Hello everyone. During the last 3 weeks, we at Beyond the Light Project (BTLP) and our partners in Honduras (BE Ministries) and Nicaragua (BMDMI) have provided solar electricity to 12 new schools in the mountains near Guiamaca, Honduras and El Carmen, Nicaragua. This allows the students and teachers in these schools to have adequate lighting, as well as other benefits that are necessary for their learning environment. We also demonstrated and discussed with the teachers, directors and officials another project that will have the power to expand access to education now that these schools have electricity. I will be writing about this project in the future because I think it will be a real game changer for these children.
I wanted to write in this blog to answer the important question as to why we want to expand access to education in these areas. I really want you to look at the picture above of the farmer looking into the school while we were working on wiring the lights. We often will see people coming from around the village and from the fields to see what is happening at the school. This farmer and some of his friends really caught my eye. I will explain a little bit...
The schools that we worked on are typically for ages 4 to ages 14 or so. These are served by around 1 to 2 teachers that will teach all educational levels from around pre-kindergarten to 6th grade. For a higher level of education beyond 6th grade, the schools are generally far away from where these children live. Many of these students do not have the access to transportation to get to these schools. I think we can really help the people in these remote areas now that their schools have electricity. BTLP and our partners demonstrated to the teachers and directors a small projector that is capable of giving the teachers access to presenting electronic curriculum to their students. We are working on how to deliver that curriculum to these remote schools with a pilot project that will kick off this summer.
I feel that this will be a truly revolutionary change in these children's education. We can really make a difference in the lives of these children and provide a positive impact to the future of this entire area of Central America. We have lots of ideas for this pilot project; like Grade 7-9 education, Adult Education, ESL Education and even my personal favorite...Movie Night.
We at Beyond the Light Project continue to be inspired by these people and will use all of our resources to give them opportunities to enhance their lives. You can be part of this by donating to this project on our website. Together, we can give the farmer in the picture and others like him a chance at a good education and help get these people out of energy poverty. Thank you for your support.
Jim