A New School for Carizzalito Village
People in the village of Carrizalito are so excited and happy about their new school! The dads were so grateful to be volunteeing and worked very hard to make sure the school was complete before the school year began in February.
This is a particularly poor village and the government has all but abandoned this area. They have insufficient desks and chairs and absolutely no school supplies or books whatsoever.
Honduran rural schools are generally in very bad shape, but this one was so beyond repair, with a leaky tin roof, crumbling walls, rat infested adobe and creviced floors, it was decided to build a new one.
The villagers are incredibly grateful for “people (who they) have never met coming to help.” Thank you so much to everyone for contributing to this very special school. You have truly helped us move this village along into more promising opportunities for education!
Click here to read the full story and see more photos.
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Books for Children Project
Thank you to everyone for sending books! Due to so many people helping out, we are getting a stream of much-needed books for children. Our goal is to supply 30 schools along with the new Quebracho library.
The average rural school has less than 20 story books and many literally have none. We are hoping to receive donations of books for children from kindergarten to 6th grade reading level – New or Used.
As 6 year old Carlito said, he “had never seen a book but would like to one day,” because he already knows his letters.
Click here for more information and updates on the Books for Children page.
A special thank you to classes at St. Bernadette’s School in the Seattle area, who contributed a huge quantity of school supplies – enough to full a couple suitcases – along with $17.20 cash. The St. Bernadette kids are asked to bring a contribution on their monthly “free dress day,” the day they are not required to wear their uniforms. In January Project School Supplies was the beneficiary.
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New Regional Library for Quebracho
Honduras has many challenges to literacy. There is only one library in the town of Copan serving more than 80 surrounding villages in the municipality. For people living in remote villages, there is nothing. A bus to Copan is too costly for folks who earn less than $3 a day. Rural schools have on average 10-20 storybooks. Many have none at all.
Recently, generous donations from so many people have gone a long way to develop a regional library for rural communities at Quebracho. In the near future, programs for reading, adult literacy, story time and outreach will also be created.
Click here for more information and updates on the Library page.
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New School for Santa Rosita Village
Work was recently completed at Santa Rosita Schools.
For the first time ever children in this village will be studying indoors, thanks to the incredible donations and support from everyone.
What an amazing difference!
The note reads: Thank you for helping us to build our new classroom.
Click here to see the full transformation.
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New Kinder Feeding Program and Vitamin Donations
A new Kinder Feeding Program has been established with DOERS Missions. They have donated powdered milk, Pediasure and purified water as a pilot project in El Chilar kindergarden.
El Chilar is a very poor Chorti village with an average income under $2.50 per day. Malnutrition and illness is rampant in this village. When a child is severely undernourished, their body cannot properly deal with growth, disease and/or infection.
Vitamin Angels has also donated another 30,000 vitamins and enough de-wormers for 2,000 children.
Click to learn more about:
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Canadian high school student Noemie Dulac has recently been featured in her local newspaper Le Courrier de Saint-Hyacinthe for her fund raising efforts for children in rural Honduras.
After visiting the Copan Ruinas area and seeing first hand the amazing work Project School Supplies does, Noemie decided to dedicate her final year school project to raising money to help build a school.
Noemie has held a spaghetti supper and a Latin dance night to reach her goal of $5,000 for a new school. She will finish the International Programme of Education at Saint-Joseph Secondary School this year.
Read the full article (in French) HERE.
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Another Joint Project with A Better World – Los Arcos School
Construction has recently begun on a new school for Los Arcos Village with the Canadian non-profit A Better World.
Los Arcos is a village of very industrious folks. Most work in the local coffee farm, making less than $2.50 per day.
Click here for more information about A Better World.
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Social Entrepreneurship Generating Income for Needy Mothers by Clothing Children
Many children in the poorest villages are either naked or dressed in rags. Ellen has created a system where quality used kids’ clothes are either bought in bulk or donated. These are then given to carefully selected “entrepreneurs” – usually very needy mothers in a village – who sell the items for the equivalent of about 50 cents each.
People in the village get great, almost new clothing for their children at an amazingly low price, a mother receives a much-needed income and the profit split allows Project School Supplies to then buy more clothing for resale.
This project has been incredibly successful so far and has been much more beneficial to everyone than just straight charity hand-outs. In the future, Ellen would like to start selling shoes as so many children in the rural aldeas have none.
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Real Buttons Help Project School Supplies
Real Buttons will be donating one penny for every button sold – half to Heifer International and half to Project School Supplies.
Click for more about Real Buttons.
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Grants for High School Students
We are increasing the number of grants for kids to attend high school. In most cases, instead of giving money or buying supplies, we are providing additional work for parents. For example, two of the fathers are sculptors. One will be teaching rural children basic sculpting lessons and another father will be making toys for local kindergartens, both paid for by grant funds.
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If you or anyone you know would like to receive the monthly newsletter by e-mail please let Ellen know:
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ellenlfinn@hotmail.com
