Youth Centre for 100+ Young Leaders in Honduras

This month has marked a milestone for us at educate. in our scholarship programme, with our very first students graduating from high school! Our team has also been busy training five youth leaders to take on new responsibilities as programme coordinators next year, establishing firm partnerships with local government for future growth, and wrapping up our 2023 activities at the Youth Center.

Meet our first high school graduates

Wilson and Lucio are cousins from the village of El Limón. For both of them, finishing high school has been an enormous effort. From their home, they have travelled 1.5 hours a day to get to high school in Trinidad, including crossing back and forth across the Ulua river since the bridge was destroyed in the 2020 hurricanes. Cindy has worked alongside her studies to make her education possible, attending evening school five days a week. And Gerson was able to return to his studies after the pandemic thanks to an educate. scholarship and now, at 24, is a proud high school graduate! All four of these young people are amongst the first in their families to graduate from high school. Watching them grow over the course of their time with educate. has been a privilege and a testament to the power and importance of the opportunities that scholarships can provide.

As the school year has come to a close, we have also celebrated the culmination of another school year for all our scholars. One more year of growth and learning, and one year closer to graduation.

Preparations for 2024 are also underway. We received close to 60 scholarship applications for the 2024 academic year from students across three municipalities, and over the past two months have been conducting interviews and family visits with each student, getting to know each student and their unique situation and challenges. We can’t wait to introduce you to our 2024 cohort soon!

Youth-led computer courses

High school graduation was not the only graduation to take place this past month! At the educate. Youth Center, 13 primary school students graduated from their Level 1 computer course, led by educate. high school scholar Shelsy.

STEM is one of the core areas where we are building our focus in the community. For more than half of the 40 students who have participated in these courses this year, this was the first time they had used a computer. We believe that supporting the development of computer literacy skills and educational opportunities in STEM is key for rural youth to be able to thrive in their education and lives.

Shelsy, who leads these courses, says these experiences have helped her grow as a leader. “This has been the best graduation I’ve led so far, and I hope to continue leading these clases next year, graduating more boys and girls and for them to become future educate. scholars!”

Youth leaders in training

Over the last three months, our Youth Leaders have been participating in a series of trainings for taking on their new roles as Programme Coordinators next year. We believe youth have enormous potential to act as leaders of change in their communities, and by providing these concrete leadership opportunities for our scholars, we are creating the foundation for just that. We can’t wait to kick off these new programmes next year, led by youth for youth!

Local government partnerships – to drive systemic change

Core to educate.‘s approach to supporting education is working to accompany the public sector. We believe firmly that a strong public education sector will be, in the long term, the most effective way to reach underserved communities and their youth, and to provide holistic, quality education to all. We are proud that our Youth Center is a public space, functioning five days a week as a public municipal library for all of Trinidad’s citizens.

Last week at a town hall meeting, it was formally announced that the partnership between educate. and the Municipality of Trinidad has been officially granted an indefinite extension. This achievement provides our work with the long term stability we need to continue to work alongside the public education sector, supporting not just students, but systems change.

Read our 2022-23 Impact Report

Finally, we are excited to share our very first Impact Report, based on a 2-year study with 89 respondents from across our communities, including our scholars, students at library schools, teachers, family members, and other community members. The report highlights the impact of educate.’s scholarship programme and library projects across multiple dimensions. A few highlights include:

• 100% of university scholars agree: university has well equipped them with the skills and knowledge to pursue their goals.
• 100% of family members would have not considered university as a possibility otherwise available to the scholarship holder.
• 100% of teachers agree or strongly agree that the scholarship programme is an opportunity for the creation of future leaders in their community

Read the full Impact Report here.

As the year draws to an end, we celebrate everyone who makes this work possible – our students, families, team, partners, volunteers, and you! Thank you so much for your ongoing and unwavering support of our work.

Best wishes,

Antonia