Youth and Community Development: El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras Cooperative Agreement AID-596-A-13-00001 QUARTERLY REPORT OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2016 Youth and Community Development: El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras Generation Now Festival was the focus of the program during this period. With the groundwork laid out in the previous quarter, Glasswing staff continued in full force covering all aspects of this important event. Starting in October, Glasswing and USAID, with monetary and in-kind support from corporate partners, promoted Manos a la Obra, a region-wide initiative that convened thousands of volunteers to support improvements of public spaces in each of the six Central American countries. In El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, volunteers and beneficiaries from other USAID-funded youth-focused projects and local non-governmental organizations also participated, making this effort more inclusive. Following this success, preparations continued for ¨Manos a la Obra has been the most significant support that Cerro Juana Generation Now Festival, held November 11 – 12 at Lainez has received, not only for the Estadio Cuscatlan in San Salvador. The festival works completed but also because it consisted of: generated so much positive energy in Regional Youth Forum the surrounding area and as a result General Fair of this activity, more people are Music concert visiting; they feel more motivated and have started organizing Sunday family gatherings, and each time Thousands of youth from four countries, including receiving more families.¨ - Luisa Maria Nicaragua, mobilized to partake in this educational and Willingham, President, Board of fun event. U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador Jean Manes Directors, Tegucigalpa Ecological offered welcoming remarks to kick-off the Festival Foundation followed by comments from the Minister of Foreign Relations Hugo Martínez. The event sought to spread a message of hope while bringing people together to inspire them that everyone can make a difference. For this purpose, Glasswing developed the slogan Yo Me Atrevo, meaning ¨I dare to…¨, and throughout the event people were asked, in particular youth to complete the phrase as a way for each individual to make a personal commitment to contribute to positive change in the region. More details about the Festival are presented further below. In addition to this major event, each country team continued with regular activities, including volunteer Below we present details of achievements and activities during October, November and December 2016. A. Developing life skills. Throughout the months of October, November and December, activities were focused on developing different competition, end-of-school year program closings, summer shcool, feedback meetings with teachers, among others. QUARTERLY REPORT: OCT - DEC 2016 1 Debate competition. In Tegucigalpa and San Salvador, the final debate tournament was held in The Center of Arts and Culture at the Autonomous University of Honduras and at FUSADES, respectively. In both, the British Parlament format was applied, which promotes a more interactive and participative dynamic. As the year before, the focus of the competition was migration, a relevant and importannt topic in these countries. In Tegucigalpa, 65 students from seven schools debated in the first round with the motion “Goverments from Central America are responsible of the migration of minors”; the winners of this round advanced to the second level, debating on the motion, “Is irregular migration of minors a sympton of the economic crisis in the Central American region.” In El Salvador, the International Organization on Migration provided support, providing deifinitions and data to help students in researching topics, and served as judges. 52 students representing thirteen schools debated the following motions: Preleminary round-- A country must provide conditions for development to immigrants. Semifinal round – TPS (Temporary Protected Status) has been beneficial to salvadoreans Final round – No borders should exist between countries Oratory competition in which thirteen contestants had to argue and defend “Migration: Opportunity or Threat”. The final round for the 7-8 grades category in El Salvador was thrilling because the winner was San Jose de la Montaña School, which was particiating for the first time and was represented only by one student. This experience demonstrates the great capacity and potential of teenagers to learn and strengthen themselves, despite the obstacles and risks they face. Spelling Bee Contest. More than 400 students from 16 schools with English clubs participated in the first spelling bee contest, in which they showed the ability to recognize words in English just by listening to them, so they could form and spell them correctly. It was attended by more than 40 corporate, individual and community volunteers. As for the jury, this was made up of representatives of partner companies such as Telus, Getcom and Convergys. 2 YOUTH & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: EL SALVADOR, GUATEMALA & HONDURAS Expo Discovery: Exploring our World full of mysteries. In El Salvador, the V Expo Discovery was held in the facilities of the Centro Internacional de Ferias y Convenciones on October 12, with the objective that students and their volunteers develop, present and explain different experiments related to what has been learned during the year in Discovery I and Discovery II clubs. Among the 22 topics developed are: Natural and synthetic polymers, atmospheric pressure, center of gravity, energy and technology use, milky way and solar system, magnetism and electromagnetism, senses and optical illusions, air, recycling, light and colors, fire, among others. This year we had the participation of 19 schools, which were represented by 550 students between 1st and 6th grade, 60 volunteers and parents, and Glasswing staff. In Tegucigalpa, the event was held in the "La Vega" recreation park with the participation of more than 180 students from ten schools in the central municipality of Tegucigalpa, and participation of two invited schools from the Comayagua department belonging to the Progressio project. II Robotics Competition. For the second consecutive year and as a result of the strengthening of the Robotics Club, the II Robotics Competition was developed, in which 98 students from 11 schools had the opportunity to compete with the objective of demonstrating their capacity for logical reasoning, task performance and resolution of problems through the construction and programming of robots. The theme on which the competition was developed was the "Waste Classification" which is aligned with the theme of the world robotics competition. It is worth mentioning that one of the participating judges is part of the Lego Education team and currently, along with the club's advisor, they are promoting El Salvador's participation in the World Robot Olympiad. Robotics Clubs also participated in other competitions: • World Robot Olympiad (WRO) 2016 Category: B Classification of Waste (13 to 15 years). WRO El Salvador is the first robotics competition in the country that brought together QUARTERLY REPORT: OCT - DEC 2016 3 many young students from the public and private sectors creating a space for them to demonstrate their creativity through the design, construction and programming of robots, solving defiant and educational challenges. 98 students from Glasswing clubs participated in representing 11 schools, among those C. E. Republic of Canada was the first nationally ranked winner in category B "Classification of waste". • RODO RACE 2016, Category: Line follower robot. This competition is carried out by CIFCO and Don Bosco University. 34 students from four schools of Glasswing clubs participated and although they did not win in the competition, they were awarded 4 Smart Robots Car Kit for participation and performance of the teens. In Honduras, students members of CEB Robotics club Miguel Paz Barahona of San Pedro Sula, were invited by the Technological University of Central America (UNITEC) to take a tour at the university, including the Mechatronics laboratory. In this socio-educational visit they were able to assemble different robots, which was a special experience since many of them are passionate about the technological world. Summer school. In order to extend the clubs' time after the end of the school year, Summer School was held in Honduras - 570 students from seven schools, Guatemala - 256 beneficiaries from four schools, and El Salvador - 307 from five schools. It is worth mentioning the importance of establishing these extracurricular enrichment activities for students since they have opportunities to use their free time during the months December to January, and in this way they complement the commitment of the volunteer educators to the project and strengthening of the country's public education. Communitary Café. In this period, sessions continued in each country, discussing different issues in order to re-establish and strengthen the social fabric. Prevention of Violence A contribution Prevention of teenage pregnancies to the Culture of Peace! • The confli Social networks The dialogue Responsible parenting Self esteem Community relations • Support and discipline Complying with the methodology of this project, it was the teachers who planned and coordinated each session in the implementation of the community coffee methodology. In total there were 413 participants. 4 YOUTH & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: EL SALVADOR, GUATEMALA