Students Helping Honduras

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Jewelry786 (talk | contribs) at 17:14, 5 February 2024 (Grammer and punctuationn corrections.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Students Helping Honduras
AbbreviationSHH
Formation2006
TypeNGO
Legal statusFoundation (non-profit)
PurposeHumanitarianism
HeadquartersFredericksburg, VA and El Progreso, Honduras
Region served
Honduras
Executive Director
Shin Fujiyama
Websiteshhkids.org

Students Helping Honduras (SHH) is an international non-governmental organization operating in the United States and Honduras. The organization primarily operates in the peripheries of El Progreso, but has projects throughout all of Honduras. This organization is also run by students.

History

Origin

Cosmo and Shin Fujiyama first traveled to Honduras in the summer of 2004, volunteering on a mission trip organized by the Campus Christian Community of the University of Mary Washington to help victims of poverty and domestic abuse.[1] Having seen the harsh conditions in which the villagers of Siete de Abril and their children lived, the Fujiyama siblings founded Students Helping Honduras (SHH) as a university-recognized student organization the following semester.

Their first walkathon, held in the spring of 2006, raised over $148,000 with the help of a matching grant from Doris Buffett, founder of The Sunshine Lady Foundation. This allowed them to travel back to Honduras and build a school with the villagers of Siete de Abril.[2]

Doris Buffett offered the students a second matching grant of $100,000 on the condition that the students raise that very amount by the end of the semester.[3][4] The students contacted other students at Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia , who established chapters of SHH at their schools. The band of students raised $110,000 by the end of the semester, earning Buffett's matching grant.[citation needed] With this money, SHH purchased a land title on which the villagers of Siete de Abril could live legally and built cinder block houses for each family.

Students Helping Honduras was registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 2007,[5] following the advice of Dr. Gregory Stanton, founder of Genocide Watch.

Projects

Today, the organization hosts service trips throughout the year as part of its formal operations. Students and adults travel to Honduras in groups to assist with construction, build relationships with the local residents, and witness the conditions in which they live. Some projects are:

Villa Soleada (formerly Siete de Abril)

Villagers laying bricks for the foundation of a house

The Villa Soleada comprises forty-four 22' x 28' homes, each with three bedrooms, a central room, a bathroom, and a shower. The village also includes a community center, land for farming, sustainable businesses, a well, a library, an eco-friendly waste management system, electricity, and a soccer field.[6]

Villa Soleada Bilingual School

The Villa Soleada Bilingual School (VSBS) was built with the goal to change the graduation rate of Siete de Abril, now Villa Soleada, to "100% from 0%", in one generation. The VSBS High School was inaugurated in March, 2020.

The students from Villa Soleada attend the school on a full scholarship, with students from wealthier neighborhoods paying $40 a month (in U.S. dollars). The teaching staff is made up of both Honduran and American teachers. The school provides a longer school day than the typical Honduran school, alongside summer enrichment classes.[7]

Villa Soleada Children's Home

Villa Soleada Children’s Home is a temporary/permanent living arrangement offering child care, family reunification, and kinship care. The Children's Home consists of multiple homes, each with Honduran houseparents who look after 10-15 children. Many children from the Children's Home attend the Villa Soleada Bilingual School mentioned above, with others attending schools in El Progreso.[8]

School Builds

Students Helping Honduras builds schools following a three-way partnership model: SHH provides the construction supplies and professional labor, the families in the communities provide labor, and the local government provides heavy machinery, sand to mix cement, and the teachers. All supplies are locally sourced, and all projects are supported by the local government and businesses.[9]

Train for Change

Train for Change is a program run by Students Helping Honduras that empowers local Honduran teacher leaders through professional development to improve the quality of education for 1 million children in the most impoverished areas in the country.[10]

Impact Report 2019

In June 2019, a survey team from Students Helping Honduras published a self-report summarizing their projects' impact on communities in Honduras. The survey team visited 46 communities in Northern Honduras and surveyed and interviewed 30 directors, 91 teachers, 114 parents, and 171 students. The following is a list of findings from the survey, according to SHH:

  • School enrollment increased by 39.1% on average after completing a project.
  • The average number of classes cancelled due to rain or inadequate protection from weather dropped from 14 days per year to less than one day a year.
  • The average number of teachers per school increased from 6.5 to 8.5.
  • 99% of students reported they like the new classrooms.
  • 99% of parents were satisfied with the project.
  • 100% of directors were satisfied with the project.
  • 98% of teachers were satisfied with the project.
  • 97% of participants agreed that they were prouder of their school after the completion of the project.
  • 94% of participants agreed that they believe more in women’s capacity to contribute to projects.
  • 98% of teachers and directors agreed that the project helped them perform their jobs better.[11]

Membership and chapters

The membership of SHH consists of more than seven thousand students and adults from different states. Chapters are typically located on college campuses (U.S.) and at high schools.

Chapters typically host fundraisers on their school’s campus to raise money for the school build projects. SHH also hosts annual Fall Retreats and Summits in the U.S. for chapter members to come together and learn more about the organization. Each year in Honduras, SHH hosts a Leadership Week for chapter leaders to learn, connect, and prepare for the next year.

Each year, SHH hires 1-3 Student Directors to serve as the liaison between the Honduran staff and chapter members in the United States.[12]

U.S. college campus chapters include:

High school chapters include:

References

  1. ^ "University of Mary Washington | Hero in Honduras". Archived from the original on 2009-08-13. Retrieved 2009-07-28. UMW Today
  2. ^ http://www.umw.edu/universityrelations/news/archives/umw_students_organize_walk.php University of Mary Washington
  3. ^ http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007/032007/03312007/272114 The Free Lance-Star
  4. ^ http://www.umw.edu/universityrelations/news/archives/students_helping_honduras_.php University of Mary Washington
  5. ^ http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2007/412/191/2007-412191361-04b73fc1-9.pdf From 990
  6. ^ "Villa Soleada".
  7. ^ "Villa Soleada Bilingual School".
  8. ^ "Children's Home".
  9. ^ "School Builds".
  10. ^ "Train for Change | Helping Teachers of the most impoverished villages across Honduras".
  11. ^ https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a3e2a418f9bfa115bbcd2c28c/files/e6640f8a-9a5f-472d-ad67-e367cf0f231d/Final_Impact_Report_2019__1_.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  12. ^ SHH Chapters
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Students_Helping_Honduras&oldid=1203814865"