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. 

Calling All Young Leaders and Change Makers!

As 2013 draws to a close OYE is more than happy to turn its attention to the future, and this means selecting new scholars and planning for the 2014 year. This past weekend the process of preparing for 2014 kicked off in earnest as we interviewed potential OYE Scholars. With board members settled to arrive at the end of this week the tumultuous agenda preparing for next year shows no sign of slowing down. Board members, beneficiaries, and staff will participate in both long and short term planning sessions.

Program Coordinator, Dunia Perdomo, Introduces the first exercise.

This past weekend the organization hosted its first round of interviews for 2014 OYE scholars. In addition to returning OYE scholars, approximately 30 local youth were invited to participate in both

OYE Volunteers Morgan and Alex
observe new applicants with board mem-
ber Walter Molinari (Black t-shirt).

group and individual interviews. For the first time, OYE implemented a dynamic Group element, allowing a diverse committee to evaluate how applicants interacted among their peers. Divided into groups of youth with like ages, the applicants were given challenges and the committee assessed who took leadership roles, who was a good listener, who demonstrated rational thinking or deduction, and what was the general group dynamic. This was the first time that OYE has used such tactics to gain a deeper understanding of how applicants think, function, and transact with their peers.

First time applicants work together

In addition to being a great observational tool, the dynamics gave the applicants a chance to accommodate themselves and gain some confidence before entering the individual interviews. The individual interviews give the applicants an opportunity to express their hopes and aspirations and convey things that one cannot see during a dynamic group activity. As Walter Molinari pointed out, the personal interviews are essential to finding youth with leadership potential, as opposed to those who have already developed a strong sense of leadership and voice. At OYE we are seeking youth with positive attitudes and a desire to make their community a better place, a clear distinction from a competitive drive and take-charge attitude. Walter lauded the individual interviews as a great tool, identifying some of OYE’s greatest leaders like Gerald and Sandra who never would have come across in a group interview.

Activity #1, Applicants collaborate to build
unique model homes

The next phase of the process involves home visits. This allows OYE staff to know where the scholars live and meet their families. Vice versa the families of OYE scholars have the chance to meet OYE staff. Both sides arrive to a better understanding of the other. Information is confirmed and OYE has the chance to develop a personal relationship with its community. (This is by far my favorite part of the process.)

All in all the process is evolving and offers a well-rounded perspective on aspiring OYE scholars. The applicants this year have been inspiring. It is so hard to select the ones that

Applicants work as pitch team, selling
their model home to OYE

will receive OYE scholarships, but as our programs expand  we can realistically offer each and every applicant the chance to benefit from OYE’s Leadership and Capacity Building classes and participate in OYE youth-led community outreach programs.

Eastern Mennonite University - Volunteers Launch Environmental Campaign

What a week!

OYE just wrapped up another group trip with Eastern Mennonite University this past Saturday. The group was made up of 19 students participating in a six week credited university program. After two weeks in Copan Ruinas, a beautiful and important historical and cultural site in Western Honduras, at a La Guacamaya Spanish School, the group dedicated a week of their program to volunteer with OYE and learn about youth development efforts and national reality with OYE.

The EMU students spent the week designing a recycling and environmental campaign at San Jose Elementary. The school, located only one block away from OYE's office, welcomed OYE's scholars and the international volunteers to supplement a program they had already started with the sixth graders around recycling. The established program involved the recycling of cans, bottles, plastic, paper, cardboard, and electronics. According to teachers the students were very involved in the endeavor and loved the hands on action of gathering and sorting the recyclable products.  There was definitely enthusiasm, and the economic incentive of receiving cash for the recycled products ensured the youth's participation; however, the teachers highlighted a lack of understanding about why recycling was important and how waste can effect the natural world. That's where OYE came into play...

The Campaign

We put the challenge in the hands of the EMU students, many of whom are education majors, to design a campaign that would engage the young students and building their knowledge and interest in recycling and the environment.

The campaign involved:

1. The creation of an environmental mural.

2. The creation and distribution of recycling receptacles that  feature smaller murals and themes about recycling.

3. Development of games and exercises to teach about sustainability and environmental degradation.

4. Writing and illustrating a unique and relatable children's story focused on recycling.

5. Hosting an environmental assembly and workshop with the students of sixth grade.

In typical El Progreso style everything came together at the last-minute. Thursday morning, the day of the assembly, the art students and volunteers put the finishing touches on the mural , the EMU volunteers laminated their children's story, we picked up bookmark prizes, and gathered everyone together at the school. Over 60 sixth graders turned out for the event, many coming to school early that day just to see what was going on. We divided the youth into six stations. Station one read the children's story, station two played a recycling trivia game with facts about recycling and the environment in Honduras, station three played environmental memory cards, station four played a timeline game about the life of a plastic bottle, station five was FACE PAINTING, and station six played a "Who am I" game with prompts like "greenhouse gas." Every 15 minutes the students changed stations until everyone had cycled through each activity.

We were lucky to have the local television station, Teleprogreso, join us at the event. It was a great chance for the community to see and meet that big group of gringos walking around all week and learn a little bit more about OYE. Thanks to the report on the nightly news EMU and OYE's message about the importance of recycling and the environment will arrive to a much larger audience.

A huge thanks to the EMU volunteers for your hard work making this a successful campaign and a great week of service and learning. Additionally, a huge thank you to all the OYE scholarship students that made this trip happen. These trips and projects are all about cultural exchange and are not possible without the hard-work and teamwork of both OYE scholars and international volunteers.

OYE is looking forward to improving its group trip program and building strong/sustainable relationships with Universities like EMU. If you know other universities interested in such programs or Alternative Breaks please pass this blog and/or OYE's contact on oyehonduras@gmail.com