We're a nonprofit organization with the mission to alleviate extreme poverty and violence in Honduras through youth empowerment and education. We run the Villa Soleada Bilingual School and Children's Home in the village of Villa Soleada. The school's mascot is the tiger. We are also working towards our goal of building one thousand schools in Honduras. We host volunteers who come to Honduras to help build schools. We have a soccer program and scholarship program in the community as well.
Honduras has a 66% poverty rate and is currently the most unequal country in Latin America. Crime and violence remain rampant, as Honduras continues to have one of the highest homicide rates in the world. 37% of Honduran children of secondary school age (12-16) are out of school. Of the poorest quintile, 62% are out of school.
In 2004, our young team began working with the families of the largest informal settlement in El Progreso, Honduras. They lived along a riverbed in cardboard houses without electricity, potable water, or a school. Gang violence, chronic unemployment, and generational poverty were rampant. Not one person had graduated from high school.
In 2007, we bought a 13-acre plot of land and began building a village with the families. The project--named Villa Soleada--allowed us to address not just one but all the challenges comprehensively.
Nearly 100% of the children from the community are on track to graduate high school. Together, we can help them attend college to break the cycle of generational poverty for good.