In November 2007 the Echo published an article on my work in Honduras. Due to current Haliburton interest in my memoir, I’ve Worn Many Hats, I thought readers might be interested in an update on our programs in 2022! Wow, 15 years later, so much more has been accomplished. The Healthy Living Education Program phase two established by Dr. Bill Kerr of Minden is now in its 14th year and continues to provide free dental care to the children of Grades 3 to 6. Two teams led by Dr. Kerr and Dr. Michael Cusato, along with their talented hygienists, have been providing annual care to the children of El Porvenir and surrounding area. This is care that these children would not have otherwise received.
Although I’ve Worn Many Hats second half is devoted to stories about my Honduran adventures and programs, I will mention here projects that we established and are still running.
PEP (Porvenir English Program) began by providing free English lessons to El Porvenir’s children and later to the adults. It has now expanded to teach computer skills, reading comprehension, art and so much more.
The Anne Fowler Bilingual School is a government approved private school for kindergarten through Grade 6 that is highly regarded for its academic excellence
We built two school libraries. One for the high school and the other in an elementary school. These are the two new projects that will start this year.
A mobile library, the Bookmobile. El Porvenir has no public library or book stores. It’s a hole that limits the amount of recreational reading anyone can do, both children and adults. This is a joint project with the organization who has supplied our PEP international volunteer teachers over the years. We are hoping to get it going by February, although that may be optimistic! We HAVE purchased the vehicle, which is being adapted and modified for our purposes.

Stories from our volunteers: I so enjoyed writing my memoir that when asked if I would put together an account of our international volunteer’s tales of adventure, I agreed to tackle the project. I am compiling a book with some of those adventures; memorable exploits that our volunteers experienced during their time in Honduras as written in their own words. Recollections that are humorous, tragic, inspirational, maybe slightly X-rated/ outrageous or perhaps a little of each?! Since I was there for many of these stories, my lips are sealed if they choose to use a pseudonym! This will be a fund raiser to assist in getting the Bookmobile on the road.
So as you can see 2022/2023 will be a busy six months!
Submitted by Anne Hamilton Fowler
anne.honduranhope.net