VPP Highlights
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 | | Ambassador Llorens with the Honduran Dream 2008 winners in San Pedro Sula. |
Honduran Dream 2008 has a Winner!San Pedro Sula. October 2008. The closing of the second edition of the “Honduran Dream” contest was honored with the presence of the Minister of Education, Marlon Breve, and U.S. Ambassador, Hugo Llorens. The Honduran Dream contest is an outreach partnership project between the U.S. Embassy in Honduras with the Covelo Foundation, Redmicroh, the Ministry of Education, and the University of San Pedro Sula. For 2008, students from 14 public high schools were invited to compete for a $5,000 prize startup fund to create their own small business. Six schools presented their business projects to a panel of five judges. The competition was fierce, and the winner was Instituto Tecnico Santa Cruz with a project to produce organic fertilizer. “This is the best thing that has ever happened to us. We will be able to start our own business”, said one of the members of the winning team. “The Honduran Dream Contest is an example of what public and private partnerships can accomplish to promote the creation of opportunities here in Honduras, as an alternative to immigration to the United States”, said Ambassador Llorens.
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 | | Robert Armstrong during his presentation at the Centro Cultural Sampedrano. |
University students learn about CAFTA San Pedro Sula. January 2009. The Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Robert Armstrong, recently visited San Pedro Sula to give presentations focused on CAFTA to university and high school students. The presentations focused on CAFTA, the results under the treaty in its first two and a half years in force, and how it can help Honduras get through the coming year, when most of the world’s major economies will likely be in recession. The presentations also provided historical evidence that those societies that participate actively in international trade and permit the free movement of goods, services and capital have been more successful at reducing poverty and raising the material quality of life of their people. The students asked about the causes and the likely impact of the recent global financial crisis and what Honduras needs to do to accelerate its economic growth and reduce poverty.
 | | Mechanical Cow to produce soy milk from soybeans. |
Economic Counselor Visits Feeding Center in San Pedro SulaSan Pedro Sula. January 2009. The U.S. Embassy Economic Counselor, Robert Armstrong, visited a feeding center in the North Coast. The project is run as a collaboration among the local government, the Spanish Catholic charity Caritas, Rotary clubs in Honduras (with help from Rotary clubs abroad, primarily U.S.) and the Honduran NGO CEPUDO (which gets help from U.S. and European based NGOs) to provide nutrition to poor children in marginal areas surrounding San Pedro Sula. The American Soybean Association, through the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH), donated 6,000 tons of soybeans to the project. They use the soybeans to produce not just the soy milk but also bread and cheese from the residue. The 6,000 tons are enough to provide breakfast and lunch to 40,000 children for a year. The project is an excellent example of a public-private partnership to address the needs of the most vulnerable populations in and around San Pedro Sula.
 | | Ambassador Llorens with IPC Director Colin McIernon |
Ambassador Llorens Visits IPCSan Pedro Sula, November 2008. Ambassador Llorens visited the Instituto Politécnico Centroamericano. This vocational school hopes to be the leading educational facility for the textile and manufacturing sector in Central America and the Caribbean Basin by 2010. The profiles of entering students are designed to match the profiles of industry which is in alignment with industry’s needs and recruitment process. IPC is non-profit, dedicated to the formation of competent technical personnel to compete in the global market. USAID is processing a grant in the amount of $100,000 for a pilot activity with IPC to work with two other training centers, built and equipped with USAID funding in the 1980s, to help these centers update their technical and basic education curricula. During the visit, the Ambassador had the pleasure of meeting the students and breaking ground for new dormitories to be built at the school. He was also given a tour by the center’s director, Colin McIernon.
 | | Ambassador Llorens and members of Fundahrse. |
U.S. Embassy Supports Coorporate Social ResponsibilitySan Pedro Sula. November 2008. On November 20, 2008 in the Club Arabe in San Pedro Sula, Ambassador Hugo Llorens presented the organizations FUNDAHRSE, FUNDEMOS, and Amcham a Department of Commerce $21,200 grant Corporate Social Responsibility activities. The first two, which are good-governance organizations, are dedicated to promoting CSR as a management instrument, with particular emphasis on SMEs (MIPYMES). In past years, they have held trainings and produced a number of “Best Practice” manuals to assist companies in implementing CSR programs. The Department of Commerce helped sponsor their activities last year as well. This year’s grant will allow the three organizations to expand the CSR focus outside of Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula to include La Ceiba and Roatán. Over the coming year, the organizations will hold an additional six seminars to train 240 SMEs in CSR ,and will enforce the message with a new newspaper and 30-second-spot radio campaign with the assistance of the marketing company McCann-Erickson.
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