Norwich Nonprofit Makes an Impact in Central America
Kelly Burch of The Valley News:
More than 30 years ago, a small group of volunteers from New Hampshire’s White Mountains began supporting a rural village in Honduras.
Since then, more and more Upper Valley residents have become involved with Americans Caring Teaching Sharing, or ACTS Honduras, a nonprofit group now based in Norwich that serves about a dozen communities surrounding El Rosario, Honduras.
Recently, the group helped Cesar Rivas, a resident of El Rosario, participate in a language education program run by Dartmouth College’s Rassias Center. Rivas taught himself English and approached ACTS three years ago about providing language training to other residents.
“He is a self-taught instructor with an enormous amount of enthusiasm and drive,” said Dean Seibert, one of the founders and past president of ACTS who has been making trips to El Rosario for more than 20 years. “His English is marginal, but pretty darn good considering the circumstances.”
At the language program, Rivas was able to strengthen his English, a skill that he can then pass along to his students in El Rosario.