What we do

I wrote this summary a few weeks ago, after all the business volunteers (both old and new) got together for our the annual "reconnect" meeting. I know some of you may be wondering what we actually do down here as so-called “volunteers” in the very vague area of “business.” Maybe this will help clear some of that up. We all had to give brief presentations of what we are working on, so I took notes of what people's projects are.

I’ve arranged this list by project, versus person, since you wouldn’t know people by names and there is some overlap with some people working on similar types of things. Most people are working on more than one project. So, without further ado, THIS IS WHAT WE DO:

• Support Caja Rurales (rural banks) and local Savings and Loans through trainings of members and staff in banking concepts and other types of organizational support
• Website development including design, content and maintenance
• Business Plan trainings, especially at the lower levels of Honduran society (ladies who make coconut bread or farmers for example). Javi and I are organizing a business plan curriculum to be taught to the students at the Escuela Taller here in Comayagua (we will actually end up teaching bits and pieces of it as well).
• Marketing and promotion for artisan groups (including many native peoples) and local tourist initiatives.
• Business simulations (like we did during training) for students in local middle and high schools
• Computer classes for all age groups, from everything on “this is how you use a mouse” to advanced programming courses. One volunteer is developing curriculum for a high school computer class in advanced computing topics.
• Supporting small business co-ops and groups on everything from trainings in how to organize and manage your business to support to find funding and get started. Many are women’s groups who make artisan goods or food items.
• Needs analysis and strategic planning for start-up NGO’s
• Implementation of databases (using excel) for organizations ranging from the local Health Center (to look up medical information) to collecting taxes at the local municipality
• Support to local coffee growers – including promotion of their product and improved fertilization techniques
• One volunteer is working with a water/sanitation volunteer to bring a landfill to his town (trash is currently thrown on a mountain side and is blowing into the town’s water source)
• Support to business youth groups (marketing surveys, product improvement techniques)
• Tourism development – including websites, tourist literature (tour guides, brochures, posters), cultural programming, even cutting trails for new ecotourism projects
• Support for an initiative that wishes to turn trash collection into a small business, with recyclables being sold off and organic items being turned into fertilizer.
• Building libraries in small towns and in schools. One volunteer has been recruited to become an elementary school’s part time librarian.
• Solar ovens (not yet started)
• AIDS charlas (lectures) to men’s only groups and school aged kids
• One on one computer training
• English classes
• Local town newspaper published by high school students, taught through a computer class
• Baseball teams
• The “colgate” project (How to brush properly)
• Why to stay in school charlas
• “Odyssey of the mind” (creative thinking competition among school kids.)
• The world map project (paint a giant map of the world on a school’s wall ---I am starting this one on Wednesday…..yikes! kids and paint!!)
• Someone started a rugby team (is that really considered development?)
• Pen pals programs with kids in the US
• And….this one is great so I’ll put it last….one girl has started heading up “Ladies Night” at her small town’s new gym. This might not sound legit, but actually, educating about physical fitness and teaching appropriate ways to work out definitely has its place.

There were a few more….but I was getting tired of typing them up and ome were hard to explain in a single bullet point.

Honduras has six areas that volunteers work in. The other five are Municipal Development, Youth Development, Health/HIV-AIDS, Water/Sanitation, and Protected Areas Management. Other peace corps countries may have the same projects, or may have different ones depending on the needs of the particular country.

Sometimes day to day, you can feel as if what you are doing here isn't making much of a difference. But I was inspired (at least temporarily!) when we all got together and I saw what our project is doing here in Honduras.