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

April 26, 2021August 3, 2023

Delivering Eggs During a Pandemic

By Laura Manship – Executive Director

Vicenta, Granddaughter, and Hens

Dear Friends:In the photo above, you will see a very happy business woman. Vicenta raises chickens and sells the eggs to Shoulder to Shoulder (StS). StS then provides the eggs to mothers who have children between the ages of 6 months and 2 years. Vicente is happy because the project allows her to bring in much needed income for her family.

We are in the 4th month of our project, and are thrilled with our progress so far! Celebrate our successes with us:

25 women are raising hens.
Provided micro-loans to 15 of the women, to help with start-up costs (total of $3200)
Twice per month, 15 eggs are given out to 285 children (total of 8,550 eggs per month)
At the end of each month, StS reimburses the women who are raising the hens (total of $1100)
We are working with a professor at the University of Indiana, who is studying the effects of eating an egg per day. We have enrolled 285 children in this study. In addition, we have enrolled 200 children into a control group. The study will continue until January 2022.

This project is a WIN-WIN-WIN:

The CHILDREN eat healthy eggs.

The WOMEN receive income from their hens.

The COMMUNITY benefits from the infusion of money StS pays the women.

THANK YOU to all of our supporters. This project would not exist if not for your belief in it and your support.

Laura

Mothers and Children in StS Nutrition Project

February 20, 2021August 3, 2023

Interns from the Leadership Center

By Katherine, Dania, and Eva – Leadership Center Interns

Katherine, Dania, and Eva

Hello, we are Katherine, Dania and Eva. We graduated from The Leadership Center as bilingual in Leadership and Community Development. In our time there we learned that community development is about people, not projects. By thinking in a different way, we know we can help in our communities.When we learned about Shoulder to Shoulder’s mission and vision, we believed that by doing our internship with the organization we would receive new experiences and develop our knowledge on how to be a teacher and work with children.

Throughout the pandemic, the experience of teaching has been difficult and we have faced some challenges. Still, we consider and see that our classes have been active, regardless if they are virtual or in a classroom. The desire of the students and parents to learn, showed us that everything is possible in these difficult times, no matter the sacrifice. The support that each parent is giving to their children to be successful is one thing that surprised us because students’ education did not stop.

What we wanted was to give our students the opportunity to learn from us through encouragement, by listening to them, making them feel welcome and feel important to us. Also, by sharing our experiences that can help them in the future. Even though times are not easy, we have been motivating them to not give up!

We are thankful with God for the time we had to do our internship with Shoulder to Shoulder, for the opportunity they gave us to share and learn from them. To the teachers for supporting us. To the students for the beautiful times that we shared together, and to the parents for supporting their children. We advise future interns to do things with passion, love, encouragement and to believe in the organization. To put themselves in a child’s mind and enjoy the time while they are doing their internship. We believe Shoulder to Shoulder is a great organization to work with, providing opportunities to develop our communities and help the education.

January 1, 2021August 3, 2023

Micro-Loans Make a Difference

By Laura Manship – Executive Director

Laura and Team visiting Alba’s Hen Project

In early December, I traveled to Honduras, to visit our project. Mostly, I wanted to get to know some of the women who are raising the hens — to lay the eggs — to provide to the children in our project.Our project covers 20 communities, and Gisela and Sandra found one woman, in each community, who had the desire to raise hens. However, in about half of the cases, the women needed some funds to help get the project started. We offered no-interest loans, of up to $250 per woman. The women will pay back the loans over the course of six months, through a reduction of the amount we pay them for the eggs we purchase for the children.

The loans allowed the women to puchase wire and wood (needed to build fenced cages for the hens); to purchase laying hens; and to purchase the feed for the hens. With these funds, the women were ready to start the project!

It was such a pleasure to see the joy on the women’s faces. They are so excited about becoming “Business Women.” Some of the women have experience raising hens and eggs; others are brand new at it. But, they are all excited…and all are including their daughters in the project.

In the photo above, our team is visiting Alba, and her new hen project (Alba is new to raising hens). In the photo below, you see the smiling faces of Carmen and her daughter (Carmen is more experienced with hens and eggs).

Carmen and her daughter