Making Remote Learning Work!

By: Brenda Towell - Board MemberFour of us traveled to Honduras the first week of November, 2021, to follow up with our scholarship students who have been studying remotely this past year, due to CoVid. We were amazed by the stories we heard from the students! With the help of our scholarship money, they and their families buy cellular data for their phone or computer, so they can communicate with their teachers by What's App or even Zoom! I met Anthony, an eighth grader, who has Zoom classes 3 days a week, and uses What's App for his daily homework. He goes to the community center with a few other students to get a signal, which comes from the Episcopal church next door. At times they have to wander about to get a signal; the internet is spotty and unreliable, and it's frustrating to pay for this service, and still have problems connecting with their teacher. Nevertheless, he is keeping up with school--his aunt and his grandfather help him with his homework, and if necessary will travel with him by bus to get to town to use the public library. They also have to travel to a print shop to pay for printing of assignments. His mom works in another town 5 days a week as a nanny-to help provide for the family. Another student showed me her workbook. They don't write in this book, as they have to return it to the school, but rather their first draft of their homework is done in a separate notebook. They have to present their final work stapled, and on clean paper to their school. Their village leader, or even Rev. Dagoberto, collects their reports and delivers them to the schoolteacher. We met with village leaders who supervise these students, and learned that our scholarship funds pay about 2/3 of what it costs for a year of study. In previous years, much of these costs were due to transportation; now it's for internet and printing. While the pandemic has changed lives for many around the world, even in rural Honduras, it has pushed technology into everyday use! I am so proud of these students who are working so hard to negotiate school! Praise God for our donors, who help make this happen.