Beberlyn was 9 years old in January 2009. A quiet shy girl, she lived with her family in a stick and mud house in El Carrizo, Honduras. She suffered from severe asthma attacks, which left her frail and reserved. She loved school, and was preparing to start fourth grade, but she knew that she would only be able to go for a few more years.
Beberlyn’s school had no electricity, two teachers, six grades, and a few worn-out, government-issued workbooks. The children were destined after six grades to help their mother with chores for a few years – collecting fire wood for cooking; carrying water from the community well; washing clothes by hand; looking after the younger siblings. In their mid-teens, the young men would begin working as day laborers in the nearby melon and cane fields, and the young women would start having babies. So going to school mattered little – there was no rush – and nowhere else to go. For the families of El Carrizo, the cycle of life and poverty seemed inescapable.
All this changed for Beberlyn in 2009. She got a “beca” – a sponsorship provided by a donor through Sharefish. With the sponsorship money, her family encouraged Beberlyn to stay in school. The monthly payments covered her school uniform and supplies. And the fmily saved a little extra to buy food and help with other household expenses. Not only was Beberlyn progressing in school, through her beca she was now helping support her family.
She did not have an easy road. Her health issues caused her to miss days in school that she had to make up. The transition to middle school was difficult. She had to compete with students who had come from the city schools with better resources. Her grades slumped and she feared that she would fail and lose her sponsorship. But she never quit.
The breakthrough for Beberlyn came in the tenth grade. She was hitting her stride as a student and as a young woman. As her grades climbed, so did her self-confidence. Because of her own health problems, she wanted to work in medicine. She began talking about becoming a nurse; then she began talking about becoming a doctor.
Beberlyn has just completed eleventh grade as one of the top students in Choluteca – the largest city in southern Honduras. She is in the high school medical science program. With her colleagues she is traveling to rural communities to give health education classes about the importance of diet and good hygene. When she graduates next year, she will have a degree that will allow her to work as a medical technician or assistant nurse, or to apply to nursing school or medical school.
Beberlyn wants to take the medical school entrance exam. It’s an uphill battle, and if she passes she will have to leave her family to attend medical school for eight years in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras located more than three hours north of El Carrizo. Beberlyn has never traveled that far from home, but she is determined. If she gets in, with the continued support of her sponsorship, she has a good chance of becoming Dr. Beberlyn. Quite a journey for a shy, impoverished nine-year-old girl from El Carrizo.
There are other Beberlyns in El Carrizo – children who are receiving becas through Sharefish sponsors and advancing in school far beyond what was available to them just a few years ago. Their stories and levels of success vary, but they share a common hope made possible through new educational opportunities. But for every Beberlyn there are many others who do not have the support of a sponsor and are still caught in the cycle of poverty.
A beca is not just money, it is a lifeline of hope. Sharefish sponsors are not just donors, they are heroes who provide the children of El Carrizo an avenue of escape from the crushing poverty so prevalent in their world. We need more heroes, because every Beberlyn deserves a chance.
Click Here to Find a Child to Sponsor
When we started our work in Honduras, the families there had one dream – for children like Tatiana to be educated to break out of their cycle of poverty. Our dream was to have every one of the initial 74 children gathered along that dusty road sponsored.
The mission of Sharefish evolved from trips to build homes and churches in southern Honduras. On these trips, founding board members of Sharefish met children like 9-year-old Cindy Maria who could not write her name because her family couldn’t afford the materials for her to attend school. They met Jose who was so poor he did not have a single pair of flip flops and Sandy, whose house was made of mud, sticks and cardboard.
We asked the people of El Carrizo where they needed the most help, and their answer was unanimous — education for their children. In Honduras, children must provide their own uniforms and materials to attend school. With an average income of $3 a day, families simply can’t afford an education.
Sponsoring a child for just 50 cents a day not only gives resources and education for a better future – it gives hope to the hopeless. Click here to find a child to sponsor. You can make a dream come true.
As we were walking through El Carrizo a few years ago, we noticed a young girl named Genesis playing. As we got closer, we realized her “toys” were bottle caps. She had no toys, no books, and no opportunity to break the cycle of poverty in her family. It was children like Genesis that inspired us to build Aprende Conmigo – a local Community Center that contains a library filled with books, games, puzzles and computers.
