Trash and Trees Bring Us Together.

“Hands on El Progreso” took place on January 26th at the Río Pelo in the neighborhood of Penjamo located just outside of El Progreso’s town center. The event brought together 100 volunteers and various sponsors and organizations.

The collaboration between OYE, the municipal government, the Red Cross, Fire and Police Departments and the Penjamo neighborhood allowed for the execution of a safe and successful event.

“Hands on El Progreso” was inspired by a University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh (UWO) event called “Hands on Oshkosh”. Participation in “Hands on Oshkosh” has reached over 300 students per semester since its inauguration in 2010. Volunteer Angie Dusenberry introduced this event to the OYE scholars in the hopes that it would inspire volunteerism and unite the community.

The collaboration between OYE, the municipal government, the Red Cross, Fire and Police Departments and the Penjamo neighborhood allowed for the execution of a safe and successful event.

Recruiting volunteers to pick up trash seems daunting, but ultimately proved to be an easy task. OYE scholar Oscar Osorio and Angie presented the event at OYE’s Entrega de Becas event, our annual welcoming ceremony for first time and returning OYE scholars and their families. By highlighting event details, they sparked the interest of many of the scholars.

Upper left: Fredy Aguilar from the Municipal Department
of Environment. Upper right: Volunteer Angie
Dusenberry. Bottom: OYE scholarship students.

January 26, the day of the event, was a whirlwind. The first 50 volunteers who arrived received matching "Hands on El Progreso" T-shirts. Participants included OYE scholars, their families, firefighters and community members. Everyone came together at the Penjamo community center, where a representative of the municipal government warned the community about the dangers of pollution and deforestation and emphasized community responsibility in their prevention.

After the inauguration, the participants cleaned and planted trees along the Pelo River for two hours, filling over 50 bags with trash and planting nearly 100 trees. It was inspiring to see the diversity of the participants, from local public servants to children, and the excitement about future community engagement efforts.

Collage of photos of OYE scholars and community participants throughout the "Hands on El Progreso" river clean-up and reforestation event.

A huge thanks goes out to all the participants and the effort Angie Dusenberry put into organizing this event for OYE and El Progreso.

Note: Much of the content of this blog post comes from Angie Dusenberry´s volunteer write-up. 

The Super Becados - A Team that Works

If you’ve worked or are social with people who work at NGOs you’ve heard the age-old adage “overworked and under-paid.” That’s precisely how an NGO should be running because at the end of the day as much of the money flowing in, in our case largely from individual donors’ pockets is earmarked to go directly towards the organizations mission.  Many people in the field take on impossible loads of work and responsibility that would be handsomely rewarded were the projects producing a monetary profit instead of social good. However, the opportunity to know that one’s work is viewed both qualitatively and quantitatively as improving societal outcomes or contributing to development is a very positive externality, attracting people to the heavy workloads and sacrifices of small non-profits.

OYE is no exception. Like any great NGO, OYE funnels your generous donations as directly into its programs to empower at-risk Honduran youth as possible. In 2013 OYE operated with only three full-time staff members and one part-time accountant. In 2014 the team has changed just slightly, bring our account Carlos Galeas on board full-time (congrats Carlos!). With such a trim streamlined team how does OYE run a scholarship program, personal and professional capacity building classes, an art program, a sports program, a magazine program, a graphic design program, and a radio program?

The answer is very creatively. 

As OYE approaches the midway point of January 2014 it is midway through an iterative training process for new youth leaders. These leaders, or project coordinators, are the key to OYE’s ability to achieve so much with such a limited professional staff. So let’s take a look at how this works:

OYE has adopted a philosophy that permits our actions to be both a means to an end and an end in themselves. That is to say that OYE’s mission is to create socially conscious youth leaders that serve as agent of positive change in their communities, but to achieve that we must rely on OYE’s own socially conscious youth leaders, our youth coordinators. Patrick Ahern, a long time OYE volunteer, has affably dubbed these youth coordinators “Superbecados.”

