SG Foundation and CAMO: An Alliance for Children’s Education and Health

In the rural areas of Honduras, where poverty is widespread, the alliance between CAMO and SG Foundation is a beacon of hope.

Through a matching intervention, both organizations are working to close the gaps that poverty creates in education, combining efforts in nutrition and comprehensive health.

This support is channeled through CAMO’s Literacy Program, an initiative that currently serves 1,724 students in 16 rural schools across the departments in western Honduras.

The Literacy Program is built on standardized reading and comprehension assessments, the design of a local educational strategy in coordination with municipal and departmental authorities, annual medical check-ups in nutrition, dentistry, ophthalmology, and audiometry, and training for rural teachers to strengthen learning in the classroom.

An ongoing challenge

During health evaluations, factors are identified that may directly affect school performance.

In one of these evaluations, we learned about Lester, a student at 18 de Noviembre School in the community of El Pinal, under the jurisdiction of the municipality of San Juan de Opoa.

Lester’s case immediately caught the attention of the nutritionists who evaluated him, as they found he was underweight. He was provided with therapeutic nutritional supplements and continues under monitoring and follow-up.

Education with health: the formula for change

For Jorge López, District Director of Education in Corquín, Copán, and the local counterpart for the Literacy Program, the impact of the initiative is tangible:

“We have witnessed how an evaluation can give a child their life back. We knew of a case of a student who could not see, and thanks to this program, he now wears glasses and can learn like the others.”

López also highlighted the importance of follow-up for each patient.

The alliance between CAMO and SG Foundation proves that health and education, united, can transform lives. Through medical care, teacher training, and strategies to improve reading skills, the Literacy Program opens opportunities for more than 1,700 rural children, sowing hope and a fairer future.