SHH News

After months of construction, planning, research, and final preparation, the Villa Soleada Education Center & Global Playground Technology Lab has been fully opened to the public.

The center features a large study area equipped with modern lighting and ceiling fans as well as a technology lab with 7 computers, a projector, and air conditioning. The center also includes an office and a library which doubles as classroom space.

In tandem with this official opening, we are proud to announce the hiring of a new full-time Director for our center, Sergio Montes (click here for full bio). Sergio holds university degrees in philosophy, education and theology. He loves to work with computers, especially Macs. He has taught in many school across Central America and is fluent in Spanish, English, and several indigenous Central American languages.

Although Taylor's tour to start new SHH chapters with Shin has ended, Taylor made one last visit to the University of Kentucky last night to meet and greet one of SHH's chapters farthest west. Taylor, the former president of SHH at the University of Mary Washington, is getting ready to spend 2 years with the Peace Corps in Paraguay. Taylor offered up some words of wisdom, reminding the UK chapter to dream big and hold consistent small fundraisers. After our meeting, the group went for ice cream. Taylor, your passion and humility are apparent, you're going to do great things in Paraguay! Good luck!

Although Honduras faced its own 7.3 magnitude earthquake last May, the damage was insignificant in comparison to absolute devastation many Haitians are facing after the recent temblor in Port-au-Prince.

After learning about this catastrophe, many members of Villa Soleada decided they needed to help their Haitians brothers and sisters. The Villa Soleada community has become more aware of late that no matter how large or small, "every little bit helps."

To that end, residents of Villa Soleada have thus far donated several hundred lempiras to a Haitian relief fund. This is a very large sum in a community such as theirs. Villa Soleada, SHH, and Honduras stand with Haiti now in its time of need.

From December 5th-12th, SHH hosted several skilled volunteers from the Building Goodness Foundation, SHH's partner organization for construction of Villa Soleada. The volunteers helped to dig trenches and lay pipe for the potable water system at Villa Soleada, install meters and pressure valves, and consult on a donated water tank.

The group managed to dig main lines, connect houses to lines, and plumb "pilas" on one entire side of our project (24 homes!). In fact, the trip was so much of a success that Jack Horn and Clay Clark decided to stay on an extra week in order to help oversee our volunteers from Winter Trip I in the installation of water meters. A very, very big thank you goes out to BGF.

Members of the trip included:

Martin Quarles: Project Manager for Alexander Nicholson Construction (Charlottesville, VA) for many years. Martin has traveled two times previously to Honduras with BGF, three previous BGF trips to Haiti as well as El Salvador.

The fall semester for SHH at UVA has been busy! We have recruited a bunch of fantastic new members, put on multiple bake sales, and held a coffee sale in front of Kroger. We have also hosted one :Grind and Be Kind" reggaeton dance event in October, which brought in around $200 for our group after splitting with other Honduran help organizations and paying the restaurant. This Friday, December 4th, we have another Grind and Be Kind. We are also excited to send seven members to Honduras over Winter II and III. Next semester, look for hot chocolate sales and some major fundraising events!

The Virginia Tech chapter of SHH has recently received a donation of $5000 from Kevin McDonagh, a family friend of a chapter member. All of the money will be used to help 21 members of the VT chapter pay for their trips down to Honduras this winter. Many of these students would not have been able to afford the trip without this generous donation. While the chapter has spent most of its time this fall fundraising for the trips, this unexpected donation was the key to its success of sending such a large number of students from Virginia Tech to El Progreso. Many of these students are first-time volunteers who have been very involved with the organization through chapter events. They are extremely excited to finally make the trip after spending so much of their time, effort and money to raise funds and awareness for the cause.

SHH's chapter at the University of Mary Washington has had a very busy November. Their first event was a Poker Tournament which included prizes donated by Marriott Hotels, the local Fredericksburg community, and the UMW Bookstore. The chapter earned $300 in funds which, while not a huge amount, helped with team bonding! The event was also a success in that all funds raised went directly towards service trips; all costs were recouped by donations.

The second event held was a Cheeseburger in Paradise "Building a Dream" night hosted by two brand-new SHH members. This rookie duo, Michael Behrens and Mia Santina, raised a whopping $600 bucks! The night consisted of a Silent Auction and Raffle, with top prizes including a Landshark Surf Board, an autographed baseball from a pitcher of the Washington Nationals, and an autographed photo from a DC United Soccer Club defensive player. These two new SHH members are doing big things!

This November, at UNC Chapel Hill, our main goals as an overall chapter were to prepare for the winter trip as well as plan for the next semester. We met in small groups to begin to brainstorm a plan of fundraising for the spring semester. By setting goals for the upcoming semester, we will be able to maximize our fundraising efforts when the time comes. Also, veterans of the service trip have worked to prepare the new travelers with pre-trip plans as well as what to expect when in Honduras. We also had a baleada night at Madi Kirch’s apartment where everyone going on the trip got to know each other, and a little bit about the Honduran cuisine they will be experiencing! As far as fundraising, we rounded out the semester with one last pokey stick sale in the lobby of one of the largest dorms on campus. From 11 PM-2AM on a Thursday night, members of our chapter sold the popular garlic breadsticks and made 200 dollars, which will be forwarded to spring semester fundraising.

The University of Kentucky chapter has been making great strides after receiving a $1,000 service grant from the University and holding several on campus fundraisers. Successful fundraisers included selling donuts at football tailgates (picture) and bake sales at the student center (picture). A large fundraiser is planned at a local bar after the new year begins. The group plans to come to El Progreso over spring break and is very excited! Bienvenidos a Kentucky, SHH!

