November 16, 2014
No one from my family had ever been to college. My dad was a truck driver who never finished high school. I recall vividly my father’s beaming expression, a mixture of hope and pride, the day he dropped me off at the University of Massachusetts. Yesterday, I sat in on the parents meeting at the Bilingual School of the Good Shepherd in Camasca, Intibucá. As I looked out upon those attending I experienced that eerie sense of déjà vu. Thirty-six years later, it was my father looking back at me with that same expression of hope and pride.
How different are the families here in Honduras, yet one thing is certainly universal. Parents want so much more for their children than they themselves obtained. Education, a quality education, is the key element to realize that goal. Education, a quality education, is simply not accessible to the great majority of Honduran families. Why hope, if hope yields disappointment? Perhaps it is better to take pride in more modest achievements. This must be the thoughts of most families raising children in Honduras. Those thoughts seem to be changing in the frontier region of Intibucá.
In 2012, Shoulder to Shoulder, the community of the Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Cincinnati, and the families of the frontier region of Intibucá dared to dream of a financially accessable, quality, bilingual school. The classrooms were designed and erected and today it is a reality with fifty-four students in kindergarten, first and second grade. It is a public school, available to everyone.
Public education has been a disaster in Honduras. There simply aren’t the resources. The buildings are not maintained, materials are non-existent, the teachers are minimally qualified, and the list goes on. Maybe Honduras needs to think about a new model. What about a partnership among the Department of Education, a committed NGO like Shoulder to Shoulder, the surrounding municipalities, and the parents themselves? There you have it, the Good Shepherd Bilingual School. This model school is a first in Honduras. There are a great many challenges that face the parents and partners of this endeavor. But it is only with great risk that great reward can be achieved.
Attorneys Plutarco Rivera and his wife Patricia Maria Sikaffy, were present at the meeting to present the proposed agreement for the foundation of the model, bilingual, public school. Attorney Rivera exhorted those present that if this “experiment” is to have success, it will be dependent upon the dedicated involvement of the parents as represented in their committee. In those expressions of hope and pride, another emotion was palpably present. These parents are determined; determined that their children will have an education that will place them on the path of success and fulfillment. In a few weeks on this website, there will be opportunity to support the parents’ determination by financially sponsoring one of their children. It will be a tremendous opportunity to ally ourselves with a phenomenal moment of transformation.
May these expressions of hope and pride be the force that yields enrichment!
Communication and Development
November 1, 2014
Laura and Paul Manship are pleased to begin their new position as Director of Communications and Development for Shoulder to Shoulder. They have been in Honduras since September of 2013 and have volunteered at two NGOs. They began at Montaña de Luz en Morecelí, El Paraiso. Montaña de Luz is a home for children who are infected or affected with HIV. Over the last few months they have lived in La Esperanza, Intibucá, volunteering their time and talent at Maestro en Casa, a long-distance learning program for secondary education. As of November 1, 2014, they will begin their service to Shoulder to Shoulder, living in La Concepción.
Shoulder to Shoulder is doing such incredible things in the Frontier region of Intibucá, and, for Laura and Paul, it will be a privilege and an honor to highlight and promote such important work. The ongoing, primary health and dental care, the public health work, the preventive care instruction, the brigade work, the education programs, the nutritional programs, and clean water programs are all part of an empowerment model of service that will richly enhance people´s lives. The transformative stories cry out to be told and celebrated.
Both Laura and Paul are licensed professional Social Workers in the state of Massachusetts where they lived before coming to Honduras. Their background and experience is unique and diverse. Laura is also a MBA and last worked in a Community Health Center in Holyoke, MA as Director of Operations and Behavioral Health Services. Paul was a Roman Catholic priest for seventeen years working with the Latino community of Western MA before voluntarily leaving active ministry in 2005 and marrying Laura in 2006. Since then and prior to moving to Honduras, he was a supervisor for Elder Protective Services.
Laura´s two children, Emma and Greg, have both begun their professional careers. The empty nest gave Paul and Laura the inspiration to follow their dreams, selling house and belongings and moving to Honduras. They are excited to begin working shoulder to shoulder in community to create and operate sustainable health, nutrition, and education services with equitable access for everyone.
Shoulder to Shoulder's Partnership with Salud Mesoamérica 2015
March 22, 2014
In 2012, Shoulder to Shoulder was selected by the Ministry of Health has a representative for the Mesoamérica Health Initiative. Mesoamérica Health 2015 is a 5-year, public-private partnership initiative to reduce health equity gaps in Mesoamérica faced by those living in extreme poverty. The initiative (SM2015) is funded by the Carlos Slim Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the government of Spain, and the World Development Bank.
The initiative’s goal is to support regional governments’ efforts in achieving the Millennium Development Goals in health, through investments in proven interventions for the poorest 20% of the population, mainly women and children under five. SM2015 supports meeting these goals through extending coverage, quality and use of basis reproductive health services; improving maternal, neonatal and infant health care services; improving child nutrition and increasing immunization coverage.
At the regional level, specific targets include:
• Reducing infant mortality by an average of 15% in the poorest countries of the region in the 20% poorest.
• Attend 260,000 poor children with health interventions to reduce chronic malnutrition.
• Ensure that 90% of children under two years of age of the poorest quintile have all vaccinations.
• Increase the number of births attended by skilled personnel by 50% to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality
The initiative’s guiding principles include:
1. Equity and targeting the extremely poor.
2. Country ownership and alignment with national and regional policies.
3. Impact and results-based approach.
4. Measurement and evaluation of performance.
5. Transparency and accountability.
6. Additionality (Funding granted may not replace national funding to ensure the sustainability of investments)
7. Coordination with regional bodies.
As a result of Mesoamérica, Shoulder to Shoulder has received supplies and equipment, trainings, implemented new processes to maximize the efficient use of resources, and augmented existing government programs targeted at children under 5. Shoulder to Shoulder will soon be undergoing an evaluation and if the organization, as well as the other 5 participating decentralized models achieve 80%, will proceed to the next round of funding and associated targets. Shoulder to Shoulder was chosen not only for the challenges of providing care for the population it serves but also for the competency of its staff. Stay tuned to hear how we performed for our first evaluation. For more information about the project’s work throughout Mesoamérica, please visit: www.sm2015.org.