Team Building Activities

The entire team came together on Sunday afternoon for some team building activities. Click here to see Photos of the event

Our next full team meeting is planned for Saturday morning, June 26th!

Meeting of Graduates

Hello

Friday, March 26 was a special day for graduates of Hearts For Honduras. We held a very important meeting, where 55 young graduates of the school met and shared special time together, reminiscent of their time in school. They also shared their experiences with living with the pressures of being teenagers. The youth that participated in the meeting were very happy and you could feel the love for Hearts For Honduras. They said their best years were those they spent at the school.

I was excited to get together all classes of graduates from 2004 to 2009. I was so excited because they accepted the invitation to come. I thought that only 25 would come and it was a surprise that almost 55 attended. This is the beginning of a closer relationship and commitment to these youngsters. We plan to continue activities this coming year. I wish you a happy Easter week.
BLESSINGS
Paty Villanueva – Director of School)

Preparing for the Summer Trip

The summer trip is starting to take shape! Our small advance team has just returned from Honduras after spending a week in San Pedro Sula and La Entrada attending to all the details and logistics that go into a pulling together a safe and successful trip.

Early in the week, we met with a group of high school students that attend bi-lingual schools in San Pedro Sula. The Honduran students will act as translators and will work as members of the dental, construction, vision, and education teams. A number of the same students were with us last year and it’s gratifying to see how much they enjoyed the experience and how excited they are to join us again this summer.

In La Entrada, some of the more important tasks we needed to complete included planning out meals and housing for the two week period, identifying a meaningful construction project, inspecting dental equipment (for damage from the recent earthquake), and preparing the way for the eye team.

Finding the right construction project is particularly time consuming because we need to visit and inspect each potential construction site and have to weigh the need and benefit of each. Since the need is great in and around La Entrada, there is no shortage of projects to choose from that will directly benefit the school and the children who attend it.

Last year we added a classroom onto a public school near the Heart For Honduras campus. Olman, the sub-director at Hearts For Honduras also teaches at the public school in the morning. We stopped in to see Olman and the children during their morning session, and it was great to see the finished classroom being put to good use.

In the photos, you can see last year’s construction team in action; Olman and and Arnie outside the finished classroom, and the children in class.

The room that was added for the dental clinic is coming along and will be fully completed by the time the set-up team arrives at the end of June and the dental team begins their work in early July. The photos of the clinic, taken from the inside and from the soccer field below, show just how close the room is to its completion.

Eye Exams for the Residents of La Entrada

The eye team is finalizing its plans for the summer trip. Each year the eye team provides free eye examinations to residents of La Entrada. Last year over 900 exams were performed and 10 patients were treated for cataracts. No Spanish language skills or special training is required. Call Bob Cramp for more information at 908-766-2752 or write to him at robert.cramp@verizon.net.

Setting up the Dental Clinic

As I said in the previous post, the new room for the dental clinic should be completed well before the dental team arrives in July. In past years, it has generally taken us three days to set up the clinic and prepare for the team’s arrival.

We store the dental chairs, tools, cabinetry, X-ray, piping, compressors, generators, etc. across campus in the bodega. (The new dental clinic is situated adjacent to the bodega.)

Moving the equipment from storage is a time consuming process under the best of circumstances. It takes the combined effort of four men to lift and move each chair.

The children help wherever and whenever they can. They move the lighter dental tools and ancillary equipment. Having their help speeds up the work, but more importantly, it gives us a chance to spend some time with them; something we all enjoy.

Setting the chairs in place, running the piping, and attaching the services requires a level of expertise, so the grunt work is only part of the effort.

Everything has to be washed down and cleaned before the dentists and technicians arrive to set out their tools and set up their work space. Again, the children take an active role in preparing the clinic for the next day’s work.

- Arnie Edelstein

Dental Clinic Update

As many of you know, we’re in the process of adding a new dental clinic/meeting room onto the existing building, which now houses the classroom/eye clinic and bodega.

The room is coming along nicely and it should be completed within the next four to six weeks. The new room will be used for the dental clinic during mission trips and for a classroom and meeting space during the balance of the year. Happily, it will be far easier to set up the dental lab than it has been in the past, since we will now have permanent plumbing and electrical service embedded in the floor. The room will also have a drop ceiling, good lighting, and fans for ventilation.

The room overlooks the soccer field and play area, so we expect the view through the large windows to be a pleasant one.

In the photo below, you can see the general layout for the room and the access boxes that house the services for eight dental chairs and utility sink (air, suction, water, electricity, drainage). The boxes are temporarily covered with heavy blue plastic sheathing to protect the cavities fom cement and dirt while the cement floor is poured and tile floor is set.

Many thanks to Doug Liguori, Mike Koppes, Bill Rutar, and Lenny Lenz for their efforts and to Don Hibbard for his vision. The new dental lab is a great addition to the campus and will surely get much use.

Next Information Meeting

Our next information meeting will be held at Liberty Corner Church on January 28th from 7:30PM to 8:30PM. I invite you to come and hear more about the program and how you can make a difference in the lives of underprivileged children in Honduras. If you have specific questions, please feel free to write me at arnedelstein@optonline.net.

Information Meeting

This Sunday, January 10, leaders from the Hearts For Honduras team will talk about the upcoming mission trips in July and how you can make a difference in the lives of underprivileged children in Honduras. You will learn what to expect on this trip and what the expectations are for volunteers.

There are many opportunities for you to help as part of the dental, vision, education, medical and construction work teams. For more information, join us in the Multipurpose Room B at noon, this Sunday.