Education

On Saturday, April 19, nearly 1,000 students, professors and families gathered at the University of Mary Washington Campus for SHH’s 3rd annual Walkathon for Hope. SHH members from over 14 different universities flew in all the way from New York, Illinois, Massachusetts and other cities far away. Our current count is at $73,000 although the total amount raised is still being calculated with checks and donations arriving daily. Combining the America’s Giving Challenge Prize, SHH has raised a total of $138,000 for the Coppromee Women's Academy, only $12,000 left to raise in order to receive the $50,000 challenge grant from the Sunshine Lady Foundation.

http://www.cdcki.org/events/Helping_Hands.htm

Helping Hands is a compilation of stories written by children about the joys of helping others. Each story shows how a little love and kindness can go a long way. The cost of the book if ordered through CDCKI is $15.00 (USD).

The book will be distributed in Spring 2008 and everyone who reserves a book will be contacted when the book is ready about making payment. All profits from Helping Hands will go towards the San Francisco de Opalaca Library in Honduras. The goal is to raise $10,000 which will be enough to physically build and fully furnish
the library.

This municipality in the department of Intibucá, Honduras, currently has a 90% illiteracy rate among children and adults. This can be attributed to the fact that the underdeveloped town has a limited number of schools, with none going higher than the ninth grade, and has never had a library.  read more »

Students Helping Honduras has teamed up with Global Giving to raise more than $80,000 in just ten days at the end of January. Because of this impressive feat the two philanthropic organizations have teamed up to promote online giving and the many projects on the horizon. A film and updated information will soon appear on the Global Giving website that promotes Students Helping Honduras as proof that anything is possible.

America’s Giving Challenge, a contest sponsored by Parade Magazine and the Case Foundation, was designed to encourage the charitable use of social networking and the internet to empower individuals to fundraise for the causes they care about most. Despite entering several weeks into the competition SHH gained the support of more than 1600 individual donors in such a short period a new Global Giving record was set.  read more »

The new Hollins Chapter of SHH has hit the ground running with its first ever fundraising event, a Honduran Dinner Fest that pulled in nearly $200. More importantly the event got even more students interested in the Hollins SHH, which already has two dozen members, a sizable figure at a school of only 800.

Eva Watkins, the founder of the Hollins Chapter, has traveled twice now to Honduras and eagerly awaits her return this summer when she will bring with her a group of excited Hollins students. As a women’s college Hollins is full of female students anxious to make a difference, especially helping to empower the young women of Copprome.

Next for the Hollins Chapter are more spring fundraisers, planning the August trip to Honduras and a caravan to Fredericksburg in April for the Walkathon.

Link: Hollins  read more »

On Monday, March 10, 2008 SHH was awarded the UVA Bookstore Humanitarian Award at the Service, Organization, and University Leadership (SOUL) Awards in Charlottesville, VA. This annual awards ceremony, held at the Rotunda of the University of Virginia, recognizes students and organizations that improve the University through dedicated service to the community, meaningful participation in student activities, and demonstration of outstanding leadership qualities outside of the classroom.

SHH members Laurie Paguio, Joe Pohlkamp, Valerie Hernández, and Daniel Saboe attended the reception. The Humanitarian Award, given by the Virginia Service Coalition, recognizes “the group that has a comprehensive focus on a need in Charlottesville or even one with a more global perspective. The group would exhibit a strong effort to increase awareness of the cause or issue and provide direct service to help those affected by the cause.”  read more »

After several months of careful thought and hard work, SHH elected to dedicate this year’s Walkathon to the girls at Copprome Orphanage. This year’s Walkathon will fulfill a promise we first made two years ago when we fought to keep Copprome’s doors open in April 2006. That Walkathon gave Copprome the Sunshine Education Center, which fills many of the critical gaps in the Honduran public education system. However, the pervasive lack of collegiate opportunity in Honduras represents a shortcoming in SHH’s effort to provide these children with tools for meaningful, life-long success. Educational opportunity is one of the few priceless assets that should never be taken away from a person, and in Honduras especially can be the single most powerful way to break the cycle of poverty.  read more »

Razoo.com, a social networking site that unites those who want to make a positive difference in the world, awarded its top prize of $10,000 to SHH in its Change Your World contest on October 15, 2007. The contest, which started on October 2, 2007, gave Razoo members the opportunity to cast votes for various nonprofit organizations.

Money from the contest will be used to construct three new classrooms at Por Venir Elementary School, which must cancel classes during rain due to poor roofing conditions and hold middle school classes at night due to overcrowding. A portion of the money will also be used to purchase seeds for a community in the northeastern part of Honduras called La Mosquitia, whose crops were destroyed by Hurricane Felix in early September 2007.

SHH and the kids at Copprome organized a 6-v-6 soccer tournament at the GOL Sport Soccer Center in El Progreso. We invited the girls from Our Little Roses girls home in San Pedro Sula as well as Maldonado Football Club to host four games: U-9, U-13, high school girls, and U-13 boys.

The tournament was a huge success and many new friendships were formed. Stay tuned for a short video about the day’s event!

Below is a blog post from SHH Volunteer Greg Teich (W&M, 2007). With his permission, we have posted it on our website. He is currently working as a Special Ed. teacher in Hawai'i with Teach for America. Greg's knowledge and insight as a teacher was extremely helpful for the staff at the Copprome Education Center. We all hope he comes back soon!

Honduras was a wild ride. I am currently flying back to Hawai'i. I can't describe how wonderful my trip was. I have been to some very amazing places, but nothing compares to the orphanage at Copprome. The children I worked with have left me with the distinct impression that I will never be able to forget them, or leave them. I know this is a bit mushy for my generally upbeat and comical emails, but this is what my trip was, so this is what you get to read. Since I got out my mushy piece, I'll finish up with this weekend at the beach, and the highlights of the trip.  read more »

On October 17th, Students Helping Honduras won $10,000 in the "Change Your World" contest sponsored by Razoo.com. According to its own FAQ section, Razoo is "a community of people who want to make a positive impact on the world. It's a place to learn about causes, share your passion, connect with other people with similar interests, and find tangible ways to make a difference.” The "Change Your World" voting contest lasted a little over two weeks, which didn't leave much time to prepare a large voting campaign. Members of each SHH chapter voted and spread the word throughout their campuses. We thank everyone who voted, as well as Razoo, for holding the competition.  read more »