Miracle Two - An Education

The focus on education at Rancho Santa Fe is remarkable and it's been a key part of NPH since it's founding in 1954.

According to recent data in Honduras, for every thousand graduates of the first grade in 1990, only 29% complete primary school in six years and 46% never finish. The situation with universities is much more worrying, since only 20% avoid failing out in universities such as the National Autonomous University (UNAH).

At Rancho Santa Fe an on-site school extends from a Montessori pre-school and Kindergarten through the ninth grade. Additionally, seven vocational workshops on the campus train children in a variety of areas including welding, carpentry, electricity, shoe making, tailoring and dressmaking. Each student must be nationally certified in at least one trade.

Children who want to progress to High School outside the Orphanage must serve in an  “Año Familiar” or Year of Service Program, allowing pequeños to give back to NPH for all it has provided them. After finishing the 9th grade, all pequeños are asked to provide one year of service as a sign of appreciation for the care and education they received while living at the home. Students who have good grades and are in good standing are then offered the chance to attend high school.

After completing these studies, students are asked to give back a second year of service. If the student wishes to continue their education at the university level, he or she must complete a third year of service immediately following the second. The second and third years of service function as both a expression of gratitude and an investment toward their own education.

150 children currently attend specific technical High Schools and the University in Tegucigalpa. The Orphanage maintains four houses for High School and University students on the outskirts of the capitol. High School houses have either two Tios (uncles - boy's house) or Tias (aunts - girls house) who look after the children. Children are monitored in all their study areas, and when a child has trouble with a particular class a tutor is hired until they improve. Houses for college students don't have tios/tias but are regularly checked on by NPH staff. The orphanage pays for all tuition, housing, books and food. It costs about $3,300 per child per year for college. College students are asked to come back and help the orphanage every other weekend. 

National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) in Tegucigalpa

While every child doesn't go to High School or College, Rancho Santa Fe does everything possible to give them the skills to succeed in the world outside the orphanage.