Superbecados are the youth that demonstrate strong leadership qualities and a commitment to see OYE’s youth projects grow. We have been blessed with incredible Superbecados over the years like Yarli Yanez, Gerald Velasquez, and Fabiola Oro who have taken the Radio, Art, and Magazine projects to new astounding new heights.
In 2014 we are proud to introduce a new group of Superbecados. These are youth that have excelled as leaders and members of their respective projects. With no further ado OYE is proud to present OYE’s keys to success in 2014-its civic engagement project coordinators or Superbecados: 

•  Sports – Erick Estrada and Heili Aguilar
•  Revista Jovenes (magazine) – Fabiola Oro
•  Design (Adobe) – Oscar Osorio
•  Radio Ritmo Online – Heydi Reyes
• Arte la Calle – Jefry  Yoel, Yosseth Pacheco, and Claudia Pavon 

Dunia, our Program Coordinator, has dedicated the month of January to developing the skills these youth will need to succeed as Superbecados. She has developed a comprehensive training program including modules of leadership, conflict resolution, assigning roles, developing profiles, OYE’s internal politics, and the development and administration of projects.

Stay tuned to see these Superbecados guide their projects into new uncharted waters expanding OYE’s impact and empowering other at-risk Honduran youth.

Revista Jovenes Diciembre 2013

Reflecting on House Visits: By María de los Ángeles Mejía

For OYE, 2013 has been a very different year, full of activities with becados and their projects, which have had a major outreach and impact in other youth of the community. Personally, one of the most anticipated activities for this year has been the selection process of new becados for 2014.  I think it's one of the most important and key activities to OYE as it gives us the opportunity to meet different types of youth with financial need, with desires for personal and academic growth and interest to participate and be part of our family.

As part of the selection process for new scholars, OYE´s team conducted a three-day "tour" of the city of El Progreso and surrounding area, visiting the families of the young applicants, in order to get to know their living conditions economic needs. All the visits were very revealing because in addition of learning the poverty statistics of Honduras published in reports; we saw firsthand the needs and the difficulties that families go through in order to provide food and education for their children and guarantee a decent life and future.

One of the applicants we visited was Mayly, a 15 year old, who is about to start high school. Thanks to her excellent academic performance and great financial need, she receives a scholarship to the bilingual school, where she is currently. However, the school is limited in size and does not offer high school education. In order to graduate, Mayly will need to find a new school. She aspires to study a Secretariado Bilingue in Notre Dame high school and is now pursuing a scholarship there. Her parents cannot afford this school because they are ambulatory vendors (especially of corn products), and their income is irregular. Their home provides the basics and does not even have a television. Mayly is forced to go to a nearby cybercafé cafe in order to do her homework.  Additionally, she is allergic to many things but her parents lack the resources to give a proper treatment. Despite all these conditions in which Mayly has to live, it is very inspiring to see how she did not give up and she gives the best of herself to be an exemplary student.

Next, we visited the home of Oscar (13) and Wendy (18), brother and sister applicants who live in the village of Guaymitas, on the road to Tela.  Both showed an excellent performance in the previous stages of the selection process, reflecting, in addition to good academic performance, attitudes of leadership and teamwork. They come from a poor family where the father works as a security guard in a maquila, where he receives hourly pay and no benefits, and the mother was also laid off from a factory. Their mother told us that they had been trying for four years to obtain scholarships through OYE, as they had heard of the organization but always missed the application deadline. They were very persistent and this year they achieved it.  Additionally, Oscar has a cyst on his nose, which is in treatment but has difficulty breathing and performing physical activities (such as playing soccer). If the family manages to gather the money for next year, they will operate on him. Both Oscar and Wendy are very excited to participate in OYE and the various programs it offers.

Our final visit of the day, struck and inspired me to continue working with and empowering more young scholars.  We visited the home of Willian a 17 year old currently studying his last year of middle school through distance education system EDUCATODOS. He currently lives in the village of El Congito technically jurisdiction of El Negrito, Yoro. It was a great ordeal and adventure to get there, since it’s on the top of the Mico Quemado mountain range, approximately 20kms from the highway. Willian had to walk down the mountain to greet us and guide us up to his home. This is very common for him as access to the community is very difficult, there are only two or three four wheel drive cars that go up there and have a high cost. We were lucky that at this time of year (strangely) it has not rained a lot and the road was not muddy, since otherwise we could not have come up (OYE’s car doesn’t have four wheel drive). Upon arriving to his home, we could see from above, the amazing view they have of the road and surroundings and we were fortunate to enjoy fresh air and a cool climate (a great contrast to the climate of El Progreso!).

