The youth ministry, much like the children’s ministry, was born out of the need for it. The first students to graduate from sixth grade made us start to think about what would happen to them once they left the ministry. We felt a calling to continue supporting these children as they entered high school, which begins in 7th grade in Honduras.
Throughout the years, the ways we’ve helped our teenagers have changed. At first, Nueva Esperanza covered the cost of private high schools for our youth to attend. However, with their difficult lives at home, it became obvious that many students were unable to meet the time commitment and high education standards these institutions required, and several began to fail. As it became increasingly hard to keep them in these schools, Nueva Esperanza opted for a different solution.
Today the students enrolled in the youth ministry are given scholarships to help cover their education costs. Grades and attendance are the determining factors in the amounts received. The bigger the desire to continue their studies and succeed in school, the bigger the scholarship they can receive. Maintaining their scholarships is simply a matter of meeting required attendance standards at Nueva Esperanza and continuing in high school without failing a school year pending some exceptions. It is through these scholarships that we try to motivate our youth to continue pursuing their education as a means of improving their difficult situations.