Vacations are Over

Greetings faithful Blog Followers,

The familiar buzz has returned to the offices of OYE! Youth are loitering with intent to learn! This Saturday is the apertura (first day of operations) for OYE's 2013 Capacity Building Classes. On top of the charlas (workshops), OYE's art, radio, magazine, and multi-media project were in full swing today. After 1.5 lagging months of planning the storm of excited youth re-energized the office. It's nice to feel alive!

What were you up to over winter break?

Luis Castro - New Scholarship Student

Luis Castro:

"Over winter break I was working as an assistant at a bakery. Bakery Gladys behind the OYE office."

Returning scholarship student Sthefanie Matute

Sthefanie Alejandra Matute Velasquez: "Every year around  Christmas I organize a marble  tournament in my community, La Mendieta. This year over 25 kids competed in the tournament and even more volunteered to help. In addition to the marbles, we played soccer.

Returning Scholarship student Kevin Cruz

Kevin Cruz:
"I was in Yoro working during vacation. We were harvesting coffee, and finished just a few days before school started back up."

Returning scholarship student Sandra Fiallos.

Sandra Fiallos:
"Over vacation I read. There were two books. One was Porque las Mujeres Aman Demasiado (Why Women Love to Much). Es un libro muy bonito."








So now that everyone has cut their coffee, baked their bread, read their books, and played with their marbles the offices feel alive. The students are jumping into their community engagement projects and joining Dunia Perdomo for capacity building classes. Dunia, who is a former OYE scholar, is the newest team member. As Program Coordinator she has worked hard to prepare this years Capacity Building Curriculum.

Capacity Building Classes

This year OYE has divided its scholars into three distinct levels based on age and experience. Each level convened as a small focus group to select the themes most important to them. Under the leadership of Program Coordinator, Dunia Perdomo, the following themes were selected:

Level I

Valores	23-Feb
Autoestima	2-Mar
Desintegracion familiar	9-Mar
Violencia intrafamiliar	16-Mar
Noviazgo	23-Mar
Sexualidad I	6-Apr
Sexualidad II	13-Apr
Primeros Auxilios I	20-Apr
Primeros Auxilios II	27-Apr
Redes Sociales	4-May
Realidad nacional I	11-May
Realidad nacional II	18-May

Level II

Valores	16-Feb
Autoestima	23-Feb
Adicción a las drogas	2-Mar
Noviazgo	9-Mar
Sexualidad I	16-Mar
Sexualidad II	23-Mar
Embarazo en adolescentes	6-Apr
Primeros Auxilios I	13-Apr
Primeros Auxilios II	20-Apr
Profesionalismo	27-Apr
Redes Sociales	4-May
Influencia de los medios de comunicación	11-May
Política I	18-May
Política II	25-May

Level III

Inteligencia Emocional	16-Feb
Liderazgo	23-Feb
Sexualidad I	2-Mar
Sexualidad II	9-Mar
Historia de Honduras I	16-Mar
Historia de Honduras II	23-Mar
Cultura hondureña	6-Apr
Primeros Auxilios I	13-Apr
Primeros Auxilios II	20-Apr
Técnicas de estudio y creación de un curriculum	27-Apr
Oratoria	4-May
Derechos humanos	11-May
Política I	18-May
Política II	25-May

Workshop with Dunia Orellana on Sexual Diversity in Honduras

Dunia Orellana's icebreaker for her workshop on "Diversity in Honduras"

OYE received a visit from Dunia Orellana, a 28-year-old human rights activist, film student, and journalist from La Prensa (Honduras’s most widely read newspaper). Dunia came to speak with local youth about the topic of diversity in Honduras, with a focus on sexual diversity. Dunia began the workshop with an icebreaker in which each of the participants split up by month of birth and shared their interests to the rest of the group. The icebreaker went to show how different each and every person was at the workshop and proved why diversity is such an important topic of conversation.

After the icebreaker, Dunia was very explicit in explaining the forum was one for openness and dialogue where all people of whatever religious or political backgrounds were welcome to share their opinions and beliefs. She initiated the dialogue on sexual diversity by detailing certain relevant rights in the Honduran constitution, such as the right to the sanctity of life and the freedom of expression.

Dunia getting to know local youth from OYE and Comvida

"All people have the right to express their sexuality openly, just as they have the right to choose not to express their sexuality,” Dunia said. “And we have to be respectful of whatever choice they make.” 

Dunia mentioned that Honduras is an at-risk country for transgender people, since a disproportionate number of transgender individuals have been murdered over the past five years compared to homicide rates in other countries.

Participating youth launched into a conversation about a topic that is covered almost daily in Honduran media – the debate over whether or not to allow Ricky Martin, an openly gay popstar, to enter the country to give his concert in Tegucigalpa on October 16, 2011. The Evangelical Church submitted a request to the state to deny allowing Ricky Martin to enter the country, arguing that his presence could have a negative impact on Honduran youth. The government has since stated that not allowing Ricky Martin to perform would be "an act of intolerance and a condemnable act of homophobia."

Dunia and local youth engaging in dialogue about sexual identity and diversity

Dunia helped participating youth analyze the issue from a constitutional perspective, using the freedom of expression to show that an artist does have the right to express his or herself freely in Honduras. Youth agreed, with some arguing that because Ricky Martin has been giving concerts around the world ever since he was a teenager (and well before he “came out”) that it would be unfair to misconstrue his impact as an artist simply because he is now openly gay.

The dialogue shifted to other topics, including discrimination in schools, the failure of parents to have serious and adult discussions about sexuality with their children, and the beauty of diversity in varying contexts in Honduras and around the world.

