How a Law Firm Mailroom Clerk from Honduras Built a Charitable Foundation that Became a Clinton Global Initiative 2015 Commitment

NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Foundation for Education in Honduras (FEIH) announced its new Commitment to Action to build five primary schools in Honduras over the next three years at the 2015 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting.

FEIH's commitment will entail not only overhauling and expanding the infrastructure of the schools, but also transforming the school experience for the students: Desks, chairs, blackboards, uniforms, textbooks, and other vital school supplies will be provided; fully functional bathrooms will be constructed; and open lots will be built into playgrounds to promote exercise. Curriculum will also be enhanced through an international Pen Pal Program and Health Education Initiative.

This work will be completed using a partnership model, in which a team of local government leadership, teachers and community parents actively participate in the construction and maintenance of their new school.

FEIH was established in September 2014, but its origins date back much further. In 2003, FEIH's co-founder, Ramiro Ocasio, found work in the mailroom at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. "I had a job. I had an income. I was living the American dream," Ocasio explains, "But I knew one day I would need to do something for the people in Honduras - my home country - who were not as fortunate as me."

Ocasio began going back to Honduras in 2007 to take on small projects in poor villages. "Each year over the holidays, I would use my vacation time to fly down to Honduras, go to a poor village and provide families with food and supplies, and children with toys. Then one day when I was delivering mail to Jon Henes, a partner at the firm, I told him that I was going to refurbish a school, and he decided to help. That day my perspective and my world were changed."

Henes remembers it the same way: "Usually when he delivered the mail, we would chat about sports or politics, but one time it was different. Ramiro told me how he was using his hard earned money to change lives in Honduras. I saw right then how one dedicated person with a huge heart could make a difference, and I wanted to do my part. So I wrote him a check, got some colleagues to do the same, and told him to show me the results."

Those results came six months later in the form of a call from the principal of the Frolyan Turcios School, who told Ocasio that for the first time in that community, not one student had dropped out of school. That was all Henes needed to hear. He suggested that the two start a foundation from the ground up.

In September 2014, with help from Kirkland & Ellis, FEIH was incorporated, a board of directors was formed, and FEIH began working towards its goal of providing the children of Honduras a safe and conducive environment to learn.

"What I find truly amazing about FEIH is that it started with one person and one idea, and will now begin building schools due to a network of committed individuals throwing their support behind Ramiro and the children of Honduras," said Henes. We cannot thank everyone enough from our donors, to our junior committee, to management and our board of directors, and to the Clinton Global Initiative."

FEIH will break ground on its first school on October 10th, 2015.

To learn more about FEIH, please visit:
www.feih.org\

To read the CGI Commitment to Action, please visit:
https://www.clintonfoundation.org/clinton-global-initiative/commitments/giving-children-honduras-education-they-deserve

About the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, convenes global leaders to create and implement solutions to the world's most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together 190 sitting and former heads of state, more than 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date, members of the CGI community have made more than 3,200 Commitments to Action, which have improved the lives of over 430 million people in more than 180 countries.

In addition to the Annual Meeting, CGI convenes CGI America, a meeting focused on collaborative solutions to economic recovery in the United States; and CGI University (CGI U), which brings together undergraduate and graduate students to address pressing challenges in their community or around the world. This year, CGI also convened CGI Middle East & Africa, which brought together leaders across sectors to take action on pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges.

For more information, visit clintonglobalinitiative.org and follow us on Twitter @ClintonGlobal and Facebook at facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative.

About the Foundation for Education in Honduras (FEIH)
Established in 2014 by Ramiro Ocasio and Jon Henes, the Foundation for Education in Honduras (FEIH) is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing education to high-need areas of Honduras by partnering with communities to build and refurbish schools. FEIH is headquartered in New York City and has a team in El Progreso, Yoro, Honduras.

For more information, visit www.feih.org and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter/Instagram @feihonduras.

SOURCE Foundation for Education in Honduras (FEIH)

Related Links

http://www.feih.org