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History of CPI

1997

  • Canadian Peacemakers International is formed in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada by a small group of Mennonites concerned about causes of violence in Central America.


1998

  • Hurricane Mitch, the deadliest hurricane in the Western Hemisphere in 200 years, causes devastating floods in Honduras and billions of dollars in damage. About 7000 people are killed and more than 70% of the country’s transportation network is destroyed.

 

1999

  • A work group of 12 people travels to Honduras to help build a small village at Buenos Aires for families who lost their homes in the hurricane.

 

2002

  • CPI begins its first community development program. Jose “Chepe” Vasques, a local leader requests help to get junior high school into the villages.

 

2003–2008

  • CPI community and economic development programming continue, while Chepe Vasques continues to lobby for help in bringing junior high school to rural Honduras.

 

2009

  • A military coup effectively ends CPI's attempt to partner with the Honduran government to bring education to rural Hondurans who cannot otherwise afford it.

  • The CPI Board raises $60,000 to implement CAL without government help.

  • CPI digitizes the Honduras Educatodos curriculum for Grades 7-9.

  • The CAL program begins in December in a rented, two-bedroom bungalow in Santa Cruz de Yojoa with 19 students. The staff consists of CPI Executive Director Bryan Butler and technicians Yeni Lopez and Edelberto Andino.

  • CPI undertakes construction of a village in Tapiquilares.

2010

  • The village at Tapiquilares is completed and families move into their new homes.

  • In December, 54 students receive certificates for completion of Grades 7, 8, or 9.

2011

  • The first CAL satellite school is started in Las Delicias in the home of Trinidad and Theresa Guevara. Other communities ask that they also be permitted to establish satellites.

 

2013

  • The Board of Asociacion Confraternidad Honduras (ACH), led by chair Jose "Chepe" Vasques, is legally constituted under the Laws of Honduras.

  • A shipping container is moved to Las Delicias and converted into a classroom.

  • The first Learning Tour visits Honduras and attends the opening of the container classroom in Las Delicias.

  • Construction begins on a village at Plan Grande.

2014

  • Bryan Butler, the first Executive Director of CPI, resigns and is replaced by Manuel Tabora. Henceforth, the program is staffed exclusively by Honduran nationals.

 

2015

 

  • Isaias Munoz, who graduated from Grade 9 in the CAL program in December, 2014, organizes a CAL school in his village, Santa Elena, in January with 51 students. In December, 42 students graduate.

2016

  • A new school built specifically for CPI/ACH by the mayor of Santa Cruz de Yojoa opens.

  • CPI and ACH sign and agreement with the Honduran Minister of Education giving CAL special status throughout Honduras as an alternative school.

  • CAL schools open in Copan under the leadership and with the financing of Carol Brouwer.

2017

  • The houses at Plan Grande are completed and occupied, and the first group of pigs is raised and sold.

 

2018

  • The first vocational program is developed to train students in the maintenance and repair of moto-taxis (tuk-tuks).

  • ACH provides CAL services in 36 communities and 959 students complete a grade of Junior High School.

  • Two CAL graduates are attending university in the United States.

2020

  • All schools in Honduras are closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. ACH staff implement various methods to keep students learning remotely.

2021

  • CPI's first CAL school in Sub-Saharan Africa is  opened in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

2022

  • CPI's first school in Kenya begins operations in Ngong, a suburb of Nairobi.

2023

  • Honduran schools reopen following the pandemic and 791 students are registered in CPI/ACH CAL schools.

  • After two years of effort by CPI's Board to collect donated materials, a sea can is filled with over 11,000 kg of computers, sewing machines, assorted tools, bicycles, and other materials for shipment to Honduras.

  • A CAL school is officially opened in the city of Kikwit, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

 

2024

  • The Honduras CAL program is transferred to the Sombrilla International Development Society and CPI focuses entirely on its CAL program in Sub-Saharan Africa. A new Board of Directors assumes leadership of CPI.

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