|
|
|
|
|
Current Project/Program Activities
1. Operation of a “Jungle School” in the Cangrejal River Watershed
There are presently >45 children in an area of the lower Cangrejal River Watershed, in an area known as Herradura, that are not in school or for whom it is a hardship to attend school. Helping Honduras Kids (HHK) has completed construction of a Jungle School in a forested area above the main gravel road. This is an area of depressed economic resources, and parents cannot afford to send their children by bus to the schools in La Ceiba, or farther up the road to the village of El Naranjo. The organizations "Schools for the children of the World" and "Engineers Without Borders" helped us complete this project. Classes began in February, 2007. This is a private school, as children in government schools miss up to half their school days. Student desks and other furniture were constructed from lumber cut in the nearby forest. Labor was donated by the families who will benefit from this school. HHK has provided students with uniforms, school supplies, personal items, medicines, vitamins, a hot meal daily, English and computer classes, etc. We have also started a Saturday morning kindergarten at this site. One little 4-yr-old girl walks 2 hours one-way on slippery mountain paths to attend.
2. Dental clinic in the mountain village of El Pital
This program provides free once-per-week dental services to school children in several rural mountain villages. Services are complete, including fillings. Careful records are kept on patients, thus facilitating follow-up care. There are currently no dental clinics in the Cangrejal river watershed, home to about 22,000 people. There have been occasional dental brigades to the area, but these lack the necessary follow-up. Patients with limited economic resources normally travel to La Ceiba for dental care, where the least expensive procedure is tooth extraction. Emphasis is given to saving natural teeth and providing instructions on dental care between visits. A dentist is staffing this clinic each Monday, and all equipment, supplies and materials are on hand in one room of the public school. This clinic is an important contribution to the dental health of disadvantaged children in this rural area. The average number of cavities in a 14 yr-old child is twelve.
3. Aid for families at risk and caregivers of AIDS and other orphans (Grandmas Kids)
This program identifies rural family groups at risk and provides material and emotional support to the caregivers in order to maintain family unity. There are many reasons that a family unit may be at risk. Honduras is the center of HIV/AIDS for the Caribbean region. This leads to many orphans that then are cared for by grandmothers and other extended family members with a limited ability and often a limited desire to provide quality care. In other cases, there may be just too many children for the parents’ ability to adequately support them. These factors then put children at “social risk”. HHK will identify and support these family units to the limit of available funding, by financially helping the children to stay in school, by helping to improve living quarters, by providing donated clothing, school supplies and uniforms, and by supplementing the children’s’ diet with nutritious foods from the local markets. HHK is currently helping 3 grandmothers, who are looking after a total of 35 children, some of whom were orphaned by AIDS. It is estimated that the program will be able to help 5-10 families in the initial stages, expanding as funding increases. With this effort, it is hoped that family units will stay intact and continue to live in their accustomed villages, thus avoiding the necessity of sending children to institutions.
4. Financial and material support to help disadvantaged children remain in school
This program encourages children in elementary and high school to remain in school. This is being accomplished by providing some elements of their uniforms and school supplies, and subsidizing their transportation costs. Many children in rural areas do not attend school. This is especially true of girls, as in large families, when it comes time for the parents to make a choice; they send their sons to school and keep their daughters at home. In the mountain village of El Pital, there is an elementary school with 150 students and a high school with 70. This village has a donated bus to transport school children from other villages in the Cangrejal river watershed, but they must make a minimum charge to cover fuel and maintenance. This charge is often what prevents children from staying in school. Other children don’t attend classes because they don’t have a uniform, or notebooks or other simple school supplies. It is estimated that to pay the full cost for a child in elementary school would require about $75/yr, out of reach for many rural parents, particularly if they have a number of children of school age. The cost for high school would be about $125. The idea of this program is to help as many children as possible to remain in classes by subsidizing these costs, rather than paying for all the expenses of school attendance. This is done, not by giving out money, but rather by providing selected school supplies (backpacks, notebooks, calculators, etc) and items of school uniforms, as well as by paying a school parents association for part of the operating costs of the school bus, equal to that needed to help a determined number of children. We are currently helping 5 children who live near the La Ceiba dump, by subsidizing their transportation costs. This number will grow as funding becomes available. We also provided a total of >500 navy blue pants and skirts to students in the El Pital elementary and high schools.
