Ring the Bell!

A Community Teaches Its Children

In 1989, teachers, parents and community members in a rural area of Honduras banded together to build a school for their children. The wooden schoolhouse drew hundreds of students, all eager to learn.

But in recent years, the teachers found it increasingly difficult to juggle more than 300 students in the cramped classroom structure lacking solid walls or amenities such as desks or tables.

If You Build It, They Will Come

The schoolhouse, built with ill-fitting wood boards, had no electricity and its door had to be left ajar in an attempt to keep cool air circulating inside. The boards fastened together had gaps of up to 4 inches, and the roof had holes that caused leaks when it rained.

Yet, every day students showed up to learn. Despite their challenging environment, they stayed committed because of their teachers’ support and encouragement.

Another Try

As more and more parents took their children to the school, the need for an adequate learning space took on new urgency for the community. Once again, residents rallied around the goal of building a schoolhouse.

However, they were only able to cobble together an open-air classroom – no walls, no desks and no furnishings. Mosquito bites, rainstorms and the blazing morning sun all made teaching – and learning – nearly impossible.

When it rained, classes had to be canceled. Many children stopped attending school due to the unsafe building conditions.

Generosity for the Win!

Donors and friends of Food For The Poor found out about the community’s efforts and jumped at the opportunity to give children a proper building.

Because of donors like you, a new building – complete with solid walls, electrical and lighting systems, a lunch area, a teacher’s lounge, bathrooms and desks – was built and now serves families in the struggling community.

Education Crisis

A quality education can remedy so many issues that keep generations of families and entire communities stuck in the cycle of poverty.

The 2022 State of Global Learning Poverty Report shows that in the Caribbean and Latin America, an estimated 80 percent of 10-year-olds are unable to understand a simple written text, up from around 50 percent before the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase was largely attributed to prolonged school closures, ineffective measures to open schools safely, and a household-income decline. 

“Learning poverty,” a concept introduced by the World Bank to spotlight the crisis, is a measure of the number of children who cannot understand a simple written text by age 10.

Thank you for your gifts in support of education projects like this one that is making a huge difference in Honduras! The work is not finished, because there are more communities in need of well-built schools. Please give a gift today and keep children in school.