SCAW Blog: Honduras, 2024: September 5

An exciting day was had by all. Today we celebrated the giving of 7000 bedkits. The SCAW team is so grateful to have had the experience and opportunity to support the Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa's project to help the children of Honduras. 

The success of the distribution was largely due to the extraordinary effort of Rotarian Edgardo Yescas and the tireless Rotaractors led by Ciara and Andrea. In addition, a big thank you to everyone involved and to our donors who make this all possible.

Team Honduras, 2024

The Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa  🇭🇳 and SCAW 🇨🇦

SCAW Blog: Honduras, 2024: September 4

Our crack team of volunteers was on the road at 6:30 this morning, on our way to today's distribution at a school within the city. Our very capable driver, César, negotiated morning traffic on narrow streets to once again deliver us safely to our destination. 

When we arrived, many of today's 700 bedkit recipients and their teachers were already waiting for us in the covered courtyard. The sound of excitement and anticipation was wonderful for us to hear.

Our team got to work preparing for the flow of children through the various stations of the process. Team member Neil worked with some of the local volunteers to build a small set of steps to help the little ones get up to the area set up for photo taking. Another excellent example of team effort.

Once our process began, it moved smoothly and we completed the distribution of today's 700 bedkits. Very satisfying for us, and appreciated by the children. 

Before heading back to our hotel, we stopped in at the warehouse where the bedkit items are being stored and assembled into kits, just to do a final count before our last day of distributions tomorrow. All looks good!

Thanks to our generous donors, another 700 children will sleep a little better tonight.

Buenas noches!

Team Honduras, 2024

The Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa  🇭🇳 and SCAW 🇨🇦

SCAW Blog: Honduras, 2024: September 3

Fun fact: the Honduran flag 🇭🇳.

The two blue lines represent the two bodies of water (Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea). The white represents the land between the two bodies of water. The five stars 🌟 🌟🌟🌟🌟 represent the 5 Central American countries: Guatemala,🇬🇹 Costa Rica 🇨🇷, Nicaragua 🇳🇮, El Salvador 🇸🇻 and Honduras🇭🇳 

A mosaic made of stones

When arriving at a distribution site, we have to assess the best way to move the children through the area to receive their bedkit. We try to keep the route easy, with no obstacles.

Figuring out the logistics

At today's location we had to find a way to move the bedkits, which were stored on an upper level, to an area accessible for the children so they didn't have to climb stairs. 

Today's creative, innovative and fun way of moving the bedkits involved a few people tossing them from the second floor to the first.

Many volunteers formed a "conga line" that help move them to the endpoint so the children could collect their bedkit safely.

Sometimes we have to take a pause due to a backlog of children waiting to receive their bedkit. We entertained them by doing the Macarena as pictured below.

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Another way our team kept the children entertained during a pause is pictured below.

One of the Rotarians used his time in the Military to get the children to repeat some cadence drills. It was another successful distribution.

Team Honduras, 2024

The Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa 🇭🇳 and SCAW 🇨🇦

SCAW Blog: Honduras, 2024: September 2

“Teamwork makes the dream work “ is definitely an appropriate saying when referring to the results of the successful completion of a bedkit  distribution.

Rotary club and Rotaract members assist the SCAW Canadian team by translating phrases into Spanish that will be useful in directing the children on their way to receiving their bedkit.

Rotary, Rotaract & SCAW working together.

Parents and children taking their bedkits home.

Teachers and parents choose various modes of transportation such as a tuk-tuk taxi to travel to and from the bedkit distribution site.

Teachers returning home via tuk-tuk taxi after assisting at a bedkit distribution.

Team Honduras, 2024

The Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa  🇭🇳 and SCAW 🇨🇦

SCAW Blog: Honduras, 2024: August 31

The team and driver arrived at the school site at approximately 7:30 am. We were greeted with a traditional Honduran dance presented by 8 students.

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Today we had two exceptional cases where the SCAW and Rotary registered students had been hospitalized, unable to be present for their bedkit. Each parent provided a picture of the child, their registration was verified and we were grateful to honour the two children and their families with their bedkit.

Our hot and humid day concluded near 2:30 pm, after seeing almost 700 happy and satisfied faces.

Team Honduras 2024,

The Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa  🇭🇳 and SCAW 🇨🇦 

SCAW Blog: Honduras, 2024: August 30

Today's distribution was at a school on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa. We were welcomed with music by children's marching bands and a delightful performance of a traditional dance by some impressive young children. 

Niños durmiendo alrededor el mundo is Spanish for Sleeping Children Around the World. 

