Paul and Laura Manship, Author at Shoulder to Shoulder, Inc.

January 21, 2019August 4, 2023

When Children Are Engaged, Children Prosper

By Mariela Rodriguez – Assistant Director

Teachers from many kindergartens gather together

We called it the “Kindergarten project.” In early 2018, as a new school year was beginning in Honduras, a parent approached to say that their child’s kindergarten teacher was interested in being part of our computer-assisted learning initiative. At the time, our education programs focused on grades 1-9. Nonetheless, we decided to meet with the teachers. At the end of the meeting, our team offered to help fund, along with their parent association, half a television set to project English learning programs to an entire classroom of children. Our vision was for the kindergarten to pay us back and offer half-funding to another school in the future.

In September, we visited and checked-in on the project and were amazed at how the kids interacted with the program through the television screen — singing songs in both English and Spanish and learning to pronounce the sound of the English letters (see video).

In exchange for the assistance they received from Shoulder to Shoulder, we asked them to host a meeting with kindergarten teachers from other local towns to share their advances in the project. In mid-November when the meeting took place, teachers from 5 different kindergartens – representing 4 towns were present. The meeting was a success, and a number of teachers expressed interest in joining next school year!

We as an organization are very thankful and impressed with the success of our Kindergarten project and seeing the enthusiasm and gratefulness amongst the parents and the teachers causes us to also be excited to expand next year.

We saw that empowering community members was fruitful for both parties.

We’ve seen that finding community motivation, support and initiative is like hitting the jackpot.

Watch video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-dlFUJ7CS3TOxPU_EEEZtg7coMrvrg4Z/view

January 19, 2019August 4, 2023

The Other Side of the Mountain

By Jan Tepe, DDS – Dentist who has traveled to Honduras for 20 years

Note: Even though Dr. Jan Tepe is writing about DENTAL services — the children she writes about are the same children who are in StS’s nutrition program.

It was a trip I’d wanted to do for nearly ten years. We had heard about a community in the area of San Marcos de Sierra that was “the poorest of the poor”. We’d already established school dental health programs in Santa Lucia and Concepcion and wondered what could be next. I mentioned the possibility of visiting this community, the poorest of the poor, called Delicias, to Laura Manship some months ago. She herself had made the hike and cautiously discouraged us from trying to get there. It’s a long and difficult hike, up one side of a mountain and then down the other side. We discussed the obstacles of the hike with our group – two dental hygienists, the Honduran dentist and her assistant, a public health dentist, and our two drivers/guides. Everyone agreed to the plan. The trek began at 4:00 am when the truck arrived to meet us near the square in Concepcion. After a half hour or so on the main road we turned onto the dirt road. For the next hour we bumped and bounced over ruts and rocks, up hills so steep I didn’t think it was possible for a vehicle to climb. So this is what four wheel drive is for! In 20 years of travel to Honduras, these roads were as bad as any I’d ever seen.

Eventually, the road ended and the two trucks were tucked in close to an embankment. We donned our backpacks filled with dental supplies and water and set out. The path up begins somewhat wide with sharp drop-offs to the valley. Ahead of us was a Honduran woman in a dress and sandals carrying a box that was held by a nylon net looped over her forehead and hanging down her back. Our group spread out, each of us stopping as necessary to catch our breath and admire the spectacular scenery. The sun had come up and it was a beautiful day. The woman disappeared from sight and presumably took a shortcut too steep for us, but we later saw her on the other side of the mountain. Up, up, up, through a narrow ridge with scrubby foliage where the terrain fell off on both sides.

After 2 hours we were rewarded with the sight of the village. This isn’t your normal village. We saw three buildings – a public health clinic, a school, and a small pulperia. People in this area live tucked away, far from one another. We set up our supplies outside the school and waited until the children and their parents arrived. There is no electricity in Delicias and little contact with the outside world. The people are neat and clean with little girls wearing dresses and mothers wearing homemade dresses and sandals. Dra. Idalia gave a talk, discussing how to brush teeth, why we brush teeth, diet, and what we planned to do.

And what exactly did we plan? Well, after each child had brushed their teeth, we examined their teeth and applied a material called silver diamine fluoride (SDF) to areas of decay. SDR kills the bacteria in the cavity and stops the decay. Sometimes this require two or three applications. The downside is that the areas of decay turn black. The upside is it is painless, requires no injection, and the teeth are saved. This material in gaining popularity, especially in developing countries. After seeing first hand the difficulties in simply getting to this community, we understood why these people cannot come to our clinic and also why it would be impossible to get portable equipment to them.

The kids and parents were great. Of the 50 or so children that we saw, only one little guy about 4 years old screamed his head off. The others patiently waited in line and then compliantly opened their mouths while we strange looking, tall, pale people dabbed stuff on their teeth.

Shortly before noon we left Delicias to do the hike in reverse. If up the mountain was strenuous, down the mountain was scary, with steep switchbacks every 15 feet or so and loose scree. Walking on marbles, down a playground slide would describe it. The way back was no easier, but somehow the way home always seems shorter. We have a new appreciation for the lives of the people on the other side of the moutain.

Jan Tepe, DDS, in Delicias, Intibuca, Honduras

Delicias, Intibuca, Honduras

December 28, 2018August 4, 2023

Climbing Mountains to Feed Children

By Laura Failla Manship – Executive Director

Enermila and her 3 children

Recent report from our Nutrition Team:”Enermila has four children, three of which are receiving the nutritional supplement Chispuditos. She lives in a very small village and she is very poor. Her husband is very strict with her. He won’t let her have visitors in the house. He won’t allow her to go anywhere. He is, as we say here, very machista.

Enermila has to walk over an hour with her four children to have them weighed, measured, and receive the nutritional supplement. She has to figure out a way to do it that won’t cause her husband to get angry and not allow her to go. We had to figure out a way to get to see her in her home. We managed to find out when her husband was not there and visited her. She was so pleased to see us and offered us hospitality in her humble home. She was very grateful for the program and told us that her three children in the program are having less health issues since getting the supplement. She has a great deal of difficultly buying milk for her children so the Chispuditos is a godsend. Her husband will not give her much money as he has other families to take care of.”

Every 3 months, the Shoulder to Shoulder staff go out into 15 different communities to ensure that vulnerable babies and small children receive the micronutrient supplement called Chispuditos. Children who are lacking in necessary micronutrients suffer from poor brain development, anemia, stunting and under-nutrition. The children live in mountainous areas and it is extremely difficutl to get to those areas.

Want to get a feel for what it means to “Climb Mountains to Feed Children”? Watch this great video, produced for Shoulder to Shoulder by Mallory Brown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=2xVWW0V1QG4

This project would not be possible if not for the generosity of two important donors:

Mathile Institute — provided us with a $50,000 grant; and

Tim and Kathleen Gunderman — provided us with $22,000.

Not everyone can provide gifts as large as those. But, we are equally grateful to the 135 Individual Donors who made contributions to this project in 2018.