Students Helping Honduras
 | |
| Abbreviation | SHH |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2006 |
| Type | NGO |
| Purpose | Humanitarianism |
| Headquarters | Fredericksburg, VA, El Progreso, Honduras |
Region served | Honduras |
CEOs | Shin Fujiyama, Cosmo Fujiyama |
| Website | StudentsHelpingHonduras.org |
Students Helping Honduras (SHH) is an international NGO operating in both the United States and Honduras. While the majority of its projects are centered on the peripheries of El Progreso, the organization engages in projects throughout all of Honduras.
History
Origin
Shin Fujiyama and his sister Cosmo Fujiyama first traveled to Honduras in the summer of 2004, volunteering on a mission trip organized by the Campus Christian Community of the University of Mary Washington to help victims of poverty and domestic abuse.[1] Shin met and grew close to the people of a squatter village called Siete de Abril (Spanish for April 7th); the villagers, whose homes had been destroyed by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, named the village after the date on which their sudden homelessness forced them to establish it. Having bore witness to the harsh conditions in which the villagers and their children lived, Shin vowed to help them overcome poverty. The semester following his trip, Shin founded Students Helping Honduras (SHH) as an official student organization within his university, as did his sister who attended the College of William & Mary.[2]
The organization, which began as a small group of students eager to help the siblings fulfill their mission, began to hold local events in an effort to raise funds. Their first walkathon, held in the spring of 2006, raised over $148,000 with the help of a matching grant from Doris Buffett, founder of The Sunshine Lady Foundation. Those proceeds allowed the students to travel back to Honduras and build a school with the villagers of Siete de Abril.[3]
While constructing the school, a 10-year old girl named Carmen gave a handwritten letter to Shin. It expressed her dream in which, one day, every family in her village would live in a safer home. Shin, touched by the now iconic letter, once again mobilized his friends to fulfill her dream.[4] Doris Buffett offered the students a second matching grant of $100,000, on the condition that the students raise that very amount by the end of the semester.[5][6] The students reached out to friends from other college campuses including Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia, both of which would establish chapters of SHH. The band of students raised $110,000 by the end of the semester, earning Buffett's matching grant for a combined total of over $210,000.[citation needed] With this money SHH was able to purchase a land title on which the villagers could live legally, and they had raised enough money to build one cinder block house for each family from Siete de Abril.
Shin registered Students Helping Honduras as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 2007,[7] as advised by Dr. Gregory Stanton, founder of Genocide Watch. Today the organization hosts service trips throughout the year as part of its formal operations. Students and adults travel to Honduras in groups to assist with construction, build relationships with the local residents and witness the conditions in which they live. Respectively, these three activities facilitate most of the progress of the organization, by: (a) shortening the project completion time; (b) building trust and fidelity between the villagers and the organization; and (c) stoking passion within trip participants to support those villagers upon returning to the United States.
Evolution
Students Helping Honduras has restructured its governing body in at least two ways since its inception: it has rewritten its mission statement and instituted a Student Board to represent the interests of student volunteers.
The original mission statement of SHH was stated as the following:[8]
- Provide fundamental human needs to orphaned and impoverished children in Honduras. This includes, but is not limited to, educational opportunities, nourishment, access to adequate shelter, clean water, general livelihood, and a chance to participate in sports.
- Cultivate volunteerism, compassion, and global responsibility.
- Promote awareness of the condition in Honduras.
- Connect and mobilize students throughout the country utilizing the full range of today's technology.
The Board of Directors recognized that this mission statement lacked a vision that was specific enough to guide the actions of organization in a focused manner. They agreed to hone their mission statement and thus their operations toward the welfare of orphaned and at-risk children; hence the current mission statement of Students Helping Honduras is "to mobilize students in a massive and focused effort to empower orphaned and at-risk children in Honduras to reach their full potential."[9]
While the organization birthed from a democratic, grassroots student movement, a rapid growth of chapters and volunteers begot the need for a more formal bureaucracy. The volunteers, most of whom are students and invest much time raising funds and forming emotional bonds with the Honduran villagers, have historically held a major stake in the vision and operations of the organization. Moreover the Board of Directors, which was largely based in Honduras, had little oversight of the fundraising operations that the students organized in the United States. To satisfy the interests of the student volunteers and facilitate a more cohesive chapter network, the Board of Directors agreed to institute a Student Board in which one or several representatives from each student chapter would discuss the needs of each chapter. Chief representatives of the Student Board report to the Board of Directors voicing the needs and interests of the students.[citation needed]
Projects
Villa Soleada
This project consists of forty-four 22’x 28’ homes, each with three bedrooms, a central room, bathroom, and shower. The design of the homes and the entire village was based on drawings made by the villagers. The village will also include a community center usable for church gatherings or town meetings, land for farming and sustainable businesses, a well, a library, eco-friendly waste management system, electricity, and most importantly, a soccer field.[10]
SHH Women's Academy
SHH is providing girls from underprivileged communities and orphanages the opportunity to study at the best universities in Honduras. The program offers group housing and full scholarships to qualified candidates. Currently, four girls live in the house, and the number is expected to reach fifteen by 2012.[11]
La Ceiba Microfinance Institution
La Ceiba seeks to empower women in Honduras as they develop business plans, undergo training, and create their own businesses.[12]
Fuel-Efficient Cooking Stoves
These stoves significantly reduce the amount of indoor pollution in households utilizing traditional fuel stoves. This includes as smoke and carbon monoxide, the fourth leading cause of death for children under the age of five in developing countries. Through its efficient design, these stoves require only half of the amount of firewood compared to an ordinary stove and have significantly contributed to the health of villagers in Siete de Abril.
Por Venir School
In 2008, SHH built a three room elementary school at the village of Por Venir that is currently enrolling nearly 150 children.
Membership and Chapters
The membership of SHH consists of more than two thousand students, young professionals, and adults from fifteen states and twenty chapters[13].
Chapters are typically located on U.S. college campuses including:
References
- ^ http://www.umw.edu/publications/umwtoday_spring2007/features/hero_in_honduras/default.php UMW Today
- ^ http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/042008/04042008/368325 Free-Lance Star
- ^ http://www.umw.edu/universityrelations/news/archives/umw_students_organize_walk.php University of Mary Washington
- ^ http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007/042007/04152007/274571 The Free Lance-Star
- ^ http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007/032007/03312007/272114 The Free Lance-Star
- ^ http://www.umw.edu/universityrelations/news/archives/students_helping_honduras_.php University of Mary Washington
- ^ http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2007/412/191/2007-412191361-04b73fc1-9.pdf From 990
- ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20070223091607/www.studentshelpinghonduras.org/about_mission.htm Students Helping Honduras
- ^ http://www.studentshelpinghonduras.org/about Students Helping Honduras
- ^ Villa Soleada Project Overview
- ^ http://www.umw.edu/news/?a=1074 University of Mary Washington
- ^ La Ceiba Homepage
- ^ SHH Chapters