Rousing music by a marching band. They have been practicing for the Honduran Independence Day parades on September 15th.

Children in traditional dress danced in our honour while proud families and teachers looked on.

Like every distribution, children were brought in from a number of schools in the area.

Each distribution site is different, but the one thing that remains constant is the wonderful team effort involved. It is truly inspiring to see the dedication of everyone involved in bringing bedkits to deserving children each day. 

We are a team of six representing SCAW (with the support of a lot of people back in Canada), but a successful day like today requires dozens of people working together, both on site and behind the scenes. Fortunately, we have such a group.

Team members all pitch in to move bedkits to the area where they are handed out. 

On to Day 6 tomorrow! Sleep well.

Team Honduras, 2024

The Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa  🇭🇳 and SCAW 🇨🇦

SCAW Blog: Honduras, 2024: August 29

**Fun fact: the school year in Honduras 🇭🇳 is February to November. 

Another early morning start for the SCAW Team and our overseas partners, which also includes numerous volunteers (municipal workers, adult children and spouses of Rotary members, university students, etc.)

Ever wonder what it's like at the distribution sites in Honduras?

Once the children arrive they are checked in and assigned a number. From there they are given a white T-shirt (to be worn for the photo) and navy shorts.

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Then they are lined up in groups to get their picture taken. Once the photo is snapped, there's another check point and off they go to collect their bedkit.

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It was another successful distribution day!

Team Honduras 2024

The Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa  🇭🇳 and SCAW 🇨🇦 

SCAW Blog: Honduras 2024: August 28

The Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa contracted with their supplier to provide mattresses, pillows, bed sheets and pillowcases in various Disney & cartoon prints which the children really love.

We were treated to a performance by a musical instrumental band.

The teachers from the five schools included in today’s distribution were very helpful in ensuring that children were reunited with their parents or put on the correct bus for the return trip to their neighbourhood with their bedkits to take to their homes.

Team Honduras 2024

Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa 🇭🇳 and SCAW 🇨🇦

SCAW Blog: Honduras, 2024: August 26

After many months of planning and countless hours of preparation, today we were able to meet and hand bedkits to the first 700 beautiful Honduran children who are beneficiaries of the generous donations of our donors. Our reward of a smile and a timid "gracias" is instant and lasting.

A lovely welcome to the location of our first distribution.

Our thoughtful Rotarian partners had tents set up to protect us and the children from the hot sun.

The children had also been preparing for this day. They treated us to a performance of a traditional dance and song, as well as a lovely speech of appreciation delivered by a nervous but determined young boy while his "abuela" proudly looked on. It was a moving moment.

Getting the children to smile for the camera.

Hmmm - she has a choice between a green backpack or a black one (she chose the black)

After a joyous day with the children, we were able to visit two of the warehouses where the bedkit items were stored and assembled into kits. It was impressive to see the vast piles of mattresses alone.

A mountain of mattresses, but by the end of next week, these will all be delivered!

We were informed that the assembly of the bedkits is done by local volunteers, including some parents and teachers of children who will be receiving a bedkit. Also of note is that one of the warehouse spaces is provided for free by a local church, and the other by the municipal government. It truly is a community effort.

Happy children leaving the schoolyard with their precious new belongings.

Much respect and thanks go to our Overseas Volunteer Partner in Honduras, the Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa. Their hard work and dedication to the children makes all of this possible.

Wishing a good night's sleep to all children, everywhere."

Team Honduras, 2024-

Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa 🇭🇳 and SCAW 🇨🇦

SCAW Blog: Honduras, 2024: August 27

Today I met with the Principal designate at the day 2 distribution site. This school site has a student population of 535. The Principal designate recognized how happy and grateful the children were to receive the bedkit gift.

The teachers understand the positive impact the bedkit will have on the students and their families. 

The Rotary Club of Welland provided toothbrushes, toothpaste and bandaids to the Principal for this school site. 

Traditional dance greeting

The Rotaractors are a tremendous help with the distribution. They are assisting at stations and with translation.

Full group photo

Looking forward to more smiling faces tomorrow. 

Team Honduras 2024

Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa 🇭🇳 and SCAW 🇨🇦

SCAW Blog: Honduras, 2024: August 26

Hola from Honduras.

The SCAW team arrived on Saturday, August 24, 2024.  The Rotary Club from Tejucigalpa met us at the airport and managed to give us a tour of the site of our first distribution.

Our overseas partners have been very busy this past year getting ready for the distribution.  

When we leave in two weeks, 7,000 children will be getting a better night's sleep.

