PHOTOS: Honduran school after JMU's visit

PHOTOS: Honduran school before JMU's visit

James Madison University Visits Honduras!

Ten James Madison University students visited OYE this week to learn more about the realities of Honduras and to take part in a community service project at the Escuela Urbana Profesor Edgardo Rivera.

JMU volunteers and intern Shawnay Mayers (aka Suyapa) after painting the Honduran school.

Two young boys from the community Primero de Marzo.

A brand new interior at a local Honduran school.

Young Honduran artist Jessica standing in front of her favorite painting at the school - a pink sea horse.

OYE co-founder Ana-Luisa Ahern photographing the JMU students in front of the completed school.

Student leaders Ashley Luebbers and Diana Gates and learning partner and professor Patsy Brevar, along with nine other students, took part in an intensive community service project to repair and repaint a school in the neighborhood known as Primero de Marzo. A building in the community that served as a school for many years was in a state of disrepair. The JMU group arrived and helped clean the walls, pick up the garbage in the schoolyard, and repaint the exterior and interior. They also added an artistic touch with murals, an alphabet, a multiplication table, and other paintings. The volunteers worked tirelessly, with some days lasting from 8:30am until 5:00pm. The community's President, David Castillo, was deeply appreciative of JMU's contribution and will be working with community members on repairing the school's floor and roof after JMU's departure.

The volunteers from JMU also visited Pro-Niño, an organization that provides a home, education, and support to Honduran street children, and the Nutrition Center, which treats malnourished children who are up to six months old and whose families cannot afford to feed them. In addition to taking part in the forum on the Honduran reality with American University students, the JMU students watched the movie Sin Nombres, which provides a glimpse into the realities of immigration to the United States, a perilous and costly voyage that millions have made and continue to make out of necessity, and youth gangs, which have become an alternative for youth in Central America who have little to turn to with respect to education, leadership, the arts, or other opportunities. The JMU volunteers walked away from the movie realizing how important the work of OYE is in providing youth with the means for education and a way to identify themselves as writers, artists, athletes, radio hosts, scholars, and young professionals rather than as criminals or gang members.

Many thanks to the volunteers of JMU for sharing their time, fantastic energy, generosity, and unwavering spirit. We look forward to the day when we can welcome them back as members of the OYE family.

Bienvenidos to Spring Break Volunteers!

OYE had the recent pleasure of hosting American University and James Madison University students from March 5-12, 2011. Both groups learned about Honduran education and the problems facing Honduran youth while taking part in community service projects with local youth groups and communities. Additionally, both groups made generous financial donations to OYE that will go to support OYE's scholars and programs. Be on the lookout for more specific blogs on each volunteer group!

Intern A'ra Alston with youth from Pro-Niño.

James Madison University students painting a school and community center in El Progreso.

Volunteers playing soccer with the youth from Pro-Niño.

American University students spending time with local youth.

James Madison University students eating baleadas at their final nightly reflection.

American University Visits Honduras!

This week OYE was happy to host 14 students from American University and their learning partner, Joe Otero, the father of OYE co-founder Justin Eldridge-Otero.

American University students attending the forum on the Honduran Reality.

Panelists from local schools and Comvida at the forum on the Honduran Reality, with translations by Ana-Luisa Ahern, OYE's co-founder.

Atol breakfast at the central market in Copan Ruinas.

American University students at Copan Ruinas.

American University students practicing yoga on an ancient Mayan pyramid, led by OYE's Communication and Volunteer Coordinator and yoga instructor Michael Solis.

The week started out with a trip to Copan Ruinas, where OYE staff, scholars, and American University students traveled to learn more about ancient Mayan culture, to explore the ruins, and to eat local Copan Ruinas cuisine at the central market. Afterwards, American University returned to Progreso where they learned about the reality of education in Honduras. They visited locals schools, including Chevez High School, La Perla de Ulua High School, Juan Ramon Morales Elementary School, Nortre Dame High School, and the Techological University of Honduras (UTH). The group also sat in on two forums, including one on the Honduran reality with guest speakers that included teachers, students, and UNICEF workers, as well as another with OYE youth scholars who shared their life stories and the impact that OYE has had on them and their families.

Perhaps the most exciting event of the week was the strike that American University students attended in the center of El Progreso. Thousands of Honduran students who attend public schools marched through the streets to the municipality to speak out against the government's proposed plan to privatize all public high schools with a new education law that is still in discussion. Students, teachers, and families have banded together throughout the country to protest educational privitization given that it would make education inaccessible to most youth who attend public schools.

In addition to visiting Pro-Niño, a local organization that provides a home and space for education to street children, the American University students also helped begin a logo painting project for the new OYE office. Soon the office will have its very own hand-painted logo.

Many thanks to American University for their visit, their energy, their dancing skills, and their generosity. We look forward to the next time we can host AU in Honduras, as they will always be a part of the OYE family.