We were greeted by Willian’s parents and had the interview outdoors. His mother told us that Willian is the only one in the family with an advanced level of education, as the rest of the family only studied up to sixth grade.  She also told us; how her son, with his strong desire to succeed, went for a short period to pick coffee in order to earn enough money to continue his studies. Willian wants to continue his high school studies and needs the scholarship to travel once a week to El Progreso and attend his classes under the distance education by radio system, since EDUCATODOS doesn’t have high school either. His family lives on subsistence agriculture.  At home, there’s no electricity and just a couple of years ago, thanks to the initiative and participation of Willian, his family received a latrine built by World Vision. At the end the day, his family was most generous and invited us to eat chicken soup and freshly made tortillas, using all the food they produce. It was a very overwhelming experience, and the generosity of the families we visited touched my heart they proved that material wealth and a big paycheck do not create happiness and community.

Through the life experiences of the scholarship candidates visited, we can see that there are still young people that despite economic and social difficulties they face, they are nonconformists and don’t blame their environment. Otherwise, we could see, that they and their families are good fighters and entrepreneurs and work to continue their education and achieve their goals. This is also a reflection of how the economic situation does not affect their academic performance, as all of these young people are very smart and proactive, eager to move on and to make significant changes in their community. This year, on the call for scholarships, OYE focused more on quality than quantity of applicants, so we had few candidates. However, I am more than satisfied with the quality of young people that we had the opportunity to meet and visit because I know that they will take full advantage of the scholarship that we will give them. I am very eager to start 2014 with a new generation of leaders working towards a better future.

Testimonial by an OYE Scholar: Yosseth Pacheco

Intro:
Two days ago Yosseth Pacheco approached me at my desk. Yosseth is a young energetic scholarship recipient in his first year at OYE. When he first arrived to OYE he was friendly but quiet. He participated but was reserved. As his first year draws to a close, Yosseth is one of OYE's most active participants gladly representing OYE at events in San Pedro even speaking in front of audiences of 50 or more!
Upon approaching my desk, Yosseth asked if he could write a testimonial for OYE's blog. Of course! There is nothing better than hearing from the students themselves. Below is Yosseth's testimonial written in Spanish and then translated to English by yours truly.

Experiencia dentro de OYE: Siendo este mi primer año dentro de la organización me siento muy feliz ya que desde el primer día que ingrese a OYE sentí el compañerismo que hay entre los becados, pero no solo los becados si no que cada uno de los miembros de la ONG; María Mejía Directora ejecutiva, Dunia Perdomo Directora de programas y proyectos, Samuel Rioux Coordinador desarrollo internacional, Carlos Galeas contador y administrador, Doña Triny, Gerald Castillo Coordinador del proyecto Arte la Calle, Sandra Fiallos coordinadora de Adobe Youth Voices, Fabiola Oro coordinadora del proyecto Revista Jóvenes, Yarli Yanes coordinadora del proyecto Radio Ritmo Online, son personas maravillosas que han sabido como aguantar los caprichos de cada uno de nosotros, muchas gracias.

Experiencia dentro del proyecto Arte la calle: No se por donde empesar esta gran experiencia,  se que tengo un gran coordinador que nos ha tenido mucha paciencia en cada tarea  que nos pide que realicemos. Gerald Omar Castillo le doy gracias por todo por cada regaño por cada excelente en los trabajos que nos dio, sin duda un maravilloso coordinador que siempre apreciaremos por todas las enseñanzas. Estoy feliz dentro del proyecto arte la calle.     

-Yosseth Pacheco

Yosseth and Claudia receive prixes for their participation

Experience at OYE: This being my first year at the organization, I am very happy. Since the first day I entered OYE I have felt the companionship that exists between the scholarship students, but it is not only the scholarship students that share this sentiment of companionship. Each member of the staff is part of the OYE community; Maria Mejia the Executive Director, Dunia Perdomo the Project and Program Coordinator, Samuel Rioux the International Development Coordinator, Carlos Galeas the Account, Dona Trinidad, Gerald the Art Coordinator, Fabiola the Magazine Coordinator, Yarli the Radio Coordinator, an Sandra the Adobe Coordinator are all incredible people that have dealt the with whims of each of us. Many thanks. 

Experience with Arte La Calle: I don’t know where to begin this great experience. I know that I have a great teacher that has demonstrated patience with us in each lesson and exercise. Gerald Omar Velasquez Castillo, thank you for each criticism and each compliment n our assignments. Without doubt you are a great teacher and we will always appreciate your lessons. I am happy to be part of the Art Project.

Yosseth's Artwork