Communities
Nuevo Paraíso
General Information
Nuevo Paraíso is a small village of two neighborhoods: Barrio San Jose and Barrio Santa Maria. Originally, Barrio Santa Maria was built around an orphanage, still operating to this day, and family homes were constructed more than 20 years ago in the community of Barrio San Jose as a single mother’s project. The members of Barrio San Jose have been a model community, with their hard work and leadership, as evidenced by the efficient construction of the water tower, in collaboration with SELF.
Geography
Nuevo Paraíso is in the Municipality of Morocelí, Department of El Paraíso. Surrounded by beautiful sugar cane fields, Nuevo Paraíso is located just over an hour from the capital city of Honduras, Tegucigalpa. The Rio Grande o Choluteca is located just across the main road and entrance to the town.
Demographics
The work with SELF has been exclusively in Barrio San Jose of Nuevo Paraíso, because Barrio Santa Maria and its orphanage and Clinic Santa Rosa de Lima receives lots of assistance from the Honduran government and other organizations. Barrio San Jose consists of approximately 25 families, many of whom commute to work in the capital city or work in local agriculture. The community has both an elementary school and a high school. The local high school Nuevo Paraíso Instituto Polivalente, provides quality technical education attracting hundreds of students from nearby communities.
Projects
Nuevo Paraíso water project
In August of 2017, SELF met with local leaders of Nuevo Paraíso and its community water council to establish a plan to work together on SELF’s inaugural Clean Water Team project. Just 6 months later, in February 2018, we completed construction of a 13,000 gallon water tank that serves the families of the village, as well as over 1000 students at the elementary and high schools.
Building Hope and Microenterprise Programs
In continued cooperation, SELF’s Building Hope and Community Youth Microenterprise Program has worked with the high school to complete renovation of a larger clinic, several improvement projects at the high school, and to run the high school cafeteria to help contribute to student scholarship funds.
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