November
2008
Graduations at El Hogar - Graduation is an important event in the lives of our students, and of their families. Our students come from situations of intense poverty. Most of them have simply been surviving from day to day. Therefore, the completion of a phase of education is a significant accomplishment. Read more here.
November
2008
Reunion 2008 - This past November, El Hogar held its third annual reunion of students who have graduated from El Hogar. Word was sent out throughout Honduras, from radio announcements and word of mouth, and over 30 young men came to a day of celebration, music, tears, triumphs and sharing of their life stories. Two of the alumnae graduated 20 years ago! Others graduated just last year, and almost every year between. Read more here.
October
2008
Carolyn S. Ellis from Weston, MA writes about
her experience as a member of a fifteen person
work
team from St. Peter’s Church in Weston to El Hogar. Read
her article here.
Technical Institute Dedication - On Tuesday February 26, 2008 
we held the Dedication of the El Hogar Technical Institute in the Amarateca Valley. It was a glorious event! The day dawned with a crystal blue sky, a gentle warm breeze, and much excitement in the air.
Read more about Dedication celebration here.
Click here to view a slide show of the Dedication
Click here to listen to speeches given during a dinner celebration
Click here to view a slide show of our new Technical Institute
January
2008
The
El Hogar work team handbook has just been updated. This new version
has new important information for each work team going to El Hogar
in 2008.
Click
here to download the 2007 El Hogar Work Team Handbook (Word
.doc - 47 pages).
November
2007
Graduation took place this past November. El Hogar is proud to announce the graduation of 12 boys from
the 6th grade, 11 from Prepa (7th grade), 22 from the Technical Institute, and 13 from the Agricultural School and Farm.
September
2007
Rev. W. Richard Kunz, father of Rich Kunz, died at home
after a lengthy illness on September 23, 2007. He had been on Hospice care and was able to spend
his last hours surrounded by those who loved him best.
Pastor Kunz was an ordained Methodist minister who served various churches
in Brooklyn NY , Bethlehem PA and other urban communities. When asked to describe his years of ministry, he once said, "They were humble but quite
rich". He was a vibrant example of the "worker priest". We ask for your
prayers for the repose of his soul and for strength and consolation for his
wife, Eleanor, and his children, Rich, Joanne and Mary.
A funeral service will be held Wednesday September 26 at 10:30 am at
Fairless Hills Methodist Church, PA.
September
2007
Hurricane
Felix - On September 4, 2007, hurricane Felix
hit the northeast part of Honduras. People
living near rivers and the coast were evacuated.
Bishop Allen called for all the churches to be prepared
to house people who needed a place to stay. There are
some areas in that part of the country which have
severe flooding. However, it seems the country was far
better prepared for Felix than they were for hurricane Mitch
in 1998. The storm decreased in strength as it approached
the middle of the country. The area around Tegucigalpa
received just a slight amount of rain. Fortunately,
for El Hogar, all three of our schools were
spared any problem. Our prayers go out to all the people
affected by this storm.
September
2007
Don Julio Matute died recently. He, his wife, Dona Tona, and Lazaro
were the first employees of El Hogar. Although he was experiencing some
health problems during this last year, he continued to be a faithful worker.
Don Julio is the one, who over the years, built much of our school. He was
the one who knew where to find the sewer lines, and the water lines, and the
electrical lines. He is the one people went to first when something needed
to be fixed. He devoted his life to El Hogar. Besides his practical work,
he also served as a surrogate grandfather to the boys at El Hogar. He could
often be seen with a small group of boys or teenagers around him, helping
him and learning from him. He was an important member of our team, and was
just honored for his service a new months ago. He is, and will be, missed.
Everywhere one looks, there are evidences of his work, and reminders of his
personality. He is truly a person whose faithful labor made the world a better place.
September
2007
The Lexington Minuteman recently featured an
article about
the experiences of a
work
team from The Church of Our Redeemer Episcopal church in Lexington, MA. Read
their article here.
March
2007
The
Episcopal Relief and Development office of the Episcopal Church
USA has just granted El Hogar significant support to launch
a new community development initiative through El Hogar’s
Agricultural School and Farm. Read
more here.
December
2006
The Bake
House, a popular small cafe in West Vancouver, Canada, with
the assistance of Grade 6 and 7 students from Chartwell Elementary
School, hosted a Christmas fund-raiser for El Hogar on December
9, 2006. Read about this very
successful event here.
November
2006
El Hogar
Graduation Ceremonies took place in November 2006 - See
a list of recent graduates from our
three schools and read a description
of the 2nd annual El Hogar Reunion written by Rev. Kunz.
October
2006
Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation recently
featured an article about El Hogar in their Weekly Update. Read
their whole article here.
