📌 Edition #22
📆 June 2022

🌎 Copán Ruinas, Honduras

 
 

🎂 Members of the Circus, happy birthday!

👶🏻 We all turned 13 just two days ago. In case you missed it, you can read our email congratulating you here.

⭕ If anyone in the UPH community deserves a birthday celebration, it should be you: our inner circle of monthly donors who have supported us day in and day out in all of our endeavors.

🎁 Your first present is this video of Luis Ortiz, our former director of UrbanTrekkers, who is currently committed to creating these stunning time-lapses of art using Rubik's cubes. To watch more amazing content like this, we suggest that you subscribe to his YouTube channel.

📮 And as always, our newsletter is jam-packed with images, events, and a journey through UPH's history with a comparison from that initial summer camp with only three leaders to the international space that unites more than 30 staff members in a circle of mutual empowerment today.

🥳 Happy birthday, guests of honor; having you by our side for another year is a tremendous honor.

 
 

📸 This month’s Snaps 🎪

🎨 Artist-In-Residence Workshop 💆🏻‍♀️ Wellness time with staff 🐔 GAMA’s resources distribution to beneficians 🦜 Participation of UPH in Copán's Guacamaya Liberation Fest 🧅 GAMA's report on agricultural advancements 🤹🏻‍♀️ Fundraising event in Copán’s central park 💆🏻‍♂️ Wellness time with youth 🏃🏻‍♀️ Trekker’s participation in Copán’s Marathon ⛺ Trekker’s Camp Basics Retreat

 
 

How far we have come 🚂

Happy birthday to all of you. Get yourself some cake, balloons and gifts too. In case you missed it, surprise! On the 13th of July, we (and you are included in that WE!) turned 13. If you joined The Circus last month, or have been with us for years—you are all entitled to celebrate.

The first UPH camp in Copán was launched on July 13th, 2009, by the Original Trio (Rachel, Blair, and Matt). Nobody, not even they, could have anticipated that UPH would develop into an international initiative impacting thousands of adolescents, children, and adults.

Without you, UPH and its 13 years would not exist. Without your support, we couldn't be as cool, fun, unique, or proficient at our jobs.

Throughout this month, we will embark on a journey, sharing the stories of our staff’s careers at UPH. A past-to-present mirror that faithfully represents their professional, personal, and academic evolution.

UrbanPromise Honduras is more than just another place to work; for our staff, the effects go beyond the office. Lucinda Ardón went from being a young scholarship recipient to camp director; Frelin Pineda, our director of UrbanTrekkers, chose to graduate with a specialization in Community Development thanks to his experience with us; and some fortunate ones, like Marissa Thornberry, have known love and wed someone they met at UPH. And these are only the wonderful stories that we can recall or recognize. It would be impossible to count all the connections that we have made.

UrbanPromise’s work in Latin America enhances the talent of each staff member, a crucial step to giving every child the tools they need to succeed. Your generosity helps us maintain this space. In this space, where our youth are the strikers— giving us the wins we need. Our staff—the midfield managing the game's tempo, boosting the attack, assisting in defense, and doing all the work necessary to ensure that the team functions effectively all over the field. And you, captains of our defense—unwavering, immoveable, and always there; you defend us against all potential threats, you stop pandemics, hurricanes, social inequality. True champions on the pitch. 

After 13 years, we firmly say you are an answered prayer, a believer to our cause, a miracle to our struggles. We thank you, as we thank God for putting us together on the field.   

There is a distinct and direct correlation between donor support and its impact on each child. Numbers serve as a reminder of the lovely community we have built throughout the years. Take a look at how you have helped us grow over the past 13 years!

How it started

Staff members: 3 (all foreign)

Projects Active: 1 Summer Camp

Kids/youth attendance: 30 children and 1 youth

Monthly Donors: 0

Total annual budget: $30,000 (written on a piece of scrap paper)

Office space: the local coffee shop (the only place with reliable internet in town!)

How it’s going

Staff members: 30 (25 hondureños + Blair + Marissa + Kris + Jorge + Carolina) 

5 UPLAM Fellows in the 2022 cohort (Mexico, Honduras, Colombia)

Initiatives & Projects: 🦜 Youth Program - 🥾 UrbanTrekkers  - 🎒 After School Program 🎓Scholarships - 🌞 Summer Camps

Affiliate ministries in Latin America:

CreeSiendo Paz (Colombia)

Tertulia Creativa (Colombia)

Kids/youth attendance: 500+ children and the 150+ youth (UPH and UPLAM estimate)

Monthly Donors: 82 and counting

Total annual budget 2022: $480,000

Office space: 1 3-story office building plus one little campus 😉, all 6 vacation camps and 3 school camps are located in Copán schools, churches and Copán’s university.

This birthday is yours too to celebrate. There's no doubt about it. Thank you and congratulations. We can't put into words how much you mean to us. 

If we stay true to our core values—every child matters, every staff member matters, and every donor matters—these teenage years that we cross as an organization will become youthful years, we will grow together, we will reach adulthood, and we will surpass every goal that we set for ourselves.

 

📅What we’ve been up to

 

🥾 UrbanTrekkers

  • Participation in Copán's marathon "TAKING CARE OF THE HOUSE WE LIVE IN", achieving first, second and third place. 🤯

  • 6 kilometers covered during morning routines on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while some jogged and others walked, everyone developed a fitness habit. 

  • Camp Joy youth participate in leadership development during Camping 101 led by UrbanTrekkers

  • Reforestation campaign with 20 of the After-School Program kids planting trees on the UPH Campus in collaboration. 35 new trees were planted.

💼 Admin Department

  • Incorporation of Kenerson Mejía (former camp kid) as Administrative-Accounting Assistant. 🌟👀

  • External coaching to hold institutional processes up to date.

  • Municipality meeting to discuss UPH's participation on the Municipal Council for the Protection of Boys, Girls and Adolescents Rights.

  • Painting and craft booth during GuacamayaFest (Copán's Macaws Liberation Fest).

🐔 GAMA (Poultry and Agricultural Training Program)

  • GAMA distributed 250 chickens to 15 recipients as part of its poultry entrepreneurship training

🦜 Youth Program

  • Mentoring 27 youth this month who are participating in the After-School Program Camps.

  • Homework Club hosts 8 youth every weekday afternoon.

  • 4 new camp volunteers.

  • 4 new professional interns.

  • 8 high school and 7 college scholarships granted.

  • Career expo to inspire and inform youth about their future with presentations from experts in various fields: Writer - Ricardo Leiva; Photographer - Londin Velasquez; Doctor - Grecia Cantillano; and Architect - Jennifer Rossell.

  • 25 hours of English, Spanish, and math tutoring.

🎒 After School Program

  • Postcards for donors were made in the art class. 👀

  • Career Expo in collaboration with the Youth Program.

  • Reforestation campaign at the new UPH campus in collaboration with the UrbanTrekkers.

  • Training of Fellows, in collaboration with UrbanPromise Latin America, who are leading Camps two days a week.

🎨 Artist-In-Residence Program

  • A collaborative project initiated where we brought a painting to three campsites so kids could add their own artistic flair to the piece.

  • Participation as a professional artist at the Youth Program's Career Expo.

  • Interviewing youth to create paintings motivated by their stories.

  • Completed painting of “En el Camino“ Summit (UPH’s & UPLAM’s annual summit) and was given to the staff.

  • Artistic Station at the GuacamayaFest (Copán's Macaws Liberation Fest).