5. Medical and living assistance for disadvantaged children
This is a program of limited scope to help a selected number of children with specific medical needs, or in need of special living arrangements due to family difficulties. Medical needs being addressed are insulin and supplies for diabetic children, medicines for a deaf-mute girl with seizures and hearing aids for hard-of-hearing children, as available. The help with living arrangements is for identical twin 14-yr old girls, whose parents can’t afford to provide for them. One of the girls spent 6 months in the USA due to medical problems. Other similar needs will be addressed as they arise, including the necessity of sending children to the US for medical treatment if required.
6.Childrens Home (Hogar de Amor) for children at "social risk" and under temporary care of the government child welfare agency IHNFA
HHK is partnering with the Lisa Lopes Foundation and operating a Childrens Home for children who spend up to a year waiting for placement by IHNFA in private orphanages. The facility is a beautiful 10,000 sq ft building located in the town of Agua Caliente, 25 minutes to the west of La Ceiba. When children are declared by the courts to be at “social risk”, i.e. orphaned, abandoned or abused, they are removed from the unfavorable environment they have been in, and placed under the care of the government through a system of “foster care” homes. In the La Ceiba area, there are presently >200 children in about 30 such homes, with a paid “foster mother” to look after them, while the legal processes run their course. This process may take up to a year or more and conditions in these temporary homes, with 7-10 children are often not conducive to loving, healthy and safe care of children during this vulnerable time in their lives. This Home provides these children with education, opportunity and a loving environment, while awaiting placement in a permanent Children’s Home. These children have the opportunity to participate in learning games and educational programs, including the use of computers and English instruction. Children in the program will attend nearby public schools or kindergartens, which normally run from 3-5 hours/day. Initially we plan to care for 20 children, with the number to increase as funding becomes available. Infants and older children will be accepted. Biological brothers and sisters will be kept together. International volunteers will be recruited to help local staff with all aspects of running the facility. The goal is to improve the level of dignity, education, opportunity and health for orphaned, abandoned, abused and special-needs children in temporary care, by providing a loving family environment. This will be accomplished through programs designed to provide for the physical, medical, educational, recreational and emotional needs of these underprivileged children.
In-Progress Projects/Programs
1. Day Care/ Nutrition Center
HHK is working to open a day care and nutrition center in the area of the Honduran Dole pineapple plantations for children of laborers who work in the plantations or packing plants. This center would care for children from poor families whose child needs care in order to work and support their families. This will help to keep families together, who might otherwise be separated. A healthy and nutritious meal will be served at noon every weekday. This may be the only nutritious meal that the children receive. We plan to care for 25-45 children, depending on funding and the size of the facility we are able to acquire. Infants will be accepted and older children will have the opportunity to participate in learning games and educational programs, including the use of computers and English instruction. Screening of participants will be necessary to avoid misuse of the program. This program will have many advantages, including providing poor working parents with a means of continuing to work and still maintain family unity and improved nutrition and educational opportunities for their children. There are presently a government day care center and several private ones (charge for services) in the La Ceiba area, but none in the area of the pineapple plantations. If this program is successful, and funding is available, then centers may also be opened up near the several clothing factories in the area to serve working single mothers and their families, as well as in the mountain Villages of of the Cangrejal River Watershed, where our Jungle Schoo and Dental Clinic are located. It is anticipated that a symbolic charge of $0.50/child/day will be made in order to provide participants with an interest in working out their own problems and give them a measure of dignity. Children in the program will attend nearby public schools or kindergartens, which normally run from 3-5 hours/day. International volunteers will be recruited to help local staff with all aspects of running the facility. HHK will use donated land by the beach town of El Porvenir for this program. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
