Objective

HEROS will provide students with opportunities to experience other cultures and furnish students with the means for appreciating the opportunities they have here in the U.S. The activities of HEROS, therefore, are providing educational opportunities for the less fortunate, while exposing U.S. students to enriching and fulfilling exchanges. The founders of HEROS believe that by engaging Greater Bridgeport Area high school youths in this challenging and noble undertaking, the youths will have the opportunity to see, immerse, and understand the world a little better, as well as appreciate their educational opportunities and make better choices about their academic, career or other endeavors

Who We Are

HEROS is a non profit organization dedicated to developing leadership skills in Greater Bridgeport area high school students to make a positive impact in their communities while providing educational opportunities to developing countries.

History

While visiting Africa, Nicole Clark-Somerville (co-founder of HEROS) met Abele, a seventeen-year old girl from Benin Republic. Abele appealed for help to realize her only dream, that of acquiring an education. Her parents took her out of high school because they could not afford her annual school fees of $32.00, also because it was not realistic for a girl to be educated. Abele wrote to Franck Adjisegbe, the founder of HEROS, for help. Back in the U.S., Franck and Nicole organized several tag sales in the summer to provide Abele with the needed funds for school.

The founders reasoned that this problem was not isolated to Abele, hence, in 2003, HEROS was founded to engage Greater Bridgeport Area high school students in providing educational opportunities for girls like Abele that are of school-going age in several villages in the Republic of Benin, West Africa.

Programs

Members of HEROS are encouraged to take part in activities both locally and internationally:

Local Activities

• Engage in community service (eg. Providing assistance to the elderly, mentoring middle school students, helping at soup kitchens, clean-ups etc)
• Participate in HEROS sponsored positive social activities within their own communities.
• Organize fund-raising activities (like tag sales and bake sales and car wash)
• Recruit members from their schools.
• Attend HEROS sponsored SAT prep. classes or after-school academic enrichment workshops.
• Attend HEROS funded political forums in order to understand the political system.
• Organize, attend, or promote inter-cultural events.

International Activities

• Go on HEROS-paid trips overseas.
• Engage in the building of schoolhouses with the assistance of local volunteers.
• Immerse and experience diverse cultures.
• Form friendships with young people of the same age with a view to establishing on-going correspondence.
• Attend cultural events.
• Learn local skills -- weaving, carving, playing local instruments, use of herbs, dancing.
• Provide awareness on AIDS.

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