Build More Literate Communities in Rural Honduras

I am a teacher in a rural town and I have been working here for a year. At the time of my arrival the attendance of children to classes was low, there was a great deficiency in all the areas of learning, nevertheless, there was a group that excelled of the other children; They read and showed interest in attending classes, as well as a passion for reading.

In my first week of work, a lady who is part of the parents' society of the school was introduced to my classroom, who is also a volunteer of the organization Un Mundo as a promoter of reading in the literacy program in this community. His mission was to talk about the work of the organization. I had heard of the program; however, I was not clear on the objectives.

The lady started talking about the readers' club, and other components of the programming, and her work. After hearing his enthusiasm, I asked: Are all the children in my school attending the programming offered by your organization? The lady's response was as follows: I am sad because not everyone participates in the program, and began to list the children who attend regularly, and my surprise was that, in that list, were the most participative and committed children in my class.

That is how I started with the lady, a process of raising awareness of parents to motivate their children to participate in the programming offered by the organization Un Mundo. After a year, significant progress has been achieved, achieving greater learning, increasing reading and writing skills, and analytical skills.

Our school won the first place in the contest to write stories and unpublished stories of the region. In addition, many of the children in my classroom help in the literacy of children with learning difficulties.

Reading is a magical adventure, which helps us to grow, imagine, and create ... and has been proven with the children of my school. The organization Un Mundo and the donors and / or sponsors really help in the educational quality of our region. Said the teacher.

The Un Mundo Literacy Connections Program emerged to address high dropout rates, learning disabilities, lack of teachers in some communities or absenteeism in others.  It is quite common that the oldest kids in a family leave school before the school year ends to accompany their parents to the coffee harvest in other regions. Once they return to their school, they face frustration due to their lack of knowledge, and so in some cases they drop out of school.  

The literacy connections program is providing literacy services and after school reinforcement through the reading and writing clubs, youth club, and adult club, as well as with its famous Biblioblandido character (a masked character who goes from community to community, inviting reading and writing through the narrative of stories), and a community library.  

Currently our Literacy Connections program serves eight communities.  Late in 2016, the program was launched in the remote community of Los Planes. There our well trained community voluntary mentor, Aminta López, coordinates the reading and writing club, the youth club, and the adult club, all made possible thank to our communities’ volunteers and donors. 

Although Los Planes is remote, it is not exempt from the epidemic of violence and insecurity that has plagued the country lately, forcing people to stay in their own houses.  Until now, no one had fled from the community, but the Secretary of Education decided to remove the schoolteacher, arguing that there were not enough students. 

Then our community volunteer decided to take over the responsibility of schoolteacher. Now she is in charge of the school three days a week. The remaining day she attends all the clubs.  We do not know if the Secretary of Education will appoint a new schoolteacher for this academic year at some point, but meanwhile Aminta has taken responsibility for Los Planes children’s education, regardless of the violence, insecurity, and lack of government support.  Aminta is able to continue with this effort thank to our donors.