December 13 – Santa Cruz, Honduras

The board of Canadian Peacemakers International congratulated another 91 graduates of our Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) program at our fourth graduation ceremony in two years.

That total is up from the 70 graduates who received official government-recognized grade completion certificates for the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades at our July ceremony. Since the program began two years ago, approximately 200 students have completed a grade level, and enrollment has surpassed 400.

A basic education is easy to take for granted. But in many parts of the world, the ability to learn is a true luxury.

For impoverished families in rural Honduras, one year of junior high school costs approximately $937 CAD, not counting food. That’s far beyond what most families — with a per capita gross national income of $1,649 — can afford.

Canadian Peacemakers International is committed to using Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) to bring down those costs for Honduran families. We believe our model — of placing computers in remote villages and requiring students to help other students learn — could be expanded throughout the world.

We think CAL is a important tool in making basic education universal.

In 1990, UNESCO, the World Bank, and several United Nations organizations launched the Education for All movement. The goal was to universalize primary education and massively reduce illiteracy by the end of the decade.

Ten years later, the international community met again in Senegal, and re-affirmed their commitment by the year 2015, creating six goals.

Here is a presentation based on the UNESCO Education for All movement prepared by CPI Director Bryan Butler and Project Manager Manuel Tabora for a November 2011 meeting with the Honduran Vice-Minister of Education.

Fifty-four is an unusual age to return to school.

But after Gabina Zavala Bonilla’s husband died three years ago, her children thought education might help cope with her loss.

A dressmaker by profession, Gabina’s education had stopped when she was nine. But more than four decades later, she still dreamed of completing junior high. With a junior high certificate, she could enrol in dressmaking school and teach others.

So Gabina enrolled in a sixth grade extension course. Then in 2010, she began the seventh grade at Centro de Esperañza Fraternidad, run by Canadian Peacemakers Internation (CPI).

For the first few months, Gabina walked 10 minutes down a very steep hill to catch a 30 minute ride to Santa Cruz. She’d study for four and a half hours before returning home, catching the last bus before dark.

In May of 2010, CPI placed a computer in Gabina’s home so family and neighbours could also study. This sped up her progress in which she could move through the study materials.

Samuel, Gabina’s youngest son, completed the eighth and ninth grades alongside his mother. He had been sliding into gang activity, but with his education has been able to find other work and new options.

Neighbours teased Gabina, but were impressed by how her light remained on at 2:00 a.m.

“Studying at night is easier,” Gabina says. “There are no interruptions.”

In June, she graduated from seventh grade. By December, she had finished another grade. She has since finished ninth grade.

Another group of CAL graduates. And another set of exciting stories.

The board of CPI Honduras congratulated its 70 newest graduates at a July 25 ceremony in Santa Cruz, Honduras. Twelve communities were represented in the total, which includes 47 seventh grade, 13 eighth grade, and 10 ninth grade graduates.

“A year of Junior High may not seem like a lot… but here it is,” said Bryan Butler, director of CPI in Santz Cruz, Honduras.

Four students completed all three grades in less than 18 months. Two ninth grade grads plan to enter Teachers’ College in January, swapping a bleak future for a career as professionals.

Several groups graduated because of community members who organized learning centres themselves.

“For me, this is especially exciting,” said Butler. “When communities begin taking responsibility for organizing their own education, everyone in the community benefits.”

Trinidad, a farmer from the community of Las Delicias, had 20 students meeting at desks set up in his home. Elsa, a primary school teacher in La Barca, helped organize almost 30 students on four computers in an unused computer classroom in her school.

And the best is still to come. Ninety-five per cent of the grade 7 and 8 graduates plan on continuing on to the next grade.

March, 2011 – El Cipres, Honduras

A simple meal of crispy fried fish, tajadas (fried plantains), salad and papaya cooked in brown cane sugar syrup.

It all began five months earlier, when a small group of women — students with the computer assisted learning (CAL) program –approached CPI director Brian Butler about a small plot of property reserved for agriculture projects.

Could they use the small pond and three fish tanks? 

The women, led by Lydia, a grandmother and seventh grade CAL student, drained the pond, removed water, mud, and stones to make it deep enough to grow tilapia. They made deals to buy small fry, feed, and to line up an eventual buyer. 

• Feed was expensive. So the women sold tamales and other food to raise the cash.
• Theft was a threat. So they built a small shelter and took turns guarding the fish every night, all the way through the winter.
• Tanks were poorly built, leading to cracks. So the women combined two tanks, using dirt to reinforce outside walls. 

Over half of the fish were sold, the project netting a small profit! Now the women have drained the pond and are negotiating for a tractor to move stones and make it bigger.