Las Mangas is a village about a mile downstream from El Pital.  Its school, Escuela El Progreso, is a cheery, tree-shaded place, with walls painted salmon pink inside and out and a jostling line of huge flaming red flowers in front of its stoop. But by 2004, the school roof was in such bad shape that parents had to put up old utility poles between the desks to hold up the roof until classes ended in November.

Former Un Mundo facilitator Kate Venner contacted Allard Froon of the Minke Foundation about the roof, and soon Minke raised $1,500 for the project.  In all, four major donors (Minke Foundation, El Tabernáculo, UAF a la Asociación Desarrollo Educativo Local, ABC Euro-Honduras Consulting) gave more than US$3,300 to purchase the majority of the materials and get the project going.

A group of parents and teachers, led by teachers Ermelito Revera and Ernesto Menjivar and contractor Julio Ancheta, ordered building supplies and got right to tearing the old roof down the moment the kids left for vacation in November.  Adonis Lobo handled the purchase of the materials, making the long trek to San Pedro Sula to place the order. The project wrapped up just in time for the school to serve as a polling place in the February 2005 primary elections. Whole weeks were lost to rain in December and January, but on most sunny days the work progressed at good speed.

Two key donations in February prevented the project from stalling in its final stages. One was from Diputado Rodolf Irias Novas, who happened to be passing through town on a campaign trip. Group leaders took him on a tour of the nearly completed school. He listened to their story, heard what they needed, and opened his wallet.  As the project neared completion, the school ran out of funds and could not afford to buy the cement, blocks, and rebar needed to top off the old walls before installing the roof.  El Tabernáculo purchased the materials for about U.S. $50.

Outside of a few skilled technicians, all the work was done by the fathers, brothers, uncles, and neighbors of the school children, all on the rare sunny days in January, and all for no pay. Each man in the community was expected volunteer four days' work on the project or pay someone to take his place.  (A number of under-18 boys were sweating in the schoolyard too, rust-proofing the metal cross beams, happy to pitch in.)

Now Escuela El Progreso has a new handsome and sturdy metal roof, thanks to the hard work of the people of Las Mangas and the generous donations of Minke Stichting and other organizations and individuals.  Special thanks go to teachers Ermelito Rivera and Ernesto Menjivar and contractor Julio Ancheta; to welder Oscar Romero, who put up with incessant rains while soldering the roof frame together; and to Guaruma volunteer Anna Richter, who took a large portion of the photos of the work in progress.