Hispanic History Month Kicks off at Norwalk Public Library

The Norwalk Public Library is celebrating Hispanic History Month with a display about Honduras in Central America by Gil Rodriguez of Darien, with an explanation of his daughter Helen’s volunteering there.

The exhibit focuses on a special school, the Marie Poussepin Center in Guaimaca, that this year has provided an intensive educational program to 58 girls from rural areas of Honduras.

The school receives the support of the Roman Catholic Church, and depends on donations from individuals from the United States. Besides the five Dominican Sisters, teaching is provided by American college graduate volunteers.

One of these volunteers this year is a local resident from Darien, Helen Rodriguez.

Helen has been teaching in this program since January until this coming November. She is experienced teaching in many countries of Latin America. She graduated from Stonehill College in Massachusetts in 2012, but had spent most of her spring and summer breaks teaching in the Dominican Republic, Bolivia and Peru.

Peru is Helen’s birth country. She and her sister, Mary Francis, were adopted by Gil and Kathleen Rodriguez in Lima, Peru, in 1990. Helen’s greatest challenge this year in Honduras has been teaching the girls, ages 12 to 18, in their native language, Spanish. Helen has been teaching Science, Math, and Music.

The Marie Poussepin Center was started by the Dominican Sisters in 2006. It is a secondary school for girls who live in the “aldeas”, mountains surrounding the city of Guaimaca.

The school’s three pillars are responsibility, respect, and honesty. To be accepted into the school, the girls must be entering 7th grade, Catholic, and from an aldea. The school offers the unique opportunity to be able to study, not only academically, but learn the life skills essential for living in Honduras. Along with the academic classes, they take sewing, computer, religion, dance, art, music, cooking, and agriculture.

The graduates are given the opportunity to earn a scholarship to attend college for an agricultural degree. This school provides a unique and special opportunity for these girls. Very few of them would be attending school at all if it were not for this school. The girls are asked to pay 5% of their individual cost for attending the school, though few are able to do so.

The school is funded by donations, and the teaching provided by the Dominican Sisters and the volunteers, like Helen. This year there are three volunteers. One is at the clinic through the Catholic Medical Mission Board, and the other two are from Stonehill College’s International Extension Program. Stonehill College is a Catholic liberal arts school founded by the Holy Cross Fathers, who are the founders of Notre Dame University. Along with this program in Guaimaca, Honduras, it has educational programs in the Dominican Republic and India. 

Hand crafted woven items were made by the school girls and other items are part of the family collection of the Gil and Kathleen Rodriguez of Darien.

The Norwalk Public Library, 1 Belden Avenue in Norwalk is on on the corner of Belden Avenue and Mott Avenue.  Information -203.899.2780 x 15109 www.norwalkpubliclibrary.org.