The Honduran Dream: Character Education Workshop in Tela, Honduras

November 8 through November 14, WFWP partnered with Youth Service Club of North Jersey and Universal Peace Federation (UPF) to hold a three-day Character Education workshop in Tela, Honduras, which graduated and certified 73 teachers in the UPF Discovering the Real Me curriculum taught by Alan Saunders, one of the original writers and contributors to the teaching series.

This program, titled “Honduran Dream,” is focused on helping the city to prepare its citizenry from childhood to adulthood to understand and take the necessary steps to become a serving city—a successful tourist city in order to bolster its economy.  Besides providing the teacher training, the workshop encouraged the participants to create a national vision—not to look toward the United States and the “North American Dream,” but rather to develop a vision that celebrates the good of their own nation. Attending participants represented approximately 100 schools. 

WFWP’s specific contribution to the workshop was truly “parental care” realized as financial support for the participation of three young leaders to support and inherit from the program.  These three individuals included Mika Deshotel (USA) –UTS doctoral student studying the areas of service learning and character education; Nurlyn Salinas (Honduras) – university student who has helped to develop UPF service learning programs all throughout Honduras and Guatemala; and finally, Edgar Castillo (Honduras) – university student and active participant in many service learning and youth projects in Honduras, and two UPF youth exchange programs in the USA. The support of these young leaders was invaluable consisting of  their helpful service and care for the participants, engaging conversation with the teachers, help with the translation and photography, and especially the offering of their heartfelt testimonies which brought tears to our eyes and were the greatest proof to the power of Character Education and service learning.

This article is written with deep gratitude to WFWP USA.