Important visit from Gerard and Teresa
It was a great honour for us to welcome back our foundation board member Gerard and his wife Teresa van Kesteren. Normally they visit us every year, but for several years they have unfortunately had to postpone their visit again and again. Once there was political unrest, then rallies with roadblocks and once again illness.
The nice thing is that they have a great personal connection to the children and know them all by name, that we visit all our projects together and that they could see the progress with their own eyes.
One day we visited the projects of Santa Rosa de Copán and La Entrada, and so they also had the opportunity to meet our new regional coordinator of Santa Rosa de Copán, José Luis Maldonado.
This was the first time they saw our building in Santa Rosa de Copán fully completed and operational, where all our courses, computer classes and nurse training take place. We also visited the school where the vocational training takes place for the mechanics and we had a look at the student residence in La Entrada.
The next day we stayed here at the “yo quiero ser…” residence to work out strategies for the foundation, the childrens’ home and the other projects. Since Gerard and our Swiss volunteer Rahel Biedermann had their birthday together the next day, we had our famous afternoon birthday party with cake, drinks and the obligatory piñatas, which could not be missing under any circumstances.
The children enjoyed themselves very much and in the evening Gerard and Teresa invited all our children and staff to a delicious and festive pizza dinner.
Unfortunately, the days pass by far too fast when you share it with beloved friends. The funniest thing was also that the local newspaper ICONOS published them with a photo on their website for Valentine's Day.
Start of School
At the beginning of February - after long 3 months of school holidays - the new school year has started. This year our students are divided into the following classes and levels:
School education
- Primary level: 14
- Kindergarten: 1
- Introductory class: 1
- 1st primary class: 2
- 2nd primary class: 1
- 3rd primary class: 3
- 5th primary class: 1
- 6th primary class: 5
- Secondary education: 8
- 1st secondary level: 4
- 2nd secondary level: 1
- 3rd secondary level: 3
- Graduation class: 2
- 2nd graduation class: 2
- Special needs school: 3
- University: 4
This year we decided to change the school for the higher education level and moved from the Instituto Madre María Luisa to the Instituto María Auxiliadora, which is known as the best nun's school in town. Thanks to a local donation from CAMINO we were able to pay for the higher enrolment fees at the new school, whereby the monthly fees are identical for both schools. Now our girls can be very proud to be able to attend such a prestigious school and I very much hope that they will appreciate this opportunity and use it well.
Deisy
It is also very gratifying for us that we were able to enrol Deisy to pre-school. She was born at the end of 2014 with a heart defect and has undergone surgery by American doctors one year later. She has been with us since May 2016 and has made enormous progress. In the meantime, she learned how to walk, has built up a good immune system and is only rarely ill. She does not need Pampers anymore and is able to eat solid food on her own. For a long time, we had to puree every meal for her but if we serve her now her favourite meal, pancakes, she eats up to 8 of them. She now also understands what she is told and can already pronounce whole sentences.
This year she started kindergarten in the special needs school IMDEE and the teacher is very satisfied with her progress. These are very nice success stories, because four years ago there was only a small glimpse of hope that she would ever make it, let alone that she would develop so positively.
Social Projects for Education
Our foundation is aware that education is the only way out of poverty and in Honduras there are public schools, which are free of charge, but require that the students buy the school uniforms and school materials themselves, and are only allowed to attend school if they have these supplies. For many families this means that their children can unfortunately not go to school.
For several years we have been helping poor families in the slums at the beginning of each school year to buy these materials such as school uniforms and school supplies. The nuns of Mother Teresa help us to select the families most in need and to distribute the supplies.
This year we provided 29 children of the state organization DINAF and 67 children from the slums with the necessary materials and uniforms.
Award from the Rotary Club
The Rotary Club of Usula of San Pedro Sula honored three people who have distinguished themselves through outstanding achievements at the beginning of February. Our Foundation President Patricia Scarpatetti, along with María Elena Villeda, the headmistress of a public school, and George Gatlin, the CEO of Invema Group, an innovative recycling company, had the honour of receiving an award for their exemplary personal and professional development and for their outstanding contribution to the community.
The gala took place at the Copantl Hotel, where the members of the club came together to reward the social commitment of these three citizens.
Our Foundation Board President thanked them for their recognition and emphasized in her acceptance speech that true giving consists in never expecting anything in return, and when you help someone, you always have to do so with gratitude, because life has put you in the place of the giver and not in the place of the needy. Therefore, this award is a nice recognition her continuous daily efforts and a great motivation to continue with all her work and projects.