2018 Campaign Brochure

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Martha Leocadia Bernandez Barrios Martha is a first year student in our school for the deaf (ESPERO). Martha is 37 years old and a single mother to a 21 year old son. Martha grew up in a home with a single mom and her 5 siblings. She was born deaf into a hearing family. Martha went to school up through the second grade but didn’t learn anything because there were no accommodations for the deaf. In fact, no one in Martha’s family nor any of her friends nor her own son know any sign language. Martha has only just begun to learn sign language, having used crude gestures her entire life to communicate what she could manage. After the second grade Martha was forced to leave school to take care of household chores while her mother worked to make ends meet. Martha describes her life (up till now) as boring, stuck without a means to communicate. Martha was only 16 when she got pregnant with her son and worked to feed him by cleaning houses and braiding hair. She is from La Ceiba, a northern coastal city of Honduras. A year ago Martha found out about a job opportunity in Santa Rosa de Copán as a nanny and housekeeper. She says she is teaching the children she cares for sign language so that she can communicate better with them. Watching Martha communicate with the new signs she has learned since starting school is like watching a caged bird fly for the first time. She is expressive, vibrant, hardworking, intelligent, independent, and now extremely communicative.
Alex Oswaldo Ruiz Lopez Alex, 17, first came to The Moses Project in 2016. Alex was living with his Mother and little brother in a small village called San Andres Minas. A neighbor was participating in The Moses Project and started telling Alex about all the opportunities this program had to offer. Out of all of them, what caught Alex’s attention was the chance to finish High School. In the village where Alex is from, school only goes up to 9th grade. In order to finish his schooling, Alex would have had to pay to ride an hour and a half on a bus each day, which his family could not afford. Alex’s true passion is soccer and he dreamed of one day becoming a professional soccer player, but he also realized the importance of having a career; “a plan B”. As a result, Alex decided to interview at The Moses Project and was accepted into the program. He says that coming to the project was, “far greater than I had imagined”. On top of being able to finish High School, he was now learning about coffee, agriculture, and the Bible. Alex comes from a Catholic family but says that they would only go to mass, “maybe once or twice a year”. After a few months of daily bible studies with the rest of the boys at The Moses Project, Alex decided to commit his life to Christ. Only a few weeks later, disaster struck. Alex received the difficult news that his (then pregnant) mother had ovarian cancer. Alex made the tough decision to leave The Moses Project and move back home to help take care of his mother and provide for his family. In his mind, the goal of finishing school was now unattainable. Instead, he would now be responsible for the wellbeing of his family for the foreseeable future. After almost a year of working odd jobs and helping take care of his Mom and little brother, his mom started feeling better and was able to do more around the house. There are thousands of kids who never even make it to High School because it’s better financially for the family to send him to work instead of pay for their schooling. However, with newfound energy, Alex’s mom recognized the opportunities that higher education can bring and began encouraging him to try and return to The Moses Project. Alex started coming to The Moses Project on the weekends so that he could attend the local church with the rest of his friends from the project. Eventually, he talked to Jon Stacy, who gladly let him rejoin the ranks and continue his education. Alex is now working specifically with the Tilapia and is more than happy to be back out at the project. He says, “Without The Moses Project, I would probably be in San Pedro or in my home town just trying to get by. I wouldn’t have the knowledge or the relationship with God that I have now. I don’t know what I want to do after I finish here at the project. I still would love to be a professional soccer player but I am focusing more on my schooling. Right now I’m studying Accounting and Finance. I would love the opportunity to stay on at The Moses Project as an employee when I graduate next year.”
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2018 Campaign Brochure

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