An Incredible Year! By Paul and Laura Manship – General Directors for Shoulder to Shoulder
Paul and Laura
Dear Supporter of Excellent Education,For Laura and I, it is a joy to walk through our little town of Camasca. When school is not in session, about half of the children 10 and under that we see attend the bilingual school. They try out their English with us, “Good Morning. How are you? I am fine thank you.” The older children have conversations with us in English. They are so happy, bright and engaged children. The value of this education, of excellent quality and accessible, will yield fruitful opportunities for them, and is becoming the model for education in Honduras. Thank you for investing and believing in children who instill hope for a better world.
In Honduras, the school year runs from February through November and we are winding down the year. What a great year! We started the year by building and openning our third building of classrooms, and now have the capacity to house students from Kindergarten through sixth grade. We have opened our doors to many projects and programs in the community, including the Honduran Robotics Team that Shoulder to Shoulder sponsored for their international competition in Washington, DC. We are constantly adding new technology in our classrooms to make teaching more exciting, engaging, and effective. Our school has participated in many events within the community including dance and art competitions, parades, and even our first-ever marathon. We have welcomed talented and inspiring volunteers.
Our volunteers bring spirit and wonder to our school. Backpack Matt, his blog name, has traveled from Indonesia to Chile, but has returned to Camasca for his second volunteer experience. An accomplished videographer and photographer, he has captured the beauty of our shchool and the students. Please watch the many smiles of our students in Matt’s video, Facing the Future.
Grace is a long-term volunteer working with Shoulder to Shoulder’s CREE (Centro Regional para Excelencia en Educación or Regional Center for Excellence in Education) program. She has been amazing at extending our impact in assisting local schools. This blog was also published on the learningequaily.org website blog.
Shoulder to Shoulder’s education mission, CREE, focuses on bringing high quality education to rural areas where access is extremely limited. KA Lite has been one of our main methods in connecting these disconnected communities to better STEM education. To paint a picture, we are working in Southern Intibucá with a total population of about 70, 000. It is one of the poorest of the 18 “departments” (states) of Honduras. Shoulder to Shoulder has been working here for over 25 years.
Students at the bilingual school, Camasca
Currently, we have KA Lite deployed in three high schools and two grade schools, within three towns. There we have deployed a total of 7 servers and 230 tablets. In the high schools, we are covering math and science classes for the whole school. We are currently touching over 1,000 children, but teachers are still learning how to best use it. Slowly but surely, as our network is growing, word is spreading of this new method of learning and teaching. We have contacts and interest in many other towns and our expansion is ongoing. Our goal is to deploy KA Lite throughout all Intibucá over time, to about 15,000 students.
Paul Carey (a StoS volunteer) and I are meeting with prospective educational leaders in neighboring towns. We leave each meeting so encouraged. We are working in a country where things move slowly – “Honduran Time” as we say – and many times promises to the poor never materialize. But those bus rides back from each town are filled with excited conversations, hope, and respect for the leaders that are so committed to bettering the education for their community. In the end, we are learning that taking our time and having patience is well worth it. Our mission is not to “give” and “bring” but to “train” and “form partners.” KA Lite is something to be integrated into the schools and for them to take ownership of – we are just here to light the fire a little.
At the High School in Magdalena
Our last meeting was in a town called Santa Lucia where we met Luis Pineda – the educational coordinator for his district. After installing and then training the professors at the high school on KA Lite, Luis came to us with a humbling request. Each town has various “aldeas” or villages that pertain to it in the surrounding mountainside. Luis has a big heart for the villages, as he worked most of his life in one in a grade school. He was one of three teachers, collectively teaching grades 1-6…a very typical situation. Whereas I see a huge lack of access to resources in the towns I’m going to, he attempted to paint a picture of how much worse it was for the villages, without any cell service or power much of the time. Their resources are much scarcer. Above all, he wanted us to know that he doesn’t want them to remain forgotten. His request was that we try to bring KA Lite, the bare minimum we are able to, even if it just a server, to these communities as well.
Luis has the type of ideas and heart that will propel us forward. The best ideas come from the people themselves, right? We have been so focused on getting into the main schools in towns – and we still will, but we want to shoot for the stars and see every child here in Intibucá with access to a better education. Only in the last five years or so have we started to turn our focus on education as well. Education is opportunity, opportunity is hope, and hope is something that children here in Honduras are so desperate for.
Using the KA Lite technology has given us a visible manifestation of the hope these students possess within themselves to succeed. In the high school in Camasca, Intibucá, the math teacher Daniel tells us about his students literally running to his class to get their tablets. One boy broke a chair mid-run a few weeks back and now unfortunately has a fine to pay. In the Magdalena high school, the teachers set benchmark goals for the amount of points earned in KA Lite by each student per quarter. There are a few kids that have more than tripled the point requirement by coming into school early or staying after class to work ahead. Extra time at school is a huge sacrifice to many of these kids as their walks home can be hours in the mountain – yet to them it is worth it.
I will never get tired of watching kids light up when it’s “KA Lite time” or training eager teachers how to use this technology in their classrooms.
Jessica, an accomplished professional in the world of business, accepted an invitation to visit Honduras and see some of the work we do. She was having a great time visiting our bilingual school, playing with and meeting the children. But she didn’t know Spanish and had little background knowledge on Honduras or Shoulder to Shoulder. At lunch time she sat down alone and apart for a rest. Perhaps she was questioning, “What is my part here? What role could I play in this organization?” Karol, age 10, (far left in the photo) noticed her sitting alone; she went to her and offered Jessica half her sandwich. They talked quite a bit (Karol’s English is among the best), and in Jessica’s own words, “she stole my heart.”
Jessica may have been wondering what role she could play, but Karol inspired her. Jessica now sponsors Karol at the school. They correspond regularly. Jessica wants to bring her daughters to Honduras, and be part of an education service trip. Don’t know your role with Shoulder to Shoulder? Meet Karol.
For about the price of a “half a sandwich” at a nice deli ($15) you can give Karol and many other children like her the opportunities that come with an excellent education. Our partner, GlobalGiving, is offering $50,000 in incentives on Thursday, October 5, 2017. Your gift to Karol and the Bilingual Lenca School will be increased. Thursday, October 5, please take advantage of this incredible opportunity.
Matt Tibbitts, “Backpack Matt,” has returned for the second time to the Good Shepherd Bilingual School as a volunteer. He has wonderful gifts. You may have already seen his first video with us, “Changing Camasca.” He’s put together a second one featuring the smiles of all our children. Just Click the title below to see it.
