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First Person

Photo: USAID/Honduras

USAID-funded EDUCATODOS, a radio-based alternative education program, is helping to reduce poverty in Honduras. Rumilda Torres is one of 6,000 volunteers who donate their time to work with this education system in their respective communities each year.

Rumilda Torres was concerned about the harsh economic conditions in her hometown of Cabañas, located in the mountainous region of Copán. Many children were forced to abandon school to go to work, and Rumilda decided to do something about it. As a retired teacher and community leader, Rumilda became a volunteer facilitator in 1998 with EDUCATODOS, a USAID radio-based alternative education program.

Rumilda was already a teacher by profession, but she received additional training from EDUCATODOS on the new radio-based system and the special needs of people joining the program. As a facilitator, she has helped children, teen-agers, and adults from her community continue their basic education with EDUCATODOS.

Since 1995, 370,000 people from rural and marginalized-urban areas of Honduras - who would not have had an opportunity for an education otherwise - have participated in the program due to the hard work of volunteers. Many of these volunteers have been through the program and now want to help others obtain their basic education. As a result of increasing education levels, the total lifetime earnings of participants are projected by the USAID/Honduras education office to increase by over $265 million, lessening the probability that the program participants will continue living in poverty.

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