More icebreakers with Dunia! 

Overall, the workshop was a fantastic opportunity to hear from a local and promising leader who fights on daily basis to make her country a more equal and more democratic place that respects the rights and liberties of all people, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, or any other social status. Many thanks to Dunia for coming to OYE and for providing the youth of El Progreso with such and enriching experience.

A day of thought and dialogue among young Honduran leaders.

Artist Capacity

Capacity is a Word that gets thrown around the offices of OYE a lot. We have programs of capacity building and all of our students have incredible capacity, but what does this capacity mean to the people that have it?

I attended a drawing class, part of our new Arte La Calle program, and not only did I receive a great lesson in drawing, but I also had the opportunity to talk with some of the OYE students about capacity. We talked about what it was, and what it means.

By the end of the lesson I realized that its true OYE students have incredible capacity. They described to me what this word means, and according to our scholars, capacity is the potential a person has to do something. Moreover, it is the ability to apply ones self to acquire the knowledge necessary to do that thing.

After talking for a while we came to the conclusion that, while everyone has some capacity, we are not necessarily endowed with the same type of capacity. In this vein, the program of art that I attended today is a perfect example. Gerald, the OYE scholar that was instructing us has an incredible capacity for making and teaching art. When he looks at an object he sees it through the eyes of an artistic and can reproduce its slightest shadow. He can look at an image and see how to draw it with a mind for the shadows and reflections. As a teacher he demonstrates a tremendous capacity of patience with his raucous students. When all was said and done, those of us that participated in his class produced some nice works of art, even if they could not rival those of Gerald. We all had the capacity to produce art, but we might not have realized it without the guidance of Gerald.

This is the type of capacity and capacity building OYE is talking about. Capacity is simply the ability to learn to do. Capacity is nothing without the desire to act, and it is amplified when a helping hand or guidance is lent to another. As we hope to create a village of socially engaged artists through our art program, we hope to create a community of socially conscious and responsible citizens through our capacity classes.

NEW Revista! OYE News

Open publication - Free publishing - More youth

Check out OYE's newest issue of Revista Jovenes. OYE's students have done it again. The designed, produced, and edited all the content of their youth magazine for the months of June, July, and August. This issue includes articles about and an interview with Guillermo Anderson, the traditional column of OYE Ritmo, reviews of cinema, a personality test, and much more. Now the work of these OYE students can be viewed for free online at www.Issuu.com or above.

Revista Jovenes has created a spot for OYE scholars to share their voice, and use it in a positive way to educate and empower their community. Talking to the students that create this magazine is a great reminder as to why opportunities like this are so important. OYE's magazine program allows our students to exercise our motto, "Mi voz es Poder." When asked what they like about working on the magazine, one of the group responded, "When I have a thought, when I have something to say all I have to do is write it down, and I know I'll be able to share it with everyone." Jovenes provides our youth with an opportunity to magnify their voices. Through this program OYE's scholars are growing into confident and capable communicators, and we are all proud that we reach a wider audience by publishing this magazine online.

Students Initiate New Projects

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OYE features multiple capacity programs. The general capacity program is a requirement for all OYE students to participate in. This program that talked about sexual education, self esteem, Honduran reality, and a variety of other important topics ended last week. However, OYE’s other capacity building program is in full swing. This second program is a six part course proctored by OYE’s director Luis Paredes. Through this program Luis uses his knowledge and personal experience to teach OYE’s future community activists. At the end of this 45 hour program, the students enrolled will receive degrees demonstrating that they have learned about the process and challenges of launching NGO, environmental, community, cultural, or health based projects. Aside from learning about the process of planning and implementing one of these projects, the students are proposing projects of their own to be incorporated into the OYE program.

Between Luis` leadership and experience and the determination and intelligence of the students the ideas that have been generated are well thought out and interesting. They are both an ends and a means for OYE to achieve its goals. On the one hand, these projects propose to address problems or issues within Honduras. The success of these projects would promote culture, art, music, and sports as a means for Honduran youth to grow into confident capable adults. However, beyond this, the projects planned and administered by the scholars of OYE is incredible in itself. It is putting youth in the driver’s seat of their own lives and the future of OYE in their young but capable hands. Under the guidance of the OYE team, this group of 12 youth with their two projects will move OYE forward in new and possibly unseen directions. These projects are the manifestation of the OYE`s goals. As this class comes to a close and the 12 OYE scholars pitch their ideas, they are purposing the future of the organization and in this way OYE is realizing its goals as its students pursues them.

While this is only my third week here, I am fascinated and enchanted by the way this organization works. Through its capacity programs it pursues long term objectives and immediate empowerment results. The students here, day to day, demonstrate a drive to make themselves and their community better. I believe that putting these impressive young students in positions to lead, create, and innovate is the best way to cultivate their empowerment. While they are the future, they are also the present, and by giving them hands on experience we are not preparing them to be leaders. They are growing into leaders today.

The staff at OYE has often said that the scholars in OYE are here because they have potential. While all the students in OYE take responsibility for their part in a project like the Revista or the Radio Program, the ones who are ready step up, to create, and innovate are mentored by Luis as they purpose and implement OYE programs of their own. Maybe potential isn’t the best word, but it’s the first that comes to mind. These students have demonstrated that they have more than potential because they are doing it. They are becoming leaders in their own right and in OYE. They aren’t perfect, but was their ever a perfect leader? They are learning, and they need polish, but they are OYE, and they will bring OYE in their own direction.

Sam Rioux