Team Honduras 2024

Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa 🇭🇳 and SCAW 🇨🇦

SCAW Blog: Honduras, 2023: August 22

The last day of distribution always brings a moment of sadness that we have to depart for our home and we know we will miss our partners - the Rotarians and Rotaractors, who we now call our new friends.  We will miss seeing the smiling faces of the children. All of us worked for the last 12 days as one team, to see the smiles of the children. 

It is moments like this that give us happiness that we were able to come here to distribute 4000 bedkits.  

Sleeping Children always believes that children who have a good night’s sleep will wake up with a more positive outlook about life, and opportunities. 

Our last day here was also the biggest bedkit distribution with 701 bedkits being handed out.  Everyone was excited to hit that milestone, and clapped and hugged when the last child's picture for the donor had been taken.

Masud

Team Honduras

Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa 🇭🇳 + SCAW 🇨🇦

SCAW Blog: Honduras, 2023: August 21

Today was a day filled with special moments.

First, we were all serenaded by a school band. September 15th is when Honduras celebrates their independence from Spain, so in preparation for this upcoming event, a school band was practicing their marching and performance.  It was wonderful to watch the young ones really get into it ... even dancing as they played. There were xylophones, percussion, horns, drums/drums/and drums.

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Second, we had several special needs children at today's distribution.  Each one came with at least one guardian, some with two.  Everyone jumped in to help get the children ready and into the photos.  I am sure that the donors who get these photos will feel truly blessed.

I was fortunate enough to be on the camera today, so got to capture the faces and characters of each of the 506 kids.  

While we have responsibility for things that happen at each distribution (and before and after), we do find humour and have some fun.  For example - so far this week we had a bunch of strangers jump into the back of one of our pickup trucks when we were stopped on a steep hill (they thought we were a community pickup); Neil got asked for his passport when he tried to buy a coffee at the local coffee shop (apparently they offer a senior's discount with ID); one of the floor signs at a distribution kept falling over in the wind so we left it lying down and a stray dog walked up to it and peed on it; and we convinced a new local volunteer that the first day you have to wear a bucket on your head.

Well, that's all for now.  Our last day is tomorrow and we have to be up and out of the hotel by 5 am for the last 701 bedkits.

Danielle

Team Honduras

Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa 🇭🇳 + SCAW 🇨🇦

SCAW Blog: Honduras, 2023: August 19

How times have changed!

Sleeping Children relies on all our volunteers to help spread the word about this awesome organization. One of the ways in which we do this is by doing presentations to schools, service clubs, church groups, etc. To help us do this, in the past we would take lots of candid pictures of the local culture, landscape and the children that we would use in our presentations.

But times have changed.

Social media and the issue of respecting privacy has changed the way we photograph people. We get the parents’/guardians’ permission to take the childrens’ photos showing their faces for the SCAW donors. However, SCAW believes in respecting the dignity of all children so we no longer take candid pictures of children’s faces. Instead, we now take pictures from the side or from behind the children. I have attached two sample pictures - one of a side view of a child and one of me in my happy place with the children.

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Another awesome day in Honduras yesterday. Thanks to our donors, 410 more children had a good night’s sleep last night.

Clarence Deyoung

Team Honduras 2023

Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa 🇭🇳 + SCAW 🇨🇦

SCAW Blog: Honduras, 2023: August 18

Orchid, the National Flower of Honduras and the Flame Tree.

The moist and humid environment of Honduras is ideal for orchids to thrive. The 'virgin orchid' was designated as the National flower in 1969. Its genus-species name is Rhyncholaelia-digbyana. This orchid species is green-white and grows on trees throughout the country. The flower is highly respected and protected much like the Ontario Trillium. This orchid flower has a characteristic frilled lip that makes it fluffy looking and grows up to 18 cm in diameter. Its lemon fragrance is released at night to attract the moths for pollination.

Hondurans take great pride in the national orchid flower and grow many types of orchids in their home gardens. They often share pictures with each other of their beautifully coloured orchids.

Another tree sprouting beautiful flowers the SCAW team has noticed is the African Tulip tree. Its common name is the 'flame tree' due to its bright orange-red flowers that grow in clusters. The genus-species name is Spathodea-campanulata. This ornamental tree grows abundantly throughout the country. The large flowers capture rainwater that quenches the thirst of birds and insects. 

Team Honduras 2023

Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa 🇭🇳 + SCAW 🇨🇦

SCAW Blog: Honduras, 2023: August 16

Part of the distribution process is the children putting on their new t-shirt, getting a new backpack and supplies, then waiting for their turn for the donor photo to be taken.  Today there were some children waiting so I decided to talk to them about who we are and the Sleeping Children charity.  They had no idea where Canada is. I told them it is 'muy frio' (very cold) and they laughed.  I don't know if they were laughing at my pronunciation or the fact that Canada is cold.  I showed them the Canadian flag  on the arm of my SCAW team golf shirt. Some of them told me they love the flag.

