Access to High School in Honduran Coffee Mountains

Dear Friends of educate.,

It has been another busy few months here in Trinidad, Honduras at educate.’s Youth Center! We are continuing to build structure into our programmes, provide a wide array of meaningful educational opportunities, and strengthen youth leadership in all areas of our work. These last few months have included a new series of workshops on personal development, two new computer classes led by our very own scholars, and our participation in Honduras’ National Youth Week conference. We continue to see how the impact of our scholarship programme goes far beyond the confines of the formal academic classroom, fostering a form of personal development in our students that is truly creating a generation of leaders.

Personal development workshops

In an effort to support our scholars in their holistic development as learners, leaders and individuals, we support all of our students through a process of personal development and training. These last few months have included workshops on self-esteem and healthy relationships. We often use focus group circles as a tool for group discussions about these themes, passing an object around the circle to give each person a chance to express their opinions and share their perspectives and experiences. These sessions are always highly engaged, as there are few spaces available for young people to discuss these topics in their day to day lives.

Youth-led computer classes

Our computer classes continue to take place at the educate. Youth Center, led by our scholars Javier and Shelsy every Thursday and Friday afternoon. Our Level 1 courses focus on getting familiar with using a computer and working with Microsoft Office programmes, but students also play educational games and learn basic coding on the international education platform Code.org. For most of our students, these classes are the first time they are using a computer! Our first group of Level 1 students have already graduated, and two new classes are currently in progress.

Javier says, “I really enjoy teaching! It has been a great opportunity to put into practice what I have been learning through my university studies, and to give back to my community. I would have loved to have access to these kind of opportunities at that age, and it’s great that we can provide these courses so that this generation can grow up with this knowledge.”

Art classes

We recently launched a pilot art programme which has been taking place on Sundays, led by local artist Orlin Canales who previously worked with educate. scholars on the Youth Center murals. In the course, students have been learning about light, shading, texture, proportion and more, and are on their way to developing their final paintings which will be shown in a local exhibition.

Participating in Honduras’ National Youth Week Conference

Finally, we were excited to participate for the first time in Honduras’ National Youth Week conference in the capital city, Tegucigalpa, with CONJUVEH, the national Youth Council! educate.’s Project Coordinator Walter and university scholar Fanny Nallely had the opportunity to travel to the capital to participate and share experiences with 75 other youth organizations from across the country.

The phrase “young people are not the future, we are the present,” was repeated throughout the conference. For youth-led and youth-focused organizations, the value of these spaces of knowledge exchange and collective learning and engagement is so important so that we can strive for change that is led by young people themselves about the issues that directly affect them.

As our work continues to grow, we remain deeply grateful for the support of each and every individual who makes this impact possible. Thank you!

Best wishes,

Antonia McGrath