A Decade of Lighting the Spark
On January 14, 2026, Chispa Project celebrated 10 years as a nonprofit organization. To honor a decade of work facilitating equitable access to books and joyful reading for students across Honduras, we looked back at the milestones we reached, the challenges we faced, and the incredible community that made it all possible.
You may have seen these on our social media, but in case you missed them, here are 10 throwbacks celebrating a decade of changing children’s stories through books:
1. Where it all began.
Our story started in a single classroom with three grades in El Sauce, Opatoro—30 minutes on foot from the nearest bus stop and two hours from the nearest grocery store. After volunteering in the classroom, Sara fundraised to buy the students their first children’s books. During the donation meeting, the electricity went out, but families stayed and read together by flashlight. Children kept coming after school to read late into the evenings. One family turned their home into a book distribution center, another delivered books by motorcycle, and others housed volunteers. From there, it just kept growing.
2. Our story in the spotlight.
Books change the story, and our story has been shared far and wide. Over the years, we’ve received coverage from Honduran TV and radio, the Instagram of Miss Honduras (Sirey Miron), and even NPR. If you missed it, you can listen (or read) here: go.chispaproject.org/npr
3. Our ever-evolving “office.”
Though a U.S.-based NGO, Chispa Project has only ever had an official office in Honduras—if you can call it that. Our first office was a living room in a shared house, followed by a two-bedroom apartment, then a three-bedroom townhouse where we occupied two bedrooms and the living room. Today, we’re in our fourth office, the first that doesn’t double as employee housing… and we may already be outgrowing it.
4. Meet Fernando and Teresa, Chispa’s first two hires.
Fernando was Chispa’s very first hire. His first day started at 5 a.m. on a bus to Nicaragua, where he and our founder, Sara, visited San Juan Del Sur Biblioteca Móvil to gather ideas. Fernando helped lead our first teacher training sessions and library inaugurations, laying the groundwork for the organization we are today, and later served on our board of directors.
Our second hire, Teresa—a psychologist by trade—gave her whole heart to Chispa. She stayed for several years, shared the apartment that doubled as our office, wrote our first employee handbook, and traveled across Honduras by bus and motorcycle with Sara. Once, they laid the bike down in the middle of downtown, dropping a new office plant and several precious avocados from the market. We are endlessly grateful to Fernando and Teresa for helping build the foundation of Chispa Project.
5. Getting books to Honduras—by any means necessary.
While we prioritize purchasing the few Honduran children’s books available, most of our books are imported. Our first 5,000 books arrived in volunteer suitcases. Our first full pallet was shipped alongside beer thanks to a local brewery. Before COVID, Scholastic let us stage shipments on their warehouse floor. Today, we ship multiple pallets once a year, still storing books in volunteer garages and packing them with the help of U.S. volunteers in St. Louis. Each year, we ship and use around 13,000 books.
6. Delivering books to schools.
Once the books arrive, getting them to schools is an adventure in itself. Over the last 10 years, books have traveled by truck, tuk tuk, motorcycle, public bus, and even on horseback!
7. Meet Lucia (and friends).
Lucia and her puppet friends were donated to Chispa early on and have since become stars of our library inaugurations. Through playful skits that sometimes amuse, and sometimes startle the kids, Lucia, Perla, and Juancho teach library rules and bring smiles to countless students.
8. Dunia’s call.
Seven years ago, Dunia called our office asking to be an intern. She was willing to travel, pack books, and help however she could for gas money. The only challenge? Her college internship deadline was the next day. She stopped by immediately for an interview and paperwork. Today, Dunia is our Educational Team Coordinator, with deep institutional knowledge and a love for pork chops and travel, both of which Chispa provides in abundance. Through her work here, she learned to drive and took her first public bus across the country. We are so grateful for everything she’s helped build.
9. When everything changed.
In 2020, COVID-19 was followed by Hurricanes Eta and Iota, which caused devastating damage across northern Honduras. Schools and libraries closed, forcing us to shift our focus. Instead of inaugurations and trainings, we provided students with at-home learning supplies, including costly printed worksheets. We also launched book-lending programs, especially in the Martha Banegas rural district. Each student received a bag with a book, a reading notebook, supplies, and a mask, keeping children reading through months of school closures.
10. Growing through partnerships.
Over the years, we’ve partnered with more than 30 organizations. One of our earliest partnerships was with educate., a nonprofit in Santa Bárbara that remains a close ally today. These collaborations have allowed us to expand our reach and deepen our impact. Last year, we formalized this work through our Literacy Alliances Program, empowering local leadership to champion their own reading initiatives with our support.
The last decade has been filled with challenges, resilience, laughter, and countless stories coming from our network of over 100 school libraries. As we look ahead, we do so with renewed commitment to a future centered on Honduran leadership, autonomy, and the power of books to transform lives. The best chapters of Chispa Project are still waiting to be written!
