Hope Camp
At the beginning of the year, the ROOM organisation invited our older teenagers to a three-day ‘hope camp’. During these days, the participants were encouraged to explore their annual and life goals. The first day focussed on visions for the year 2024, for which they created a canvas with their goals for the year. On the second day, the theme was ‘Yo soy futuro’ (‘I am the future’). They were asked to make a video in which they describe where they would like to be in five to ten years' time.
For some of the rather shy and introverted teenagers, standing in front of everyone and publicly expressing their life goals was a huge challenge. In the end, however, they were all praised for overcoming their fears and giving excellent presentations.
School start
The long-awaited first day of school in 2024 finally arrived at the beginning of February, and the anticipation was huge. This school year, we have three pre-school children, 14 primary school pupils, two secondary school pupils and nine teenagers who are aiming for the high school diploma.
According to the latest surveys, more than 1.2 million children of school age do not attend school in Honduras. According to studies, Honduras is one of the worst-performing countries in Central America in terms of education. The average school education is a mere 6.9 years.
The education system in Honduras has significant shortcomings in terms of coverage, efficiency, equity and funding. Worrying stagnations in quality, accountability, transparency, monitoring and human resource management further exacerbate the situation.
Our children in the children's home are therefore particularly grateful that they are offered a great opportunity in life by being able to pursue their right to education.
Visit to the dentist
After last year's dental brigade, we now knew which children needed dental treatment. Fortunately, there were only a few. All those who had cavities had them filled and their teeth professionally cleaned.
These treatments took place at the Centro de Salud and we didn't have to pay anything for them. In Honduras, a visit to the dentist is a luxury that most people can't afford or don't have access to.
We are therefore particularly grateful that our children were able to receive this important medical treatment.
Centro de Artes
Brayan and Elvin have been awarded a one-year scholarship to study acting at the Centro Cultural Sampedrano (CCArtes) in 2023. They attend classes every Saturday afternoon and there is a performance after each completed module.
This time, the performance took place as part of the theatre week in March, where they presented short scenes and learned to speak in front of an audience. The children from the children's home were in the audience for the performance and were visibly proud to know two of the actors personally.
Easter week
Summer, sun and swimming pools - that's the perfect way to summarise Easter week. Our children spent hours in our pools every day. Some learnt to swim, others have now mastered the somersault backwards in the water.
To experience the holiday atmosphere even more intensely, they wore sunglasses, enjoyed ice cream and popcorn for snacks and everyone enjoyed the great holiday mood. We also organised various water games and a friend provided us with a bouncy castle. The crowning glory of the holidays was a visit from a group who did some great activities with the children.
The older teenagers enjoyed being allowed to ‘game’ at length and celebrate sweet idleness.
Gerard’s visit
The highlight of May was Gerard van Kesteren's visit to Honduras. He was accompanied by his lovely wife Teresa and van Kesteren Foundation board member Robert Erni and his wife Anja. The children affectionately call Gerard ‘Hallelujah’ and ran to meet him when he arrived at the children's home. It was a wonderful reunion.
As always, he treated us all to a big dinner at Pizza Hut, which has already become a nice tradition. They also visited the foundation's project in Santa Rosa de Copán. The crowning glory of the visit, however, was the inauguration of the 100-home project ‘Unión y Esperanza’. Many residents saw Gerard as a great star and wanted to take photos with him and the Swiss delegation.
We are all very grateful and feel honoured that Gerard is part of our ‘Yo Quiero Ser’ family. He is a gift from heaven.
Marathon La Prensa
Our 8 high school graduates from the Instituto Tecnológico Sampedrano took part in the La Prensa Marathon. They ran 10 kilometres and all reached the finish line and were therefore awarded a shiny medal.
More than 8,000 runners took part in this event. Competitions like this help our young people to improve their endurance, speed, strength, running technique, breathing, mental strength, race strategy and, above all, their stamina.
The next day, only one girl had sore muscles, which shows that they are generally in good shape without specific training.