Resilience – education in a time of pandemic

The Marta Banegas School Network comprises 10 educational centers, with an average of 590 students, and 20 teachers. The educational centers are in the Intibucá region in Western Honduras. Since the end of 2019, the Chispa Project began the selection process for the installation of a library. By January 2020, the Network had already started part of its fundraising activities, pertinent to each of the educational centers that begin the process of installing a library. In this case, their contribution consisted in the elaboration of cushions and mats that would be part of the conditioning of the reading areas or areas; By February of that same year, the inauguration activities had already been carried out in the educational center, however, a few weeks later the world would be confined due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Because these educational centers are in rural areas of the country, it makes it even more difficult for students to have access to the internet or electronic media, which is why the teachers took the initiative to develop a system in which they printed the lessons and workbooks that they then personally took to the students’ homes so that they would not miss the school year. Despite the teachers’ good intentions, another test would be presented to these schools since at the end of 2020, Honduras, like other countries in the Central American region, was hit by the hurricanes Eta and Iota, two 4 scale hurricanes.

The devastation and economic losses caused by the natural disaster made it even more difficult to return to educational centers, it is then that Chispa Project decided to allocate emergency funds to those centers that send a proposal explaining their greatest needs, it is here that the Marta Banegas Network requests the donation of reams of paper, ink, printer, as well as biosafety kits for teachers who were traveling to the students’ homes.

After almost two years of hard-working efforts from teachers, parents, and the community, Chispa Project will persist in its efforts so that students have that access to education, we are pleased to say that this network of schools is stronger, they are an example of perseverance, resilience and above all wanting to get their students ahead. The center’s library is currently equipped with  750 books.  In May 2022 they already scheduled a book fair so that the people of the community feel attracted to books and spread the love of reading.