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In the last three years, Dos Rios Elementary, a Greeley-Evans School, has been providing three schools in Honduras with supplies for students and teachers. On June 19, 2017, a group of teachers leave for Honduras to work on the botanical gardens and to assist local workers with classroom modifications. The classroom addition was made possible through funds provided by members of the Greeley Centennial Rotary, Craig Rotary and the Greeley After Hours Rotary Clubs. The Josefa Lastiri Morazan School is located adjacent to the botanical garden. This school serves 60 students grades K-5 and 45 secondary students grades 6-9 on weekends. The second school is Escuela Lempira, located about a 30 minutes hike from the botanical garden. This school serves 45 students grades K-5. The third school in our project is Escuela Jose Trinidad Cabañas located about 25 minutes from the botanical garden. This school serves 45 students grades K-5. These three schools need furniture for students and staff. Students often sit on the floor or chairs provided by parents. None of the schools have a sitting area to eat lunch and only one school has a kitchen. The school Josefa Lastiri Morazan has a wood-fire stove that is used by a parent who cooks one meal a day for each student. The other two schools have no kitchen and a parent cooks meals daily from their home. Our goal is to provide each school with one or two clean stoves. In the rural locations where we work, 82% of households use indoor wood burning stoves. Smoke and particulate matter (soot) are a serious health risk, especially to women and children who spend the most time near the stove. The meals are taken to the school. Schools have very few cooking utensils. Most of the time students bring their own eating utensils for their daily meal.
There will be one Rotarian on the June 2017 trip. Other trips will be planned as working trips and may include additional Rotarians from the Greeley and Craig areas. The planning for future involvement will be assessed based on knowledge gained from this trip. There are two Rotary clubs close to the schools in Honduras that will be contacted about possible future participation as well.
Participants will work in the garden development and repair work. They will assist local contractors in installing clean wood burning stoves. All three schools need Clean Stoves for cooking (http://www.proyectomirador.org). This organization builds clean stoves in Honduras and you can buy one for a family. Also, we will work with locals again in building and or purchasing desks, chairs, bookcases and other furniture as required. We will also work on outreach with the Honduras Rotary clubs in Tela and La Ceiba to build future partnerships.
At a minimum within the first year, the project will benefit about 180 students grades K-9 in three schools in the area of Lancetilla Botanical Garden. Classroom teachers will also benefit from having a better planning, teaching, and learning environment for students. Family and community members will also benefit by having shared use of the community resources for after-school events and community gatherings. Primarily, this project will allow 180 students who are currently attending these three schools to have their own learning space and sitting area for learning during the school day. Additionally, students will be able to enjoy their lunch and recess creating a conducive learning environment. It will also create an inviting space for future learners and their families around these three communities for years to come.
Dos Rios Elementary School, located in Evans, Colorado, initiated outreach efforts to the first school in the botanical gardens in 2013. This included sending medical supplies, school supplies, kitchen serving utensils, clothing and shoes. During the initial visit, two teachers from Dos Rios traveled to the schools to present the teachers and students with supplies and to engage the local community in a partnership. A needs assessment was also conducted at this time to evaluate future opportunities for improvement. Since that time, we have sent additional supplies (school supplies, clothing and shoes) each year. The Dos Rios staff has engaged the local parent and student community in fundraising efforts to ship three boxes of supplies annually (about 1,500 pounds of materials). We also sought to engage our Dos Rios learners to increase awareness for the needs of the Honduran schools and broaden our students' world view to be more globally minded about the needs of other children in the world. During June 2017, Dos Rios staff, which includes a Greeley Centennial Rotarian, will travel together to the three schools to build a classroom addition to one of the schools and create a sustainable garden project to increase the nutritional content of their daily meals.
As our local Rotary clubs have increased their awareness of the wants and needs of the Honduran schools, we have increased our collective interest in supporting our collaborative efforts to establish a working relationship with the local Honduras Rotary clubs for the future.
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