HOW CAN YOUR SCHOOL GET INVOLVED?

Your school can help SCW.CA achieve its mission by joining our Empowerment Program and becoming a SCW Partner School

The SCW Empowerment Program is a project designed to initiate and facilitate cooperation between schools in the developed and developing world. The program:
i) Allows students in Canada to learn about the work of SCW in Honduras.
ii) Gives schools in Canada an opportunity to develop a partnership with schools in Honduras.
iii) Helps schools in Honduras find the support that is needed to improve the quality of education received by their students.

SCW.CA calls this project the Empowerment Program because:
a) the program empowers students in Canada by teaching them that the actions of ordinary people can have a major impact on the lives of individuals in the developing world
b) the program empowers students in Honduras by giving them the type of education that is needed in order for them to escape from poverty.

An SCW Canada Partner School will work with SCW.CA to select a school in Honduras that is in need of renovation or replacement. SCW.CA will work with the Partner School to help educate the student community about the particular needs of the chosen school in Honduras and the value of helping that school. In collaboration with SCW.CA, the chosen school community in Honduras, and their own student community, the Partner School will organize and execute a fundraising activity to help generate financial support for the renovation or replacement of the school in Honduras. SCW.CA will then use those funds for the construction tasks selected or sponsored by the Partner School.

Because of our commitment to empowering students in both the developing and developed world we allow students in Canada to choose what their donations will be used for. Money can be raised for something basic such as a few concrete blocks or something ambitious such as an entire school. After construction is complete SCW.CA will return to the Partner School with an update on the progress that has been made and a full expense report. Students are always welcome to attend either our February or July trip to Honduras to witness and participate in the construction of their Partner School in Honduras.

SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT YOUR INVOLVEMENT WITH SCW

1. SCW Canada guarantees that 100% of the money your school raises will go directly to your Partner School in Honduras. Because SCW relies entirely on the support of volunteers, SCW Canada can use its money more efficiently than other charitable organizations. We promise that your generous contribution will be used the way you want it to be used.
   
   
2. When you work with SCW Canada you are not working with a typical charitable organization that does educational work in the developing world. When you work with SCW you are working with an organization led by some of the brightest minds in the world of School Planning, School Design, and School Construction. For example, Doctor Bill DeJong, the founder of SCW, has more than 30 years experience in Education Planning. Doctor DeJong, who continues to be directly involved in every SCW project, is the Chief Executive Officer of one of the foremost educational planning firms in the world- DeJong Inc. Doctor DeJong has been a Professor of School Planning and Design at Harvard University for more than a decade and in 1991 received the CEFPI (Council of Facility Planners International) Planner of the Year Award. In 1993 Doctor DeJong became the President of CEFPI. Doctor DeJong is only one of the many educational experts that work with SCW to create a new generation of schools in Honduras.
   
   
3. SCW Canada uses an approach that emphasizes grassroots involvement and sustainability. We believe that it is wrong both to simply give a school in Honduras some money and expect them work and to impose our standards and ideas on the Honduran. Therefore, before undertaking any school construction project, SCW engages in an intense process of collaboration that allows us to explain to Partner Schools in Honduras what we expect of them and what they should expect from us; no major decision is made without seeking the approval of the local communities we work with. Our members are always directly involved in the projects and ensure that our schools are of the highest quality. Our approach has proven to be an effective way of teaching the people of Honduras that, with a little support, they can do what is needed to improve their situation. Because the communities in which we work are always involved in the construction process, the school facilities often become a source of pride and a common gathering place for a variety of community events. 

Schools for the Children of the World Canada

10350 Yonge Street, Suite 200
Richmond Hill, Ontario L4C 5K9
Canada
Tel: 905-884-1117
Fax: 905-884-4970
info@scwcanada.org