Backpack Distribution 2020 Begins!

Do you remember playing the Telephone Game when you were a kid? It’s when players sit in a circle and the first person whispers something into the ear of the person next to them. By the time the message makes it all the way around, the final person says the message out loud. It rarely bears much resemblance to the original sentence. Today’s blog post is a bit of high-tech Telephone Game, except there is the assurance that it will be fact checked! Allen and Russell are swamped with backpack distribution, so they gave information to Trish who gave it to me to pass along to you.

Children and their moms, heading home with the backpacks, school supplies, and shoes they need
in order to attend school

This week begins the big push to get backpacks distributed before the 2020 Honduran school year starts. Distribution is scheduled based on when each school begins its year. Schools in higher elevations tend to start later because of their later coffee harvest season. This year, the backpack distribution begins in the schools in Las Crucitas, Lighthouse Church’s sister church program. There are approximately 750 kids in multiple small schools in the Lighthouse program, so this is no small feat.

Russell is managing the crew of workers, registering children and passing out backpacks at school, at this first event (no visiting team is helping this week). He even made a handy-dandy video so we can see the process.

I know - this is a scary picture, but it is a part of
daily life in Central America. We drive VERY
carefully with such precious cargo!

Meanwhile, Allen is heading up the transportation crew. It takes a number of trucks to get the backpacks, shoes, and work crew to the school where Russell and the rest are doing their thing, and a good bit of time getting all of the boxes unloaded, organized, and set up for distribution. Because there are so many small, remote schools, it is easier to keep the setup in one location, and bring the children to that site. So, after the trucks are unloaded they are used to transport children from their smaller schools to the school which has been designated as the distribution site.

The younger children are accompanied by a parent--typically a mom who frequently has babies and toddlers going along for the ride. This is quite an event! While Allen is out and about, he is also talking to the teachers at the schools where he picks up kids. The backpacks aren’t just randomly handed out - the recipients must be registered for school.

At one school, Allen asked a teacher, “Is this everyone?”

She replied that it was everyone except for one family whose children were not enrolled in school.

Allen went to the people’s house and explained that they are giving backpacks away for free, to children who are going to school. The parents said they weren’t interested. Their four children, including one girl who appeared to be eight or nine years old, will not be attending school.

Sowers4Pastors is working in areas where there are people who never went to school, and who frequently don't see the value in sending their children to school. Societally, it is a different mindset. And, in that community, one family’s kids just aren’t going to go to school. That is a clear picture of where the program is coming from.

On the same day as Allen’s visit to the family, however, it was learned that one of the schools in the program has a 100% increase in the number of kids attending school this year over last year. This is not due to an upswing in population, which has remained relatively stable. Why the big increase? There are several reasons. Many of the people who couldn’t afford to purchase the required supplies to send their kids to school are now able to send them. There is an attitudinal shift and students are staying in school for more years. Also, more people are willing to send their kids to preschool and kindergarten when it is free - even if they don't totally understand the value of the educational foundation being built there. Backpacks are affecting each of those levels.

Trish pointed out how the lives of these children are very different from her childhood in the suburbs or the childhoods of her kids. She and her kids, like most of us reading this, were raised by a family that was always teaching them something. If you saw balloons, Mom might ask, “How many balloons do you see?” or “What color is that?” Trish said that is generally not the case for these children, in villages where the majority of the population has had no schooling. In this situation, preschool and kindergarten are needed. The things the children learn during these years will make a huge difference, in preparing them for the rest of their education.

There’s an added bonus to having more children enrolled in preschool. The mothers often stay with the very young children. This is encouraged by the teachers because it helps with crowd control. Without even realizing it, these mothers are receiving lessons in early childhood development that they can implement in their own homes.

Sometimes people ask why an education is necessary for children who will likely become farmers. Education should be for everyone. They will need to have the math skills to know when someone is taking advantage of them. Rural farmers in Honduras benefit from being able to read instructions on a bag of fertilizer. They will certainly benefit from being able to read scripture. Education enriches lives. Period.

 - posted by Christi