📌 Edition #37
📆 October 2023
📌 Edition #37 📆 October 2023
📸Snaps of the month
🏓 We celebrate Children's Day and Honduras’ independence Day at Camps
🏡 We visited La Pintada, the new community we are serving through Camp K’anir
🐝 We held the first annual spelling bee on our Campus
🥕 Monthly training time for our staff
🕊 UrbanTrekkers celebrates peace day with a “Trek for peace“
🔬 Youth from our program travel to the capital of Honduras for a vocational fair
Expanding
Platform 🥏
To inspire the children and youth of Honduras to reach their potential... I keep coming back to our mission statement more often than I imagined. The first time I read it, I soaked it in, wanting to make sure I understood correctly its intentions. Then, there came a time when I knew it by heart.
I began to question this statement when I saw the picture of Don Fidelio with one of the prettiest smiles I had ever seen, holding a chicken by its legs.—I liked it so much that I even included it in our 2022 Annual Report.
It doesn't matter if you are a child, a youth, or an 81-year-old man; at UPH, you have a place. That’s how I started his story almost a year ago with your Circus newsletter. His smile was as powerful as his testimonial, and I knew you needed to know his story. Don Fidelio is a strong beacon of hope and inspiration.
After that newsletter and Annual Report were published, my mind whispered again: To inspire the children and youth of Honduras to reach their potential...
In the middle of this year, we had the honor of engaging with a new community and getting to know new families through our recently established Camp K'anir in La Pintada. During a lackluster workday on a certain Wednesday in September, our camp directors posted a video in our WhatsApp group featuring Doña Marcelina expressing her gratitude for our contributions to La Pintada via our AfterSchool Camps—why do the elders in Copán have such stunning smiles?
On the way home after a challenging workday, these spontaneous interactions reinvigorate our leaders' energy back up to the maximum. This brief, five-minute, smiley and small talk, was one of the highlights of the month.
I found myself challenging that statement: To inspire the children and youth of Honduras to reach their potential...
If we were to hunt down the stories of adults and elders who are impacted by our work, our statement would stand no chance. From mothers preparing snacks at our camps, teachers supported by our homework clubs, or large-scale events like the Copán Run. The far-reaching effect is unmeasurable. For now, at least.
As an organization, it is healthy to have our statements surpassed by reality. Don’t get me wrong; our primary commitment and focus are the kids and youth that come to UPH, and leaders in Latin America we welcome to UPCEL. We’re not altering our mission statement—yet? We can’t say for sure. What we can say with confidence, is that our work is at a phase where different generations are entering this platform, and we are seeing the fruits of it.
Where do we go from here? Should we enhance our mission statement or start new official initiatives? We have used different quotes when inviting others to join our community, like: “Investing in Children. Inspiring Change. Transforming Communities.” Communities include those Fidelios and Marcelinas.
I find another pleasing answer in Matthew 20, where it doesn't matter whether you arrive early or late; you’ll find a place here, and most importantly, you’ll be rewarded as much as others. I feel Jesus is challenging us to bend logical human rules for the care of others.
We will keep honor to our word and continue to inspire the children and youth of Honduras to reach their potential… and if along the way we find another soul that needs grace and justice, we will bend every mission statement, even if it’s our own.