Students Helping Honduras (SHH), a nonprofit organization with chapters at universities throughout Virginia and Washington, D.C., won $10,000 in an online voting contest through the Web site Razoo, which promotes philanthropy worldwide.
SHH was founded by 2007 UMW graduate Shin Fujiyama and his sister, Cosmo, an alumna of the College of William and Mary. The goal of the organization is to expand the economic and educational prospects in Honduras by involving students and other young people in the United States. SHH is active in fundraising and organizing trips to Honduras to help the poor in the refuge village of Siete de Abril and an orphanage in El Progresso. Last year, UMW won first place in a similar contest on the Web site GrabLife GiveLife, and earmarked the $20,000 prize for the efforts in Honduras. SHH plans to use the latest prize money to build a new addition to Por Venir Elementary School and to purchase seeds for La Misquitia residents, whose crops were destroyed by Hurricane Felix.
Razoo’s contest allowed only one vote per person per day to be submitted in support of a charitable cause, a mark of how proactive SHH was in its fundraising. SHH’s next mission to Honduras will take place December 15-22.