Arrival of the container
Once again, we had the utter honour to receive a 40 foot container transport from Switzerland to Honduras, organized and sponsored by Kühne + Nagel as well as the van Kesteren Foundation. This time around the IT delivery had the highest priority, which was spaced out on five palettes, followed by the USM-furniture, bicycles, clothes, school material, diapers and many more things. The customs clearance in Honduras is every time a big challenge or moreover a nightmare. Luckily, this time around the container arrived in time, nothing has been damaged and the customs officials were to our surprise not fussy at all and worked astonishingly efficient. We would like to express our endless appreciation for all the donations we were able to receive.
Project „School helps School“
The project “School helps School” finds its roots in the vocational training centre of Schaffhausen, Switzerland, where Rainer Lenz and his apprentices took in “old” IT material, they reprogrammed it, wrapped it up and sent it to Honduras. This project has been honoured in Switzerland with the third rank of the “Prix Vision” which lead to a winning amount of 10’000.- CHF. With this money, they financed their flights to Honduras as well as further needed material to enable them to professionally install an IT-room in the vocational training centre of Santa Rosa. On the 12th of July the Swiss delegation of specialists, Rainer Lenz, Sander van de Kamp, Volkan Caglayan, Florian Kunz and Mirco Helbling have arrived. Within nine days they were able to bring alive a computer room in the newly established vocational training centre in Santa Rosa, which covers by far all the needs to deliver outstanding training for the future of many young Honduran. Their amazing effort means a lot to us, because it doesn’t only form a solid base for the momentarily phase we are in but it also enables us to realize the existing plans with concrete measures. For this reason we would like to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts. For further information about the project “School helps School” from the BBZ Schaffhausen, please visit http://honduras.bbz-sh.ch
Carolina Cross Connection
Besides the weekend camps the “Carolina Cross Connectin “ organization from the USA organises, they also have a program where they set up interactive visiting days at the different children’s homes. During the period of six weeks, we also had the pleasure to welcome in different groups at “yo quiero ser...”. They always came up with a daily project which included for example once a day filled with playing, dancing and singing. The visitors were totally focused on the children and dived in to their world and enabled our boys and girls to make some enriching experiences of interpersonal exchanges. For the special occasion called “Un dia”, all our children were invited to go to a park where they passed some unforgettable moments. Many different group games were organised and everybody involved had clearly a blast.For our children are such visiting days or “Un-dia” very special and meaningful, because each child can form new friendships and is spoiled by plenty of attention.
Year of mercy
The catholic church celebrates this year the year of mercy. For this occasion, each parish is invited to march in on a Sunday to the cathedral. We also participated at this event with our children and decided to walk to the cathedral with green balloons. After marching in the children were allowed to actively participant in the mass and they clearly enjoyed the feeling of spiritual togetherness in the community of church.
Economic fair
At the high school an economic fair took place. Each school class has been divided into groups which was then challenged with developing something economical significant. Our Kike, who visits the second year of high school, invented a robotic arm with an integrated hydraulic system. He invested countless hours and a lot of effort into this development but it payed off, he came first and received an award and a trophy. We are all very proud of him because it clearly shows: “when there’s a will, there’s a way.”
Support from Switzerland
Tamara Bellini, Claudia Flury, Daniela Steier and Feliz Dosch, all four are from Grisons, came to support us during two to seven weeks. Tamara is a very talented drawer and painter and because of that we asked her to embellish our dining as well as baby area. She chose were cute designs andwith the help of her apprentice Claudia, they turned the rooms into very cosy and inviting sites. Daniela and Felix visited us already on many occasions and since they are very familiar with our daily routine, they were back into their duties within an instant. During the time they were visiting, our baby girl Deisy faced some health issues. Daniela and Felix devoted themselves to her and had her always with them. They were utterly caring and manage to get her back in shape. She has definitely gotten very spoiled by all their love and attention for her and awonderful bond developed which made us decide to name Daniel and Felix her grandparents. At the end they invited all kids to a fun day at the Zizima waterpark where we passed some unforgettable moments with each other. For the children are this very important experiences to see that voluntary workers return on somewhat a regular basis to “yo quiero ser...”. It gives the children a sense of relevance in someone else’s life, because the friendships which have been built are real even though the geographical distance seems insurmountable. The voluntary workers don’t forget them and are eager to prove it to them in different ways. Furthermore, are they incredibly helpful for the daily routines in the children’s home and especially for our employees which can also experience some enriching exchanges.
Newsletter July 2016
