Milpitas Rotary Learns About Educate2Envision International In Honduras

At their Monday, November 4, Milpitas Rotary Club meeting at Brandon's Restaurant featured speaker Katia Gomez Executive Director of Educate 2 Envision (E2E) explained how her organization has brought the education movement to Honduras.

She was accompanied by Kenneth Pon, CPA, Past President of the San Leandro Rotary Club.

She began with her power point presentation claiming that in rural Honduras most children never make it past the 6th grade in primary school. Because of the lack of alternatives, young Hondurans typically repeat the same cycle of poverty as their parents and grandparents have experienced. Most families and children spend all their time working in the fields growing corn and coffee beans.

She added with the presence of secondary school, everything can change. As the value of education increases, Primary School enrollment and graduation go up according to Gomez!

Enrichment programs empower girls to set and achieve their goals, allowing them to lead a new generation of strong, independent women she said. And adults of all ages are also able to continue their primary school education.

Students are paid with incentives to complete studies and they perform community service. They are taught entrepreneurial and leadership skills according to Katia.

Educate2Envision was founded in 2010 and they currently run programs in 6 villages in Pajarillos, Honduras. They serve nearly 2000 youth and adults and close to 150 secondary students, plus they offer additional education programs for more than 400 primary school students.

Rotarians were so impressed they collected $310 on the spot to donate to the cause.

Katia was a Rotary District 5170 Scholar from 2012-2013. She earned her Master of Public Health degree from Boston University and her B.A. in International Studies from the University of California, San Diego.

From 2009-2011, she served as a District Chair for CARE USA, speaking to politicians in Washington DC and locally about the importance of empowering women and girls to conquer global poverty.

In 2010 she founded Educate2Envision to bring education to the rural poor in Honduras. In 2012, she was named one of “10 Heroes for International Day of the Girl” and one of the Top 12 “Amazing Young Entrepreneurs Doing Good” by Forbes. In 2013, she was also named by Newsweek as one of the "Top 25 Women Under 25 in the World to Watch.

E2E Website: http://www.educate2envision.org/