Education Makes a Difference
Opening a Community Library
Fall 2009 |
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Greetings! |
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We are incredibly excited about a new addition to our ministry. The longer we live here, the more we think education is a major answer to the suffering of children here in Honduras. We hope you enjoy these articles and are inspired by the hope that our achievments represent.
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| The Gift of Opportuniy |
During our work in Honduras we have seen time and time again that the children we want to help struggle with an inferiority complex. Before we moved here, a wise friend told us that it was as if the whole country of Honduras suffers from low self-esteem. As we've lived here a few years, we've observed this to be very true.
I remember one day as I was teaching an English class at Instituto El Rey, one of my students raised his hand and asked, "Teacher, is it true that students from the United States and Europe are smarter than we are?" Having lived in this environment for nearly four years now, I am convinced that what separates people living in developed countries from people living in under-developed countries is not intelligence, but opportunity. Along with caring for orphaned and abandoned children, one of our main goals as an organization is to provide opportunities for the young people of our community. Our most recent accomplishment towards this goal was opening a community library. | |
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| Lee's Library |
 The library will be called Lee's Library. It is named after Lee Stoughton, a close friend of the Furrow family, who passed away in 2002. One of Lee's greatest passions was to teach young people, and to honor her memory, we will use this library to do just that. In Spanish the name will be " Biblioteca Lees". The word lees means "you read" in Spanish. We opened the library on Friday, October 25th, and nearly 120 people showed up for the festivities. We read "The Little Engine That Could" and other books in Spanish, we had games, snacks, let the kids dip their hands in paint to decorate the curtains, and ended the evening up by having a piņata for the children. In the past couple of weeks we've registered 80 people for library cards. We feel like this is going to be an important avenue to provide educational opportunities for young people in our community. Imagine the difference this will make in a country where, according to the United Nations, the average Honduran young person receives only 4.3 years of education.
Please visit our BLOG to see more photos of the grand opening of the library.
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| More Resources for More Opportunity |
 If you'd like to get involved in the library, here are a few things we'd like to purchase to enhance the opportunities available to young people in our community: -More books...right now we only have about 300 books total to offer. We can purcahse a lot of books with even $100.
-Computer workstations...we'd like to purchase two computers to offer programs to study foreign languages and other educational programs ($400 per computer).
-Printer...we'd like to purchase a printer/scanner/copier machine to print off computer-based resources ($200).
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| In Process to Open the Children's Home |
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We wanted to give you an update on the legal process to take in our first kids. Every week we try to call our lawyers to find out how things are progressing. We are getting ever closer, though sometimes it feels that we're moving by inches instead of miles! Due to the political turmoil this year in Honduras, things are just not moving as fast through the government offices. Right now we are a signature away from having our non-profit recognized in Honduras. After that is signed, we will be working directly with the social services in Honduras to open the Children's Home. So, we are continuing to work in our community and develop our property, and we know that very soon the kids will come.
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| Finishing the 3rd House |
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We wanted to show you our progress on the construction of the 3rd house for kids. Recently we finished wiring the house, thanks to help from a group of family and friends. We've finished smoothing the walls and we've poured the floors. All we to do now is to get the windows and doors made and finish the plumbing. Then we'll need paint, appliances, and furniture and we'll have another house ready to care for children!
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| Join With Us To Make A Difference |
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Our ministry is in constant need of finances and prayer and workers. Please visit our WEBSITE for more information about how you can make a difference in the lives of vulnerable children.
To donate to Give Hope 2 Kids you can send checks to our mailing address (listed below), sign up for automatic monthly debits on our website, or click the "make a donation" link above to give online by credit card.
Thanks for getting behind this vision,
Jason & Sarah Furrow | |
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