Today instead of bottle caps, Genesis plays with puzzles and reads books and is prepared for elementary school. Her older friends have access to computers and board games. Her mother has access to a sewing class to make, and even sell, clothes. Aprende Conmigo translates to “Come Learn With Me,” and thanks to supporters like you, that’s exactly what these families are doing.
Click Here to Give Genesis and Children like her a chance to make their dreams come true.
Over the past six years, we have traveled to El Carrizo once a quarter. While this has been enough to build trust and relationships, we realized to make a larger impact we would need a more consistent presence. On our most recent visit to the village, we were excited to introduce our first full-time employee, Lizzy Garcia Oseguera. We have known Lizzy and her family since we began coming to Honduras several years ago. She has volunteered with us on many of our trips and has also developed trust and relationships in the village. Lizzy, a local Honduran with an undergraduate degree in education, will be responsible for the operation of Aprende Conmigo, and will also be invaluable in maintaining Sponsor/Child communication. Her smile has already won the hearts of the community, and her hard work is already paying huge dividends.
More than a year ago the Sharefish Board of Directors approved a project to acquire land in El Carrizo to build a community learning center. This would be a place that could focus our efforts to reach deeper into the community through a center with books, computers, games and other learning tools to enhance the educational opportunities for the children. Even more, it would be a place where we could start adult education and training; including vocational programs and other community projects such as a community garden and agricultural training.
At every turn during the last year we encountered road blocks and increasing frustration. It turns out that it is not easy to acquire land with clear title in rural Honduras, and if the seller knows that an American is paying – the price can double or triple. But we did not give up, or lose faith, and we now have the piece of land that we most wanted, and at a fair price.
In Honduras land is measured in “apples,” each apple being approximately 4 acres. Sharefish now has two beautiful apples of land on which to build the center, to be aptly named: APRENDE CONMIGO (Learn With Me).
When you see the picture above, can you see villagers gathering at a community well and garden, children learning life skills in a community center, and people laughing on the porch as they learn how to read? We can!
We have received enough donations to buy the land, but we need help getting the center built and filled with materials – you can make an online donation, or contact us at sponsorships@sharefish.org for more information.
In deciding what to get their kids for Christmas one year, Veronica and Carlos looked at the toys already filling their home and realized more toys were not what their family needed. So when their kids opened their gifts, they found pictures of Alma Lizzette and David Gerson – the two Honduran children that were sponsored as Christmas gifts.
Since that day, letters have been sent back and forth, and those two sponsored children have been woven into the fabric of their family.
But that wasn’t enough for Veronica and Carlos. Understanding the need to spread the word about Sharefish, they agreed to host a reception in their home, with Veronica’s famous desserts as the reward for coming to hear about Sharefish.
Everyone loved the desserts, but it was the stories shared that made the night. Veronica shared her story of her kids and how dropping a fancy coffee drink a couple of days a week could sponsor a child and change a life forever.
Members of the June medical trip affirmed the impact Sharefish is making in the community, and the impact the community is making on those involved in Sharefish.
Interested in hosting your own party to help us spread the word? Contact us at sponsorships@sharefish.org for details.
In June 2012, I went for my second time to El Carrizo, Honduras with eight other Sharefish volunteers to work in a medical clinic. The mission was to see all the children in the area and the adults who needed some type of specific health care. We carried enough vitamins for 300 kids to have a year’s supply and enough medicines for 200 families to have a supply of ibuprofen, antacids and sore throat lozenges. As a pharmacist, this trip was near and dear to my heart. I was excited to be able to go down there and help. Not surprisingly though, the trip proved to be much more than me using a professional skill to help someone. Yes, we provided lots of medical care, but the trip was as much about getting to know children and their families as anything. It was about visiting a mom to tell her what a respectful young son she had. It was about hitting a beach ball with four girls in a field. It was about playing Miss Mary Mack. It was about telling a young girl that she had natural leadership abilities and encouraging her to use those. It was about praising young children for the skills that they are learning in school. It was about caring for others. It was about hugging and smiling and communicating, even through a language barrier.
Sharefish has created such a connection with the community and listens to what the needs are. It organizes and works with the community leaders to do things the right way, with respect for the people that live there and in a way that will make a long-term difference. Sharefish works with people, not for them or on them. I admire so much the work that Sharefish is doing and I have seen the difference it can make. The children there are just like the children here. They need resources and encouragement and occasional medical care just like my own children do. In such a poor community, it takes others to provide much of that. What a gift it was to be able to do that for a brief time. I will most certainly be going back to support the work of Sharefish…and to see those precious children!
