Drew
Honduras
Project: People caring
about people
The
Drew Honduras Project is a
totally student-run volunteer program. The
Project is run by student board members and advised by a
faculty member, Professor Sandra Jamieson. The
students make the plans, develop community partnerships in Honduras,
raise the money, select the participants, organize
the pre-trip meetings, plan fund-raising events,
manage the budget, monitor conditions in Honduras, arrange
the work schedules in country, lead the reflection sessions
on the trip, raise all the money (did we
mention that?), and
generally run around a lot! In the process we refine our leadership
and interpersonal skills, organizational strategies, understanding of
budgeting, and knowledge of fundraising methods. We apply skills and
knowledge we have learned in the classroom and also learn a lot about
Honduras--and about ourselves. From selecting group members to
developing community partnerships and working on community-selected and
projects, we learn about civic engagement in a hands-on manner enhanced
by our Drew education. We live the "Drew and Do" credo, and learn what
it means to share our knowledge.
See our Mission
Statement and Philosophy to learn more.
Download a PDF of
our 2012
Trip Newsletter (full of pictures,
quotes, descriptions and more!)
Where
is Honduras exactly, and where do you go?
Honduras
is in Central America, snuggled between Guatemala to the West, El
Slavador to the south, and Nicaragua to the East. It has a northern
coast on the Caribbean and a small southern coast on the Pacific
in the Gulf of Fonseca (check out Google
Earth to see the exact location). We generally visit Tegucigalpa,
the capital city, toward the center of the country; San
Pedro Sula, the main commercial city, in the north west;
El Porvenor, just west of La Ceiba,
which is further east along the coast from San Pedro Sula; and Copán
Ruinas, the site of the Mayan city. We also spend time between Agua
Blanca and Talanga,
an hour north of Tegicgalpa and have worked in Amerateca, about an hour
west of Teguc. In 2012 we will be working for the first time in
Copán Ruinas with Paramedics for Children.
Explore the photographs of previous trips and of this year's
location and descriptions on this site to learn more,
check out the YouTube video,
or
send an email to the board.
How
can I join the Drew Honduras Project?
We
select 12-14 participants early in the Fall semester so that they can
spend
the year fundraising and preparing for the trip the following May. Look
for us at the Activities Fair the first week of school, watch email for
the invitation to apply, or stop back here mid-September for more
details about the application process! We welcome members who are not
able to join us in-country, too. The more money we can raise, the more
help we can give!
How
can I help the Drew Honduras Project?
If
you'd like to help the Drew
Honduras Project, there are a number of things we
need, but the thing we need the most is money. It
costs about $1,100 to send each student on the
trip (for airfare, accommodation, food, materials
for the work projects, and donations to the children's homes and groups
we work with). Each group participant, including the faculty and staff
who accompany the students, must raise that money themselves, working
alone and with the group in project fundraisers. Every penny we raise
is spent getting us to Honduras, paying for the materials we need to do
the work there, and making donations to the people with whom we work.
We will happily accept (tax deductible) donations of money or frequent
flier miles (Continental Airlines). If you have suggestions about how
we might raise money, we'd love to know that too! TO MAKE A SECURE ON-LINE DONATION, PLEASE USE
THE "DONATE NOW" LINK IN THE SIDEBAR. All gifts are tax deductable, and
are acknowledged by Drew's Office of Development and Planned Giving.
Thank you!
For more information, please contact Sandra Jamieson, the faculty
advisor
for the group, at sjamieso@drew.edu.
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