Ouachita’s Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) organization has started a partnership with two orphanages in Honduras. The project aims to help offset some of the educational, food and medical costs of the children living there, and to help the orphanages to afford to take more children.
“We have always wanted to do an international project of some kind, but we thought it was impossible because of the extensive resources,” said Judith Brizuela, a junior psychology major and the project’s leader.
Because Honduras is her home country, Brizuela said she is very excited about the project. Last summer she worked at the orphanage in Casa Hogar Luz.
“As a native of Honduras, I was always aware of the immense need of my people,” she said. “However, being able to work with the children really opened my eyes to the reality.”
After spending her summer at the orphanage, Brizuela shared her story with some of her fellow SIFE members.
“The people in need now had faces and names,” Brizuela said. “Their hardships became so much more real to me. Knowing that I could be a part of change in my own country was truly humbling.”
At the end of October, Brizuela, along with SIFE president Britta Stamps, SIFE member Justin Young and Bryan McKinney, dean of the Hickingbotham School of Business, will travel to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras and location of the second orphanage SIFE is working with. Their team is going to meet with Doug and Margo Turner, former residents of Arkadelphia who moved to Honduras this year to work with the World Gospel Outreach and help with an orphanage, to figure out specific needs SIFE can meet.
“It is so awesome to know I can personally do a lot to change the course of their lives,” Stamps said. “I truly have a passion for using business to create change and empower Hondurans.”
Already the partnership with Honduras has taken action. SIFE purchased a printer and a computer for the orphanage in Casa Hogar Luz to help the students with their studies and access the Internet.
SIFE is also putting together sponsorship packets for each of the 14 children in that orphanage. The packets will help meet their food, clothing, school and medical needs. Sponsorships are $32 a month, and can be purchased by anyone. Those who are interested should contact Stamps at sta44800@obu.edu.
“This financial aid will enable them to accept more children in need of their services,” Brizuela said. “The orphanage has the capacity to house 40 children.”
SIFE also has plans to create a bilingual website that will assist in the marketing of the orphanage and help with donations.
The orphanage in Tegucigalpa provides its children with a home economics class, where the children learn how to make a variety of crafts and foods — including a type of high quality coffee. SIFE is currently helping the orphanage look for coffee shops in the United States who are willing to use and sell this coffee.
“A good connection with a coffee shop in the United States could benefit the organization in Honduras immensely,” Stamps said.
For SIFE, this international project provides the members with a unique edge at their national competition that will take place in the spring. The point of the competition is to broaden students’ skills.
“It is giving our student experience in international business, web design, accounting, creative writing, etc,” Stamps said.
To help fundraise, SIFE will be selling T-shirts, with all of the proceeds going directly to the two orphanages. Information about purchasing a shirt or one of the sponsorship packets will be e-mailed in the coming weeks.
“I will always be grateful to SIFE for empowering me to be able to reach out to my own people,” Brizuela said.
Picture courtesy of Judith Brizuela.