After reflecting on the December Sharefish trip to Honduras with Chuck Nichols and Ben Yerxa, one thing stands out: God is working through Sharefish to make a difference in El Carrizo. I saw improved medical care, children not only attending school but succeeding in school, and adults proudly receiving certificates for completing elementary grades. But even more than the children’s smiling faces or the gifts given and received, the most amazing part of the whole trip was a Sharefish-sponsored dinner at Pizza Hut in Choluteca. Yes, dinner at Pizza Hut. Of course, it wasn’t the food or even the fellowship that stood out- it was the picture of community leaders gathering, planning, and working together to making their lives better. Pastors, teachers, missionaries, spouses, even children sat united at one table communing over pizza and Pepsi. The stirring spirit of that evening reflected the movement of the Holy Spirit among those present. We talked about hope for the future, children growing up into a better life, and the power of working together toward a common goal. I love that dusty road that leads to El Carrizo, but for me, this trip was marked by the determined faces of those Honduran leaders joining together to work for the good of their children. What an honor to be part of what God is doing.
by Lin Carter, pastor at First Baptist Church Raleigh upon his return from a Sharefish trip last December
The six of us rode in the back of the pickup down the four and half mile dirt road to the village of El Carrizo in the southern tip of Honduras. It was rainy season and the frequent late afternoon heavy rains had wreaked havoc on the already rough terrain. The puddles were like small ponds and we seemed to float in some places as Ricardo expertly negotiated where he thought the road should be.
We had been asked to come to the school in the Colonio area of the village that morning. School was out for a couple of days in celebration of the Honduran Independence Day, so we found it interesting that as we approached the school, we saw children in their freshly washed school uniforms smile and wave to us as they walked toward the center of the village, taking great care not to step in the mud or soil their clothes.
We soon found out why.
The wonderful people of the village had planned a celebration of their own. ASharefish celebration. We were ushered onto the porch of the school into the carefully lined up plastic chairs facing the courtyard where parents, teachers and children all gathered. For an hour we heard representatives from each group come up and tell us how much they appreciated all Sharefish has done for them and their village. The children told us how they were studying hard and how much they valued the opportunity to learn. The parents thanked us for helping them do something for their children that their parents could not do for them. The teachers thanked us for seeing that education was the only way to make things better in the long term.
As each group finished, one of them would come up and present us with a plaque of appreciation from that group. We were overwhelmed by the kindness and sacrifice of the people of the village to honor us in this way. I was then asked to say a few words. I was on the emotional edge and was unsure I could hold it together, but I prayed a quick silent prayer for strength and stood before the crowd.
I told them that their ancestors had a saying: “Grief shared is half grief. Joy shared is double joy.” I told them that welcoming us as part of their family gave all of us at Sharefish double joy. I then told them how by working together – parents, teachers, children and Sharefish – there was no limit to the successes that could take place in El Carrizo that could change their village, their country, and maybe even the world. I thanked them for their generosity and for letting Sharefish play a small part in helping them be who they were designed and built by God to be.
One of the teachers then spoke. He asked if we would allow them to do one more thing for us. He said that the village wanted to provide us lunch. As we began to think of how we could politely decline eating native food due to the potential consequences, smiling children began to hand us each a piece of Pizza Hut pizza, each carefully and completely wrapped in a napkin, indicating that great care was taken to protect us. We looked up at all the eyes of children, parents and teachers watching us to see our next move.
We knew we were holding a delicacy that most of them had never enjoyed. These people, most of whom earn a monthly household wage of seventy dollars, had all pitched in to honor us with something they could not afford for themselves. As the pastor blessed our food, we silently asked for sturdy stomachs and we did what we felt was the right thing to do. We ate.
The looks on the faces of our Honduran friends made whatever illness may have befallen us worth it (for the record – there were no ill effects). They were so proud and joyful to do something for us and we were able to double that joy for them by accepting it.
We smiled. For lots of reasons we smiled. We smiled for the love we felt from these wonderful people. We smiled for the double joy we felt as part of the community. We smiled because we knew something that these villagers did not know:
That tomorrow we were going to be serving these same people over 300 pieces of pizza.
It may have just been a piece of pizza. It was also a wonderful Godwink of how giving of yourself multiplies back at you.
Who will you give a slice to today?
by Oie Osterkamp
