By Nicole Findlay
Only half way through her undergraduate program, Ashley Armstrong is already a veteran of international humanitarian work.
A second year student majoring in linguistics and human rights, Armstrong will return for the third summer in a row to Honduras.
This year, she will spend May and June in the capital city, Tegucigalpa. She will be volunteering for Sociedad Amigos de los Ninos, a not-for-profit organization that delivers educational programs, counselling and support to orphaned and abandoned children.
For the first time, Armstrong will be teaching English. She had spent her previous trips building houses for the orphanage.
“My first trip to Honduras was through my high school in Grade 12, and it literally changed my life,” said Armstrong. “I love the country, the kids, the work that we were doing, and the feeling that there is something outside of the material society we live in.”
While most of her peers will spend their summers working to fund their return to university in the September, Armstrong has used her own savings to finance her trip. She has also received corporate sponsorship to off-set her living expenses.
Sociedad Amigos de los Ninos operates the Reyes Irene Training Centre which provides an education to domestic servants between the ages of 12 and 30.
“In the future, working with an NGO is one thing I would love to do, so hopefully this experience will give me some insight into the workings of one.”