Bilingual Education for Central America (BECA)

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Bilingual Education for Central America (“BECA”) is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2002. An idea born in the homes of several Honduran families has grown into a community-led bilingual school model run in partnership with low-income communities in Honduras. BECA recruits, trains, and supports English-speaking volunteer teachers to staff a network of community-run bilingual schools in Honduras that serve low-income communities.

Mission
BECA exists to provide quality, affordable bilingual education to the educationally disenfranchised while fostering meaningful cultural exchange.

Schools and Programs:
• San Jeronimo Bilingual School: San Jeronimo Bilingual School (SJBS) is located in Cofradia Cortés, Honduras. SJBS is BECA’s first community partner school. BECA purposefully does not own and operate SJBS. Instead, that is the purview of the democratically-elected Association of Honduran parents, a recognized nonprofit entity with its own governing bylaws. BECA is simply their partner. In this collaborative fashion, BECA provides volunteer trained English-speaking teachers to SJBS, allowing tuition to remain low. Additionally, SJBS allows BECA to operate a scholarship program ensuring that people from all backgrounds can attend the school.
• Santa Monica Bilingual School: Santa Monica Bilingual School (SMBS) is located in the small, marginalized township of Vida Nueva Cortés, Honduras. Vida Nueva is approximately five miles from Cofradía, where San Jeronimo Bilingual School is located. BECA's first expansion school outside of Cofradía was a long time coming for the organization.
• Amigos de Jesus Bilingual School: Amigos de Jesús is a U.S. and Honduran based organization operating a children’s home for over 120 children who have been victims of abuse or neglect in some form. The home is located in Santa Barbara, Honduras - approximately 30 miles from Cofradía. As a joint venture, BECA and Amigos de Jesús officially opened the doors of this bilingual school in August 2013. We began by serving Kindergarten - 2nd grade and have been adding an additional grade level each year. The school will host a mixture of children from the home itself, as well as offering an affordable, high-quality bilingual education to children from the surrounding communities. In addition to the bilingual school, Amigos de Jesús will continue to educate their older children through Educatodos (an accelerated program for children or adults that are significantly behind in schooling) on the same site.
• Summer Camps: The camp is structured to provide our students with opportunities to remain immersed in the English language over the summer through fun games and activities - making the transition back to classes in August less difficult and preventing summer learning loss.
• BBP Scholarship: The BECA Bachillerato Program Scholarship is awarded each year to an outstanding graduating student of SJBS. The scholarship provides the student with the means to earn a diploma from a bilingual high school - an extremely valuable commodity in Honduras.
• Libros y Familias: During Libros Y Familias workshops parents read, discuss, and compose personal responses to selected books in Spanish that reflect culturally relevant themes such as friendship, religion, working families, etc. Children meet with facilitators who direct craft activities based on the theme of the book used for the adults. At the end of the workshop, each family takes home a copy of the book that was discussed. For some of our families, the books they receive at these workshops are the only books in their home.
• Charla de Padres: A "school for and by parents" that provides bi-weekly classes on topics such as nutrition, personal health and hygiene, family budgeting, and supporting a child’s education.

Monique Turner Lopez is the Chief Executive Officer at Bilingual Education for Central America (BECA).

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