September 2006
El Hogar Reaches out to Girls!
The staff of El Hogar Projects and the board of El Hogar Ministries
are overjoyed to report that we will begin taking young girls into our ministry
in Honduras beginning in January 2007! Read more about this
exciting new program.
September
2006
Shipping Policy changes - For many, many years thoughtful
donors and friends of El Hogar have been sending goods and supplies to El Hogar.
It is through this kindness that we have clothing, medicine and school supplies
for our boys. This is has been a tremendous help to our program and has saved
us precious money. Recently we have felt the need to reevaluate our shipping
program to best serve our program. Click here to learn more about
our new shipping policy.
September 2006
The El Hogar
Marimba Band traveled to Ohio to perform at the General
Convention of the Episcopal Church this past June. Read
some of the boys comments about their experience in the US.
June
2006 
The El Hogar Marimba Band CD - Sounds
of Love and Hope - is now available. Josh and
Steve Taylor traveled to Hondurus this past spring to record
the El Hogar Mirimba band. Josh, a music school graduate, now
working in local recording studios mixed and edited the material
to create a full length CD. All the proceeds from the CDs will
go to El Hogar. Read more about their
trip here.
Click here for a CD order form.
May 2006
Capital Campaign News - We are so very grateful to
report that our project to relocate and expand St. Mary’s Technical Institute
is going along well. We are busy working on the last of our two major buildings
and our boys are now living in their new dormitory and working in the new workshops.
We had set a capital campaign goal of $1.5 million to make this dream possible,
and we have been blessed with generous support that helped us raise $1.3 million
toward that goal! We are humbly grateful to all who have contributed to making
this project come to life. We are now in the last phase of our campaign, and
we welcome support from donors and friends of El Hogar who are moved to help
us reach our final target. Read more about ourCapital Campaign.
May 2006
Read our Spring
2006 newsletter, or look through our newsletter
archives to view past issues.
March 2006
It is with sadness that we report the murder of an El Hogar
graduate from the
Technical Institute. Rev. Kunz recently informed us that Jose Oger Bermudez,
who graduated from the Institute in 1991, was shot and killed on March 1, 2006.
Jose had graduated from the Institute in 1991 and had gone on to become a futbol
star in Guatemala. Jose was 32 years old. He left behind a wife and two children,
and was in the process of adopting a daughter. Although the murder took place
in Guatemala, he was buried in Honduras. Lazaro took a large group of students
to the funeral. Rev. Kunz is asking for
prayers for his family.
February
2006
El
Hogar is honored to be featured in the Catalogue for Philanthropy.
El
Hogar has been selected as a Massachusetts 2005 Catalogue for
Philanthropy
charity. This year’s edition of the Catalogue profiles 72 of Massachusetts'
outstanding environmental, cultural, and human service agencies as "examples
of excellence" in Massachusetts philanthropy. El Hogar Ministries, Inc.
was chosen from a total applicant pool of over 250 organizations.
Read
more about this prestigious honor here.
January 2006
"A Place They Call Home" - El Hogar
Ministries was recently featured in the Winchester Star newspaper. Read
the whole article here.
December 2005
Dr. Barbra McCune, missioner physician in Honduras, and medical care provider
for El Hogar Projects describes going on a home visit. Read
Dr. McCune's description here.
November 2005
Each of our three schools
held their graduation ceremonies in November 2005.
View photos of the celebrations
along with a description by Rev. Kunz.
Read a complete list of 2005
graduates from all three centers.
November 2005
August 2005
The Boston Herald published an
article on El Hogar written by Lilla Cosgrove who traveled to
Honduras as
a member of one of our work teams. Read
her story from the Boston Herald.
April 2005
Rebuilding the wall
around El Hogar, which was seriously damaged by hurricane Adrian - El Hogar is currently rebuilding the back perimeter wall, which was
washed out by hurricane Adrian in spring of 2005. The rain and floods brought
by the hurricane completely washed out a large section of the back wall of
our elementary school grounds, exposing El Hogar to the street and neighborhood
below. This break compromised the safety of the boys and staff and required
an additional guard to be hired to help ensure the safety of the school. A
project to repair the wall began immediately.
This retaining wall stood 20 feet high and was located in an area which is inaccessible
to vehicles and large equipment. Therefore the rebuilding of the wall had to
be completed totally by hand, making this a very labor intensive and expensive
project. A construction crew worked through the summer to reconstruct the wall
while making it stronger than before to prevent similar damage in the future.
The cost to repair the wall is over $25,000. This unexpected and costly project
impacts our operating budget. El Hogar would be grateful for and contributions
to offset this cost.
Click
here to see current news stories from El Hogar
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