In 2009, a group of “gringo” friends from Raleigh took a mission trip to El Carrizo, a rural town in southern Honduras, never imagining that one week would change their lives forever. Yet when they walked the dirt roads in this community, what they saw, heard, and experienced – beloved children and families living in heartbreaking material poverty – left an indelible mark.
During subsequent trips to El Carrizo to build relationships, listen, and learn, the founders of Sharefish asked family after family what they most needed. The overwhelming response: education for their kids.
What started as a one-week mission trip quickly transformed into long-term passionate commitment to break their generational cycle of poverty.
Extreme poverty is a thief. From children, it steals the opportunity for education. From parents, it steals the dignity of providing nutritious food and housing and the hope their children’s dreams can become reality.
With an average income of less than $3 per day, families in rural Honduras barely make ends meet. Families are forced to choose between basic survival needs and sending children to school. Less than half of all children complete the 6th grade, having to drop out of school at a young age to work and provide for younger siblings.
Poverty steals opportunity, education and the ability to dream.
Children in the United States are often asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” They are encouraged to dream about the future, with the assumption that with an education and hard work the world is full of possibility.
Children and families in rural Honduras, despite their daily struggles and lack of opportunities, still have dreams. They tell us what they'd like to be when they grow up - teacher, nurse, beautician, scientist. When fathers and mothers describe dreams for their children, they speak of a future free from the daily grind of poverty enabled by access to education.
Every child deserves - and has the right to - an education and a chance to dream. Sharefish is working to provide those opportunities.
The World Bank says investments in education lead to rapid and sustainable economic growth. Take our word for it – they are right.
When we started in this community, education was an afterthought. Children were in and out of elementary school, there was no preschool, only a few kids went to middle school, and no one thought of going to college or trade school.
Today we are educating 147 elementary and middle grade students, have 17 students in higher education and vocational training programs, and offer a vibrant preschool program with 16 children. Our graduates now have jobs and are realizing their dreams.
For the last 15 years, we’ve seen that education transforms dreams into real possibilities for children and their families.
