Contributed Photo
Kids playing in Siete de Abril, where, as in other developing communities, indoor air pollution is the fourth leading cause of death for children under the age of five.

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When Erin Kelly heard about PARADE Magazine’s America’s Giving Challenge contest, she wanted to enter an organization she believes is making a difference: Students Helping Honduras.
Winning the contest didn’t seem likely, because by the time Kelly found out about the Giving Challenge, which was designed, according to a press release, to encourage the charitable use of social networking and Web tools, it had already been going on for three weeks.
And there were only three weeks left to go.
“I thought it was too late,” said Kelly, a Mechanicsville native and an economics major at University of Mary Washington. “I asked how we could get involved next year. But on a Thursday at five in the afternoon, they sent a stack of papers and said if I filled them out by (the next day), we can enter you!”
Kelly got busy filling out forms and soliciting support from other members of Students Helping Honduras. Knowing that contestants would be judged by how many donors they attracted to their cause, she hoped to rally at least 500.
SHH is a nonprofit organization co-founded by UMW alumnus Shin Fujiyama to, according to the group’s mission statement, “provide educational and economic opportunities to communities in Honduras, and to engage students of all ages with our projects from beginning to end.”
The project Kelly chose to highlight in the Challenge, which was co-sponsored by the Case Foundation and partnered with online donation processing partners Network for Good and GlobalGiving, is providing fuel efficient stoves to the 300 people living in Siete de Abril, a squatter village in Honduras.
“Hondurans cook using organic materials such as wood or dung or brush, and they cook in the house,” said Kelly. “There’s no ventilation, and the smoke is the same as breathing cigarette smoke, women and small children are breathing this in for six to eight hours a day.”
About two thirds of the village’s inhabitants are children, and Kelly explained that a class at UMW had recently traveled to Siete de Abril, where they discovered that more than 50 families there are suffering from indoor air pollution.
“The class researched and found that indoor air pollution is the fourth leading cause of death for children under five in developing countries—children can have lung problems, can suffocate to death. This is fairly easily treatable, but these people can’t get to a doctor.”
Kelly and other members of SHH used their participation in the Challenge as a way of raising awareness of the village’s plight.
“The way the contest was designed, was perfect for our organization,” said Kelly. “We reached out to everyone on campus, using our cell phones and computers, and Facebook, and instant messaging. A lot of our members contacted their high schools, or specific organizations they were involved in… we met with every network we could think of.”
These efforts paid off—although SHH were at a disadvantage with their late admittance to the Challenge, the organization attracted a winning 1639 donations, totaling $28,796. As one of four globally-oriented winners, they were awarded an additional $50,000.
“When we won, it was so exciting, because this is a project that will make a tangible difference in people’s lives over the next year,” said Kelly of the fuel efficient stoves. “They use half as much wood, and the ventilation method means that smoke is not being let out in the house. We’ll be able to prevent deaths immediately, because we got this project funded.”
To learn more about Students Helping Honduras, visit studentshelpinghonduras.org.

Contributed Photo
A typical house, constructed from available materials, in the village of Siete de Abril.