While here in Danlí, José and I had a chance to sit down with all 23 of the students and their parents who are receiving scholarships from us. It was an opportunity to get to know the students and their parents better, understand where they are in school, where they are headed, and the difficulties they encounter. We tried to impress upon each of the students that they are made in the image of God and, because of that, they have talents, abilities, and gifts that they can hone through education. They can then use these gifts to help their families and serve their neighbors and community.

We had some very engaging conversations, and it was not surprising to see that some of these kids are very intelligent and motivated. I hope we can continue to help them. The challenges they face are not trivial.

What saddened us was that no fathers came to support their children. However, this was not very surprising. It was also disheartening to learn that some of these children’s fathers are people we know in the community, yet they have no contact with their children. I cannot imagine how it feels to see your father and yet be unacknowledged by him. One girl, whose mother told us who her father was, just looked down at the floor. What would you expect? When you dig into some of these kids’ stories, the way they are treated will make your blood boil. I have no idea how to help some of these kids.

Some of the boys admitted they have very low interest in school. This seems to be common in Honduras, which has a lower rate of school completion for boys than girls. We would appreciate your prayers as we grapple with how to help the boys obtain a good education. It is not surprising these boys are struggling with school, as in the U.S., boys growing up without their fathers are twice as likely to drop out of school compared to those with their fathers present. Conversely, a lack of a father does not significantly impact girls’ chances of finishing high school.

We learned that parents are paying a lot of money to transport their children to and from school every day. This is a considerable amount of money above and beyond what they are getting in scholarship funds. Our desire is to get a vehicle that can transport up to 14 kids every day from the community to the three public schools in town. If anyone knows of such a vehicle that might be available to us, please contact me. We would like to have something soon so the parents are not stretched so thin paying for transportation. We would work with one of the local pastors in town to have a driver transport the children to and from school safely. We also learned that people are paying a lot of money to make copies of material needed for classes, up to 10 pages a day, in both color and black and white. Our hope is to obtain a copier for black-and-white copies and to get a color multifunction copier/printer for use in the computer lab we will set up next year.

Some students go to high school on Saturday and Sunday, giving them Monday through Friday to work and help their families. Some of the kids attend high school at night so they can work during the day.

All the parents expressed their gratitude to everyone who has helped with the scholarship funds.