Category: CREE

Kolibri is being recognized by local government as effective in engaging and supporting resource limited schools with quality offline content. 

When we received our 2021 grant from the Inter-American Development Bank, our education program was able to reach 51 new schools all over the department. It was a quick deployment responding to the covid needs in Honduran education. After the pilot, our team wanted to make sure the schools continued to use Kolibri to its highest potential. For this we upgraded them with the latest Kolibri software over this past winter. The schools were all excited to receive the updated equipment back and the feedback was so great that mayors were calling us to join efforts. 

Over the past months, three mayors began laying bricks toward Kolibri sustainability:

** The Mayor of Intibuca (pictured) purchased TVs for all 9 schools in his municipality that received the pilot last year. This fulfilled our sustainability component where communities were asked to put their shoulder next to ours.

** The Mayor of Jesus de Otoro invested in additional tablets and computers for new schools to receive Kolibri, and

** The San Antonio Mayor, who has supported Kolibri expansion in his town since 2019, continued by selecting a municipal IT support staff to be trained in Camasca.

The action of these three mayors furthermore sends a message of support to help make Kolibri a success. Our team continues to meet with other mayors who also want to follow suit, making us excited for future partnerships. Thank you for following our work and supporting our teachers, our mayors and our team. 

 

With Respect,

Mariela Rodriguez

Communications Coordinator

Dear Donor,We are in awe of how quickly another school year has come to a close and with it a reflection of many successes in our team’s work. Alongside teachers, the Intibuca Education department and local mayors, we have accomplished so much and cannot wait for what 2023 will bring.

At the Education Department level, we expanded our Reading Contest Program for the first time to all 17 municipalities. A competition event took place where 100 schools and 7,000 students participated. Students entered written essays and the final contestants presented an oral summary of one book at the event. A live Kolibri evaluation was also projected during the event to demonstrate the platform’s potential, intriguing non-Kolibri teachers present. There was even a commitment from the Department Director to continue the Reading Contest Program yearly.

We have had success in meeting with 16 of the 17 municipal mayors of Intibuca to seek their commitment in providing an IT support for their Kolibri schools for the coming year. Moreover, another mayor has purchased TVs for their Kolibri schools. And another sent tablets, gifted from multiple non-profits, to be loaded with Kolibri by Shoulder to Shoulder FOR A PROFIT. After several years focusing on content development we are proud of our on-the-ground team’s potential to bring in funds and help itself out. We look forward to finding even more ways to create sustainability.

Finally, we are filled with hope for 2023 as we have received funding once more from the U.S. Embassy,  $30,000, to support our team’s work. Our partnership with the U.S. Embassy has been ongoing for several years now and we hope to continue being recognized for the work we do in our communities and the impact it is having year after year.

Look for more reports in the coming year of what our team is up to and how we are continuing to bring change and innovation to our children’s education.

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year from Shoulder to Shoulder!