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.

•  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  • 

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!!

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.

Education-themed pictures included books, computers, a schoolhouse and, of course, a soccer pitch.  Visions of the future included robots, flying cars, a soccer stadium, and clean, paved roads.  In their post, Denise & Sean gave us the compliment of saying, “HondurasChildren’s enrichment programs are volunteer-powered and free for families;  it’s a great model for cross-cultural exchange.”  Thanks!!

 

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!!

Starting this past May, our international volunteers have been working at a new project located on the border of El Porvenir and La Ceiba.   In a community just behind the La Ceiba airport, there is a wonderful children’s home (orphanage) for boys called Niños de la Luz.    Also on the property is an elementary school that serves about 10 of the boys from the home and also about 90 additional boys and girls from the local community.    The school currently offers grades 1-5, however,  each year they will add a new grade until they eventually get to 12.

Our volunteers are assisting in the classroom, tutoring those who need extra help and teaching English.  The days start early for the volunteers who work at Niños.  School starts at 7:00 a.m. and so they leave El Porvenir at about 6:15 in a busito that also transports some of the students.  We are grateful to our El Porvenir neighbors, Susan and Scott Ledford, who have generously provided this transportation to our volunteers! 

The school at Niños de la Luz is very well operated and the children who attend are fortunate to do so.  This is one of the few projects that we support that actually charges a fee to the children who attend.  The cost for a child to attend this private school is 300 Lempiras per month.  That is the equivalent  of about $17. USD (per month).  Many of these children are sponsored to offset the cost.

If you would like to help provide materials and supplies for our volunteers working at this project, please visit our website or click on this link.  We and they appreciate the help! 

https://secure.etransfer.com/donation/donation1.cfm?CFID=6569610&CFTOKEN=3e69a521b471bb06-ADBB5A9C-1279-93C8-168CB821E7027DD2&d2org=HondurasChildren&d2tool=donate

http://www.adamsjourneyinlife.com/home/Blog/Blog.html

Also – - congratulations to incoming Tela volunteer Sarah M. who was our first Omprakash applicant and just received a $500. grant to help with her 8 mo. stay in Honduras!

http://projectheal2011.wordpress.com/

A very special thanks to Anna Brown for all of her planning and preparation to make this program effective and useful for the people of El Porvenir!

Check out their blog at:  http://fpcmariettayouth.blogspot.com/

One of the volunteers described it as,  “a life changing week for all of us as the kids truly impacted each of our lives. Besides our time and experiences with them, we left behind this renovated guard house, so now everyone who enters la aldea will be welcomed by us.”

Our sincere thanks to the students of Eckerd College for spending their spring break making life better for children in Honduras.  We welcome college workgroups to come and help with our projects and are looking forward to welcoming back our annual groups from both Duke University and Virginia Tech.  Contact us at volunteer@honduraschildren.org if you have a group that you would like to bring.