By Dom Williams | Founder and Director
Our plans to create satellite colleges in the communities in the surrounding hills of Copán took a major step forward last month as construction started on three classrooms in Barbasco thanks to Whole Planet Foundation and the team members who came down from Whole Foods Market to get it all started. At present students walk on average two hours each way from ten different communities to receive education at our central Phoenix College in Copán. By creating satellite colleges in strategic locations within these communities we can reach more students who otherwise wouldn’t be able to continue their studies into secondary and college education. The group also painted the school in La Pintada and helped out in the classroom, seeing first-hand the need for teachers.
Depending on donations and the success of our sustainable income plans, we aim to support the primary schools in the communities where our college students come from with more local teachers in the future. For example, the school in Barbasco has one local teacher for six grades (plus one of our ex-students who helps as an assistant) and the story is similar in the other communities. By providing more teachers in primary school and the opportunity for secondary school and college in these communities we are showing the parents the importance of education and more children will be interested in continuing their studies. More education means more work opportunities in the future which mean more income coming into these communities, some of the poorest in Honduras.
We have purchased more musical instruments in anticipation of Independence Day on 15th September and the school band has been busy practicing before heading out into the streets in front of thousands of spectators.
Whilst we are supposed to be in the wet season, climate change has been rearing its ugly head once again with a sustained dry spell wreaking havoc with the crops. This will have a serious knock-on effect in 2019 when the households run out of food and prices rise, leaving the families to decide between education or food – the latter being the only choice. This has now gone on for years and highlights the importance of our help for local primary schools and our secondary school and college. This also increases the need for our Sustainable Income Plans for the families, including alternative businesses and agricultural techniques, which help towards their further education costs. We will be monitoring the situation over the coming months.
This year’s Phoenix Appeal aims to raise funds towards our local teachers’ salaries and materials for 2019. On average each teacher can educate between 25-30 children per class and will often teach more than one class so the more teachers we can bring on board for 2019, the more children we can give a vital education to, whether this is primary, secondary or college. Please donate to this page to help us reach our goals for 2019. Alternatively you can crowd fund with friends, family and co-workers in your office or school and aim for one teacher’s salary for the whole year!
GlobalGiving will be offering a donation bonus day on 12th and 13th September, a fabulous start for this year’s Appeal!
Also, a date for your diary for 2019: The Seven Continent Charity Challenge #5 will be the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu in Perú from 27-31st May – please contact us if you are interested on dom@thephoenixprojects.org . There are limited spaces so please let us know as soon as you can!
Have a fantastic September and we’ll be in touch later in the year with another update! Cheers
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