Archive for February, 2012
Kinder Graduation
February 9, 2012 by admin, under News.
by Ivana Mravikova, Volunteer from Slovakia, September 2011 – February 2012
The final balloon inflated, the windows covered in various types of decoration, chairs organized in rows. Everything seems to be prepared for a Kinder graduation party – the symbol of the end of the easy life, but at the same time the beginning of something new. After the holiday, most of the kids will sit down at desks with an eagerness to absorb new knowledge. But not today. Today is, namely, their BIG day.
It´s almost 9:00 o´clock. First kids start to flow in. Girls, wearing the same sky-blue coloured dresses that make them look marvelous; guys (little caballeros as Hondurans would say), with the matching shirts and shiny shoes. All of them are enormously cute. The ceremony starts a little bit later, but no wonder… welcome to Honduras! Almost as a professional, Oscar Funez, an upstanding member of our small community takes the initiative to give a toast. Not a single appreciation was left out.
Subsequently, time to get the diplomas. One could imagine it would be a very dull and long winded event. But the fact that all of them had a gown and a mortar board hat on made it into an endearing event. After all the formal issues, it was green lights to go for the fiesta. The tables sagged under the weight of all the food that melted on our tongues. Kids were no longer shy, hiding behind the backs of their parents. Instead, you were able to see clumsy dance moves, wide grins, and bursts of laughter. It all was precious.
Thanks to Charlie, Amalia, Sara the teacher, proud parents, the team of volunteers and many, many others, the kids could fully enjoy what they deserved; and rightly so. I, one of the volunteers, was glad that I could be a part of this.
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We are proud to announce that 23 students graduated from our Kinder in November 2011 and will be continuing on to first grade!
Children who attend the Kinder complete a full pre-school curriculum in preparation for entering the public elementary school. Volunteers work with the Kinder teacher to offer instruction in small groups. Amalia Kirkhum, the project director for the Kinder, interviews and selects children from some of the neediest families in El Porvenir. Most of the children come from very fragile families and typically only have one parent or caregiver living in the home. Their homes often do not have indoor plumbing and some of the children do not even have a bed.The Kinder program serves breakfast to the children who attend and also focuses on hygiene education in regard to health habits like brushing teeth and washing hands before eating. The program is sponsored by our “Breakfast Club” sponsors who each donate $15 USD per month to maintain this feeding program. We are hopeful to recruit an additional 12 Breakfast Club sponsors for 2012. If you would like to help us feed breakfast to the Kinder children, your $15 per month would certainly help! Please CLICK HERE to sign up as a Breakfast Club sponsor!
We send many thanks to the sponsors and volunteers who made 2011 a successful year at the Kinder!!
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ChangeStream Media Mural Project
February 9, 2012 by admin, under News.
Many thanks to Denise and Sean from ChangeStream Media for sharing the following pictures. ChangeStream Media is with us in El Porvenir for the months of January and February, 2012. They have done an amazing mural project with the children & volunteers at the Vacation Activities Program (VAP) and are developing videos to help us promote our volunteer and sponsor programs. They will also be promoting our partner Anne Fowler’s Healthy Living program. Thanks also to Dave Riley of Amigos of Honduras for sending them our way!
Check out this great work:
They started with having the Honduran children participate in a video pen pal program with Seattle teens who had also done a mural. The Honduran students were thrilled to see the messages Seattle teens sent them. This is one of six groups of students who participated in the project, which took place during HondurasChildren’s Vacation Activities Program.
After brainstorming, the students sketched ideas for the mural, whose theme was “Education For A Great Porvenir.” “Porvenir” means “future,” and is also the name of the town where we work.
Then the painting began! The top half of the mural represented different aspects of education, while the bottom half envisioned a bright future for the students and their town.
