Students Helping Honduras 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
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. Shin met and grew close to the people of a squatter village called Siete de Abril ; 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 borne 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 as an official student organization within his university, as did his sister, who attended the College of William & Mary. 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. 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. 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. 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 nonprofit organization in 2007, 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.
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.
Our 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 community members. The village 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.
Villa Soleada Bilingual School
The Bilingual School has about 300 students and currently goes to 9th grade.
Villa Soleada Children's Home
The project consists of multiple homes, each with Honduran houseparents that look after 10-15 children.
School Builds
Impact Report 2019
School enrollment increased by 39.1% on average after the completion of a project
The average number of classes cancelled due to rain or inadequate protection from weather dropped from 14 days per year to less than one day a year
The average number of teachers per school increased from 6.5 to 8.5
99% of students reported they like the new classrooms
97% of participants agreed that they were prouder of their school after the completion of the project
94% of participants agreed that they believe more in women’s capacity to contribute to projects
98% of teachers and directors agreed that the project helped them perform their jobs better
Membership and chapters
The membership of SHH consists of more than seven thousand students, young professionals, and adults from different states. Chapters are typically located on college campuses and high schools. U.S. college campus chapters include:
