The Words of the Gullery Family |
An SFP Global PeaceMakers (GPM) project took place in Honduras in December 2008.
SFP educational coordinators Janna Gullery and Carolina Castro facilitated the educational process throughout the program. All of the participants had a leadership role. For example, they served as team leaders or were in charge of a particular assignment.
Volunteers from Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Brazil and volunteers with diverse ethnic backgrounds living in the USA such as Cuban-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Colombian-Cuban- Americans joined efforts in building a Pre-K classroom for the community of Altos de los Pinos, located near Tegucigalpa.
The Pre-K classroom will be used for educating children from sole-parent families and for continued education of adults during the evenings and weekends. During the GPM project, community members took part in various activities. The women from Altos de los Pinos are known to be really engaged in the improvement of the living conditions in their community. Previously, they built a school which now is used for older children. They even built their own homes by creating their own cement blocks.
The project was supported by Honduran Military Service who provided free lodging at their Military Technical Academy, as well as transportation and food. Military members also took part in some of the service activities. The project was also supported by the First Lady of the Republic of Honduras who donated a community kitchen and by a business owner and a political leader who pledged to donate the money needed for a new library.
One of the most valuable results of this GPM project, however, was the opportunity for the children to serve as volunteers themselves. They were really excited to be involved in the building of their own classroom and worked with both enthusiasm and dedication.