The schoolyard rings
with the laughter of children as volunteers pin a sign on the wall – “Don’t
Trade your Backpack for a Baby,” it reads, the motto of a campaign against teen
pregnancy.
Other volunteers lead
the children in silly songs and dances, and from the perspective of the
schoolyard it’s hard to tell that this community is one of the poorest, most
violent, and most dangerous areas of Tegucigalpa.
Noe (pronounced “No
way”) wears a laminated “volunteer” badge over his t-shirt and looks out
watchfully over the dozens of children writing in notebooks or helping each
other finish their crafts.
Only 20 years old, Noe
is already a respected community leader. He was voted president of his
neighborhood, and in that position he’s been instrumental in connecting his
neighbors to electricity and even replacing the roof on the community center.
When his work in
construction allows him, he loves to come and work with the same Youth Impact
program that helped him not that many years ago. When he was 11, he said, he
started attending Impact Clubs, part of the Association for a More Just
Society’s Gideon Project.
The weekly clubs group
children and teens with mentors and psychologists who teach them cooperation,
respect, and self-esteem.
Noe contributes a lot
of his accomplishments to what he learned in Impact Clubs. “I’m doing things I
never thought I’d achieve, that I would never have dreamed about,” he said with
a shy smile. “The clubs help us to be better. They change lives.”
Over 350 children
attend Impact Clubs in three of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Tegucigalpa,
and even more attend events and trainings like this one that Impact Clubs hold
at local schools. In neighborhoods where the pull of drugs and gangs are
strong, the clubs are designed to teach children that they have options.
“There are a lot of
good things and a lot of bad things in this world,” Noe shrugs, “we have to learn
to choose.”
Impact Club volunteers silence the school children and launch into a
skit that, in an age-appropriate way, shows a girl rebuffing the advantage of
an untrustworthy man.
“Get out of here!” the
volunteer shouts, “You don’t respect me or my body.”
Stefany, the starring
volunteer, is 19 and has already been leading a club for a year. It’s hard to
believe that the enthusiastic, outgoing young woman used to be, “in her own
bubble,” as she said, not wanting to talk to anyone.
Stefany started going
to an Impact Club when she was 14, and said it was the first time she felt she
could step out of her shell: “I would
get so excited when people would encourage me, when they said I was doing
something well.”
When she was 18, Stefany
stepped into a leadership role. It’s been a lot of responsibility, she said,
but gratifying.
“These kids here think, ‘I’m poor. Why should
I study? I’ll always be here, in this neighborhood.’ It’s so hard to change
their minds.” But after a few years of encouragement, she says, “They have
dreams. They say “I’m going to be a doctor, a nurse, an engineer.”
Stefany teaches
initiative by example. With her mom working abroad, Stefany has to look out for
her siblings and manage the small family store -- still, at night she goes to a
local university to study Preschool Education.
“My goal is to graduate and to
work with kids,” she says, and passion lights up her eyes. “I can’t imagine
doing anything else.”
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