeth was one of our first volunteers and is now returning for the 4th time!) – - – Our planning and training was also supported by three volunteers who were finishing their time with us. Thank you Adam P, Belinda and Jana! One more special thanks to one of our most loyal volunteers – - thank you to Dani Funez for helping with registration presentations and being such a good friend to our volunteers!
The volunteers started with a registration in late October 
to let the children and their families know that the program would be offered. Volunteers posted flyers at just about every pulperia in town and also visited the public elementary school. It certainly caused excitement and paid off since we ended up with about 160 children registered!
Check out CARLY’s BLOG for photos and a description of our planning and training week.
Each week at VAP has a theme. Recently the children studied the planets and the solar system, culminating in making planets from balloons and paper mache!
Every week on Friday, we gather children from all three locations for some special games and activities. These are geared toward team-building, group skills and just plain fun. We also want the community to be aware of the work that our volunteers and the children are doing and to enjoy seeing the children playing and learning.
Here is a quick youtube of the first Friday a.m. at VAP
And a few more pix of VAP . . . 
Our volunteers do great work with a very limited budget but they can certainly use some help! If you would like to sponsor supplies and transportation to support the volunteers who are working with HondurasChildren and the kids in El Porvenir, we now have a Supplies Sponsorship which is just $10 USD per month! Contact Karen Barto at sponsor@honduraschildren.org for more info on how to sponsor our projects!! Thanks!!
