Blog Archives - Page 28 of 73 - Shoulder to Shoulder, Inc.

October 28, 2018August 28, 2023

75 Water Filters: Vilma’s Story

Wisconsin Rapids Sunrise Rotary Club

75 Water Filters

Vilma gets up at the crack of dawn to begin her 1.5 hour walk up a rocky hillside in order to help support her family. She leaves her three young children (ages 2, 4, and 6) every day, and does not see them until she returns home at sunset.

Vilma is a domestic worker and her husband is an agricultural worker. Yet, they are barely able to afford to buy rice and beans on a weekly basis.

Vilma’s three young children frequently suffer from diarrhea due to a lack of access to clean filtered water and that’s why she was thrilled to hear that Shoulder to Shoulder would be donating a water filter to her family. Vilma repeatedly said, “thank you for doing this for my family,” as she headed out the door to start her 1.5 hour walk home. And, although she was adding a few pounds of weight to her journey back home, she was happy to do it for her kids.

A month later, Vilma shared that her children were no longer getting diarrhea as often and her family loved drinking from the fresh clay filter.

As we share these filters with families we always remind them that we are only able to do so thanks to the generous donations we receive from people such as the folks from the WISCONSIN RADPIDS SUNRISE ROTARY CLUB. Over the past 2 years, this club has raised enough funds to provide 75 Water Filters to needy families.

THANK YOU!

Laura Failla Manship

Executive Director

paulandlaura@shouldertoshoulder.org

October 5, 2018August 4, 2023

Education is Power

By Laura Manship – Executive Director

Manuel with Nutrition Curriculum

It has been a very exciting 3 months. We just learned that the Mathile Institute will provide Shoulder to Shoulder with a grant of $50,000. This is a matching grant…..we need to raise $50,000 so that the program will be funded for an entire year. We started the new project year on September 1, 2018. With luck — and lots of supporters — we can keep the program going until August 30, 2019.Along with distributing the Chispuditos micronutrient product, we are now also providing nutritional education to the mothers and fathers in our program. Thanks to the generosity of Jessica Minesinger, one of the members of Shoulder to Shoulder’s Board of Directors, Community Health workers now have a nutrition curriculum to use. We are hopeful that this education will also help to improve the health of the children in our program. Families lack information about good nutrition, and many children fill up on sugary drinks and salty snacks.

Mallory Brown recently made a video in which she featured our program director, Gisela Ramos. In the video, you see Gisela using the educational curriculum while making a presentation to the families. If you’d like to feel like you’re hiking along the mountains of Honduras, providing the micronutrient supplement to families, watch this video!

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

Heath Promoters learning the curriculum

August 12, 2018August 4, 2023

Technology is Fun

By Laura Manship – General Director

Using tablets in a classroom

Shoulder to Shoulder has installed the KA Lite program in all the classrooms at our Bilingual School. (KA Lite is the non-internet based program of the Khan Academy.) Each classroom is equipped with a server and projector, so that the class can watch world-class educators providing math lessons. Then, the children get to do math problems, using tablets. They love being able to go at their own pace, as they challenge themselves, using the tablets.

We received a grant from the LearningEquity.com organization, that will allow us to expand this program into other elementary, middle, and High Schools. So far, we have installed the technology in 7 High Schools, 2 elementary schools, and 7 middle schools.

We are getting the children of the Frontera to be EXCITED about MATH. Can you believe that?!

How excited are the students? Well, at one High School, the students are so eager to get into class and get their hands on the tablets, that we had one young man actually trip over a chair, in his rush. (Fortunately, it was a plastic chair, and no one was hurt.) But, when was the last time you heard about a student running into a classroom to ensure that he was one of the lucky ones who had a tablet to use?!

We are also expanding into ROBOTICS. Our Honduran Team will be competing in the 2nd Annual International Robotics Competition in Mexico City on August 16th. See details at our “Honduras Robots” website.

Happy Student at Bilingual School

Volunteer, Paul C, sitting with students