MACOMB, IL -- Western Illinois University students create change by helping others, whether it's in Macomb or their hometown or across the ocean.

Western's Student Helping Honduras (SHH) chapter is holding a fundraising event tomorrow (Friday, Nov. 20) to raise funds for the volunteer organization. In Spring 2009, a group of four WIU students traveled to Honduras where they spent more than one week volunteering at an orphanage, the Las Mercedes Nutrition Center and Villa Soleada, a construction site where 70 new homes were built for impoverished families. The students will once again travel to Honduras for a similar mission Jan. 2-9, 2010.

The Students Helping Honduras group will bag groceries for donations from 4:30-7:30 p.m. Nov. 20 at County Market in Macomb.

Last weekend, the Georgetown and George Mason Chapters of SHH canvassed throughout the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C. More than 15 students turned out to help sell fair-trade, organic Honduran coffee as a fundraiser towards service trips. The two chapters raised $135 over only a couple of hours! Many coffee purchasers from the community were highly-interested in SHH and our work in Honduras. Afterwards, the coffee sellers gathered at Cindy’s house, the Co-President of the Georgetown Chapter, to enjoy some Honduran baleadas!

Over the course of one month, Students Helping Honduras received 25 applications for the first-annual Sophomore Merit Scholarship Award. Recipients of the scholarship will receive an free 8-day service learning trip to Honduras, allowing them to become stronger global leaders and to contribute meaningfully to SHH through a variety of ways during the year. A personal project of SHH Director of Service Learning, Clare Timmis, the scholarships reflect a growing emphasis within SHH placed on the value of service learning at a young age as well as the need to foster student volunteerism and global leadership. The recipients of this scholarship will be notified within coming days.

Over the past week, community workers at Villa Soleada completed the first of three ditch crossings. The ditch crossing acts as a bridge across a drainage ditch running down the center of the property, connecting both sides of Villa Soleada. When the system is finished drainage water should be able to travel from the quickly and safely off of the property. The ditch crossing exemplifies the professional skills Villa Soleada workers have gained throughout the duration of the project. The new bridge is a badge of pride for them and they won't hesitate to show it off to any visitor at Villa Soleada.

Most students fundraising for Students Helping Honduras this past spring set personal goals of $300, $500, or even $1000. These numbers, already difficult to reach (especially in a bad economy), were testaments to their commitment to advance SHH's work in Honduras. However, one student decided to raise the bar a tad bit higher. Her goal: $5,000.

When Jackie Aldrich, at the time just a freshman at the University of Mary Washington, e-mailed her fundraising page to her family and friends, they remarked that she was "crazy" to take on such a monumental task. After all, her personal goal was more than entire goals set by several other chapters! That didn't deter Jackie; she fundraised past her goal in less than two weeks after receiving a very generous donation from a relative. The donation, in the amount of $4,999.00, came with a simple note, "I hope you reach your goal."

What made Jackie so special was that she could have stopped fundraising after reaching her monumental goal. Yet she actually revised her goal upwards on her fundraising page, eventually receiving 24 donations worth a grand total of $6,571.35. Wow.

Students Helping Honduras is proud to announce the formation of our first high school chapter at Centreville High School in Clifton, Virginia. Led by Michael Saboe, brother of longtime SHH veteran Daniel Saboe of the University Virginia, has taken the initiative in getting his new chapter organized. He and his team, including Vice-President Ravi Marwaha, Treasurer Amrita Singh, Secretary Katrina Fuentes, Trip Coordinator Stephanie Sor and Project Manager Maha Malik attended SHH's fall summit at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA. SHH Director Shin Fujiyama remarks, "Michael has shown that high school students are the next step for SHH, the next direction where we're headed. We know we're going to see amazing things from these guys."

Students Helping Honduras recently partnered with the University of Mary Washington Bookstore to open a market in the United States for Honduran Artisan to sell their eco-clutches.

The making of these eco-clutches all began a year ago when a UMW student, Rachel Mason, volunteered in Honduras. The student taught women of Siete de Abril, a squatter community, how to make clutches out of recycled chip bags and soda labels. For the past year, the women only have the opportunity to sell the clutches to SHH volunteers that only come down during certain times of the year.

The income they received from the bags was paying for food and medicine for their children; not only did it provide income but each of these Eco‐Friendly Clutches are crafted in Honduras from 100% post‐consumer snack chip bags, and also helps the environment by minimizing the amount of trash that is burned. Unfortunately, only having the opportunity to sell to volunteers was not steady or reliable enough.

Attention, sophomores! Are you a committed college sophomore, looking for the means to make a difference? Become an SHH-Service Learning Scholar! Applications are now available on the website, at www.studentshelpinghonduras.org. If selected, you'll become a SHH Service Learning Scholar and have the opportunity to volunteer in Honduras on a weeklong service trip this winter or spring with SHH.

The expenses for this trip, excluding airfare, will be fully covered. This program will allow selected scholars to become stronger global leaders and to contribute meaningfully to a growing nonprofit through a variety of ways during the year.

Please submit an application by October 17, 2009 if interested in the winter trips. Spring application dates will be forthcoming. Applicants will be informed of their selection by October 20, 2009

Everyone is SHH is getting pumped for the annual Fall Summit. The large meeting, one of two summits held annually, will be hosted by the University of Mary Washington Chapter in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

The gathering will begin at 9am on Saturday, September 5th. All are welcome. More than 15 chapters from 8 different states will be attending! Topics covered will include progress at the Villa Soleada worksite, technology updates, an annual report from Director Shin Fujiyama, reports from Summer Fellows, and more. Come check it out! For more information (as well as to RSVP), see this link:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=95445449999