By Felicia Byrd (OYE Intern)On yesterday, March 18, 2011, I hosted the very first celebration in the Mercedes Community located in El Progreso Honduras. This is the community that I and the three other volunteers from Mary Baldwin College (Suyapa a.k.a Shawnay, Susan a.k.a Shanee and Karina a.k.a A'ra) have been investigating. After a month of observing and interacting with the community as a part of my social work internship, I learned that they needed an event to unify them and to celebrate just how far they have come since Hurricane Mitch changed their lives and removed them from their previous homes. Throughout the research investigation, the community members complained of not knowing their neighbors and not spending time with others outside of their homes.
This is a picture of the community after the revealing of the community's new welcome sign. This was a gift from myself and OYE. It reads "Bienvenidos a La Comunidad las Mercedes...Juntos Podemos or 'Welcome to the Mercedes Community...Together We Can.'With the help of Lizeth, the secretary of Las Mercedes, I helped recruit the youth in the community to put on performances. The youth range in age from 3-16. Juan Luis, a close companion of OYE, spoke about the the history of the community before presenting them with a 'welcome sign' put together by myself and Gerald, an OYE scholar. Of course the rest of OYE was in attendance. Some helped paint an 'M' on the faces of the children symbolizing Mercedes and others played in the grand finale soccer game against the soccer team in the Las Mercedes community.
After a performance
Punta Dance Contest
The Community Together for the very first time!!
The soccer game!! GOOOOO TEAMS!!
Johnny, a volunteer of Comvida, was the MC of the evening. His energy and compassion for helping others helped the event run smoothly. Thank you Johnny. He also helped OYE in the Soccer game against Las Mercedes Community.
Juan Luis presenting the history of the community.The event was a huge success. Thank you to everyone who helped me make the celebration happen for the community.
8 comments:
Great work, Michael! Looks like a beautiful event.
Gracias...but this was all Felicia and the Mary Baldwin volunteers! :) Including the blog and photos. Excellent work team MB!
Fantastic job Felicia! It looks like the community loved it. I'm so proud of you. Awesome, awesome job!
Go MBC! (and OYE!) :)
TEAM MB this event looks awesome! Thanks for blogging about and sharing these photos. I can't wait to visit and see all the positive changes.
Opps! Great work, Felicia! Thanks for posting pics. It looks like you and the other interns are doing great things in Honduras. keep up the good work.
Thank you all for the wonderful wishes and comments. I will be sure to post more pics and hopefully videos of the event and of past and future events. Thanks for keeping OYE in your thoughts!! =.)
Wow! Looks like SO much fun Felicia, and such a wonderful success. Very well done! Abrazos!
Thanks Ana~~~
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