The children often don't understand that they are getting the t-shirt, the backpack plus the bedkit to take home. When we hand them this big bag with the bedkit in it they are surprised and sometimes overwhelmed.  Once they understand they are leaving with it all, we get big smiles.

Looking forward to seeing more smiles.

Masud

Team Honduras 2023

Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa 🇭🇳 + SCAW 🇨🇦

SCAW Blog: Honduras, 2023: August 15

Hola from Honduras!

Another early rise and off we go to the next distribution.  This school was further out/up into the hills than the distributions of the last two days. 

At first I didn't really notice how steep the hills had become because I was enjoying the lush greenery, until one of our team vehicles stopped ahead of us and we had to stop.  What an incline we were on!  We had left the paved roads already and were now on dirt roads only wide enough for one and a half cars.  We even had to take a run at it to get some traction to keep going up.  (Where is an ATV when you need one?)  Our driver, a fellow Rotarian, was skilled at judging the width of our minibus - and prevented us from going into a ditch or down an embankment. 

Upon reaching the school we recognized that this area was in dire need of our assistance, and I took a moment to reflect as I adjusted to the altitude.  While the ride was a little nerve-wracking the view from the top was 'estupendo' (wonderful)!

You could see for miles and miles over thousands and thousands of homes all leaning up against each other in the valleys and on the hillsides. 

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One of the main challenges about being so high up is the lack of available water.  All the water must be trucked up, by either the government or a private company (which is expensive to purchase).  Water is a luxury here. 

We completed the distribution and headed back into the city centre knowing that our three day total of bedkits distributed neared 1500 today.  That's 1500 children (and families) sleeping up off the floor and protected from mosquitos.

2500 more kits (and kids) to go while we are here.

Hasta luego.

Team Honduras 2023

Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa 🇭🇳 + SCAW 🇨🇦

SCAW Blog: Honduras, 2023: August 14

Today, six energetic and committed Rotaractors from the Rotaract Club of Tegucigalpa participated in the SCAW distribution at Camara Junior School. This Rotaract Club has a 30+ year history of service in Honduras. Today, club members are either attending or have recently completed University.

When asked their stand-out moments from today's distribution, they responded:

• One little girl gave me such a big hug and squeeze when they received a bed kit.

• I was able to recognize the unique characters in the students by their facial expressions and poses they wanted to do for the camera.

• I had a great conversation with Masud, a SCAW member handing the bed kits to the little ones.

• Moving the bed kits from one location to another was a fun activity and I enjoyed the work.

• We had an opportunity to make a connection and interact with the students who were receiving a bed kit.

• The smallest children were so cute and funny as they tried to hold the bed kit on their way out of the school compound (see photo below).

The Rotaract Club has been involved in three more projects this year:

1. "Help us Educate" distributes school supplies to students in grades one - four throughout Honduras.

2. In southern Honduras (Marcovia, Isla Boca del Rio Vigo) they have been providing clothing and shoes, and assisting with infant care and health.

3. They are participating in a safe baby turtle release program.

These six Rotaractors and others scheduled to attend, will participate in the eight SCAW distributions providing volunteer assistance. Today their service was outstanding!

Thank you for making the day a success and helping children get a good night's sleep.

Team Honduras 2023

Rotary Club of Tegucigalpa 🇭🇳 + SCAW 🇨🇦

SCAW Blog: Honduras, 2023: August 13

The SCAW team arrived safely in Honduras on Saturday, August 12th. We were given the gift of two additional hours in our day as Honduras is in a different time zone than Toronto.

Today, the SCAW team met with the Rotary Club and Rotaract (Junior Rotarians) Club members of Tegucigalpa for a pre-distribution meeting. There was a large turnout of members from both clubs (see photo below). Superior preparations have been completed by the Clubs for a successful distribution. A substantial and detailed review of finances, partnerships, and planning was provided. We recognized the tremendous amount of work and effort of the Rotary Clubs here in Tegucigalpa.

Following the meeting the SCAW team attended a Sunday Church Service and then explored a near-by shopping mall. 

In a local grocery store we shopped for water and small snacks in preparation for the first of eight distributions, beginning tomorrow. We are excited to get started. We are looking forward to putting a smile on 543 children’s faces and creating an opportunity for them to have a good night's sleep.

Team Honduras 2023

Tegucigalpa 🇭🇳 + SCAW 🇨🇦