Providing Tools of Literacy

Currently in academia there is much discussion about what it means to help people in underdeveloped areas. Many questions are constantly asked and debated over. What does true help look like? How does it work over time? Do the things we give to really make a difference? Do the things we do to help really hurt in the long run? Do our actions entrap or enslave or exploit?  While the questions are asked again and again, answers are much more elusive to discover than the questions. As I have spent time in Honduras over the last year, I too have questions about how helping helps. I do not have years and years of research to rely on, however while I have read many books and articles on the topic, much of what I have read and learned just doesn’t seem to apply when I look into the eyes of a small child living in a small and very poor village. All of the books and the wisdom of incredible minds melt away in the gaze of a child.

I don’t remember the first book that someone read to me or the first book that I ever read but I do know that it happened. I know that someone invested time and love and patience to teach me, to help me, to give me tools that I will use for the rest of my life. At no time during that process was there any concern for the absence of materials. There was no lack of books to read or materials to work with to aid or help in the process. The school that I went to had ample materials and tools and the teachers had the training to see that I had the best opportunity to learn. This is certainly not the case in the rural coffee villages of Honduras.

  While academics argue and debate over what are the right ways to deliver help and compassion and aid, there are some things that seem very simple to me. In the coffee villages where Growers First works, they almost all have schools. These schools are built and supplied by the government and the teachers are assigned to the areas. Unfortunately, when I say they are staffed, that does not mean well or even adequately staffed, often having a teacher to student ratio of 60 or 70 students to 1 teacher, teaching all grades. When I say that they are supplied, unfortunately, I don’t mean well supplied or even adequately supplied.

  Recently, Growers First visited the school in the tiny mountain village of El Succoro de La Pinieta.  Prior to our visit an accomplished educator made the trip and assessed the academic needs of the school and the students and made recommendations as to the appropriate materials to help these students. Our visit was the delivery. Thanks to a generous donation for the purchase of these materials, we were able to deliver to the school new books to replace the tattered remnants of what had been supplied to the tiny school many years ago. The whole community seemed to pile into the tiny class room. The books were presented by Dave and Dallas Day, from Growers First, and a group from Napa Valley, California. The teacher warmly and modestly accepted the materials and proceeded to take advantage of the face time with the parents to encourage them (sternly) to spend time working with their children at home.

6 of these boys prayed to receive Christ after watching the Jesus film in the school.

  I want to thank the donor for their involvement in purchasing these school books. I want to thank the educator who spent his time assessing these students and this school. I want to thank the teacher, who in the face of a daunting, daily challenge, perseveres to provide these children with the best education she can provide.  I don’t know the answers to many of the questions about how aid works and what is the best way one can help impoverished communities, but I do know that with education and simple tools, like the ability to read, these students have the possibility of answering some of those questions themselves.  Working to strengthen the education of children through an already functioning educational system, not reinventing the school system but strengthening what is already present, helping to provide the tools of literacy, seems to me as help that helps.

-Travis
(Hopefully I will add pictures of the actual book presentation.  These pictures were on a different camera, but these were some pictures of the same evening at the same school.)