We are very excited to announce our partner organization for the 2025 Scona Initiative: Sombrilla. The current school system only allows for youth to attain a grade 6 education. This year, we will be supporting young people and adults who wish to continue and/or upgrade their level of education from grade 6 to a grade 9 level.
Sombrilla will be using the funds we raise this year to expand their Computer Assisted Learning [CAL] Program which will service and provide affordable and flexible access to learning to both youth and adults in rural Honduran Communities
We are excited to be able to make a difference in the education of the Honduran people who live in rural communities and provide a pathway to break through a poverty barrier created by low levels of literacy in the population.
Sombrilla
2025 Scona Initiative Partner
About Sombrilla
“Sombrilla” is the Spanish word for “umbrella,” which symbolizes the partnerships between organized communities from Canada and Latin America that assist in sheltering vulnerable populations from oppression while promoting community participation.
Sombrilla partners with communities in Latin America to empower them to assert their democratic, economic, cultural, and social rights. We strive to improve quality of life by addressing needs such as food security, clean water, health care and education so that communities may become self-sustaining.
In Canada, Sombrilla implements a public engagement strategy with two main objectives: the first focuses on presenting the Canadian public with the issues resonating from Latin America and the Global South, in an effort to develop basic awareness. Secondly, the strategy attempts to move from this basic awareness to the involvement of groups and individuals in organized action in support of communities in Latin America.
Current
Computer Assisted Learning [CAL] Program
Honduras
Jose Garcia Scholarship Fund
Perquín, San Fernando and Torola, Morazán, El Salvador
Salvadoran Textile Arts Workshops
Perquín, El Salvador
SOMBRILLA DOes work all over Latin America, Contributing some of the following projects:
Salvadoran Textile Arts Workshop
Past Projects In honduras Include:
Agricultural Cooperative Women’s Project
Equal Access to Justice for Women in Honduras
OCDIH Project
Computer Assisted Learning Program (CAL)
Schooling in most rural Honduran villages ends at Grade 6, usually because parents cannot afford to send their children to junior high school away from home. For example, the dropout rate between Grades 6 and 7 in the Municipality of Santa Cruz de Yojoa has been as high as 96%, according to the local Superintendent of Schools
Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) is an inexpensive and effective way of providing basic education in developing countries. A digitized curriculum is installed on computers, which are used by students to learn at their own pace. After completing the curriculum, a student is eligible to take the national exams for graduation to the next grade.
Goals:
To remove barriers that prevent children from continuing their education beyond grade 6
To provide quality education for grades,7 8 and 9 following the Honduran Curriculum
To provide supplementary materials such as reading materials, reference books and a keyboarding program
To provide access to primary education for people of any age who are illiterate or have not been able to complete primary school
Sea Can Classroom in Honduras housing the CAL Program
Inside the classroom students continue their schooling (Gr. 7-9)