Instituto SCITA recruits and educates young people from different ethnic groups all over the country and is financed by donors and the state. The JIS programme is now in full swing after equipment was received to launch the judo classes.
A sixth agreement was just signed with the Instituto Salesiano San Miguel, a school historically linked to the first school in the programme (Maria Auxiliadora). As the school year in Honduras begins in February and ends in November, the activities at the Instituto Salesiano San Miguel have just begun with a 3-week pilot project that is taking place during a holiday camp for children aged 6 to 10 years old. The regular judo classes will therefore take place from the beginning of next year.
The six institutions now included in the programme are:
- 1. Instituto Salesiano María Auxiliadora (Tegucigalpa)
- 2. Saint Anthony Bilingual School (Baracoa)
- 3. Christian Champions School (Puerto Cortés)
- 4. Atlantic Bilingual School (Puerto Cortés)
- 5. Instituto SCITA (Comayagua)
- 6. Instituto Salesiano San Miguel (Tegucigalpa)
The Federacion Nacional de Judo de Honduras declared, "A few days ago we held the last judo lesson of the academic year in the Instituto Salesiano María Auxiliadora. We have learned a lot and received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the parents, teachers and children.
More than 50% of the children who began in March want to keep doing judo, which is amazing. Some schools didn't require the full tatami area and we have some spare ones, enough to open another school and take full advantage of the donation."
At Instituto SCITA, despite the programme not being focused on competitive judo, 4 talents were discovered who won 1st place last month during an event that led them to compete for Honduras in the Central American School Games in El Salvador.
The three schools in Puerto Cortés and Baracoa are developing at a steady pace. Their programmes benefited from good word-of-mouth promotion, leading the Puerto Cortés mayor’s office seeing and becoming interested in the project. Thus the federation is now working to start judo classes in this municipality too.
Step by step the Judo in Schools programme in Honduras is developing, giving new and more opportunities to young people throughout the country. Judo is gaining popularity and attention which opens new perspectives for the development of the sport in the region.