Including the Disabled : The Chiminike Interactive Learning Center in Honduras

In the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch in 1998, the Honduras Interactive Environmental Learning and Science Promotion Project "Profuturo" was launched as a multi-sectoral effort designed to encourage and expand scientific, environmental, and cultural knowledge and management in the context of Honduras' sustainable development needs and ethnic diversity. Profuturo benefits Hondurans by providing higher quality scientific education, improved environmental management, human capital development, and poverty reduction through a better qualified labor force. Specifically, Profuturo is a pro-poor effort to address some of the long-term needs of Honduras' education sector, the concern for sustainable environmental development, and archeological site rehabilitation in order to expand the country's tourism potential, especially in the Copan Region. Within these objectives, the project supports the planning, design, and construction of a US$ 4.9 million Interactive Learning Center - Chiminike - to be inaugurated in June 2003, when it will become autonomous (from the Government), functioning under the private Profuturo Foundation. Chiminike was conceived as an unconventional and non-formal educational facility dedicated to sustainable development. Among other components, the project supports staff and volunteer capacity building and the development of environmental managements plans.