The Story
Cosmo Fujiyama Makes a Difference in Honduras
During their December 2006 trip to Honduras, the Students Helping Honduras organization gave presents to children. Courtesy of Students Helping Honduras.
When I was accepted to the College, I knew I would be sharing space with over worked pre-med students, dedicated entrepreneurs and ambitious future lawyers. However, I have never been as overwhelmed by a single student as I was when I met Cosmo Fujiyama.
I walked into the Daily Grind to find a student that blends in well with her surroundings. Fujiyama was confronting hordes of emails on her Mac, laughing at a joke only she could read.
Fuijiyama’s firm handshake and enthusiastic greeting confirmed what I had already learned about her based on the research I had done. Animated and ambitious, she is a senior who helped found a philanthropic organization while working on a double major at an outstanding college.
However, I did not expect her responses to be so persuasive, or her all-consuming passion to be so infectious. Speaking with friends about the interview later, we all sat back and reflected on the insufficiency of our own contributions to society when compared to Fujiyama’s.
The turning point in Fujiyama’s service career came with her trip freshman year to Nicaragua with Habitat for Humanity. Seeing first hand the poverty and desolation of a third world country coupled with the optimism that the residents maintained, was eye-opening for Fujiyama.
Fujiyama returned to school “jaded about capitalist culture” and took it upon herself to spend two months in Peru over the summer to improve her Spanish in order to better help Hispanic people.
Next, in the spring of her sophomore year, Fujiyama lead her first global service project to Honduras. Following that, she procured an internship at a women’s rights center in Nicaragua for the summer. At the end of her internship, her brother, Shin Fujiyama, a student at Mary Washington University, called. He was in Honduras, and he wanted her help.
Upon seeing Copprome, an orphanage in El Progreso, Cosmo Fujiyama’s mission was definite. Cosmo and Shin Fujiyama returned to their respective schools and started the fundraising project. While the whole process may seem spontaneous and ill-planned, every step was deliberate.
Together, Cosmo and Shin Fujiyama secured a double matching grant from Doris Buffett, a philanthropist in Fredericksburg. After a Walk-a-Thon on April 23, 2006, they had raised about $150,000.
With this money, they managed to temporarily save the Copprome orphanage from having to close its doors. The Copprome Education Center is currently being built.
Their next project is A Village Without Roofs, where SHH (Students Helping Honduras) will start building roofs for a whole community of houses in May 2008. Now they are trying to secure a steady flow of income for the Copprome Orphanage. Relying on private donations for a long period of time is highly risky and the Fujiyama family isn’t willing to see the orphanage in financial straits again.
One of the most striking things about the Fujiyamas and the whole SHH program is the long-term commitment they have made to El Progreso, Siete de Abril and the orphanage. Having first traveled there two years ago, Cosmo and Shin have personally kept a constant relationship with the community.
Cosmo and Shin Fujiyama keep in touch with Don Benjamin, a resident of Siete de Abril, a town on the outskirts of El Progreso, via the internet. Perhaps that is why they have been so successful.
Cosmo Fujiyama said, “It takes a lot of time to build a network of trust.” In a place like Copprome, where the children aren’t used to having a steady family, knowing that the Fujiyamas will be back is undoubtedly comforting.
The Fujiyama service enterprise includes more than just Cosmo and her brother. Their parents and another sibling all spent Christmas in El Progreso and are planning to spend the next holiday the same way. The kids at Copprome call Cosmo’s parents “Mom and Dad” in Japanese. Wendy, an orphan at Copprome, is the wallpaper on Cosmo’s computer.
These seemingly insignificant details are what makes SHH so successful. Cosmo and Shin have discovered the “individuality of that community” and deal with them accordingly.
While raising money for different countries in need and sending it over is undoubtedly helpful, Fujiyama emphasizes the importance of seeing it first hand. Only by living among the community and sleeping in their houses is one fully able to appreciate their needs and work with them accordingly.
Following graduation in May, Cosmo is off to conquer other fields. She has a job with Teach for America, a non-profit program that sends recent college graduates to low-income areas to teach. This job will leave her summers wide open for traveling to Honduras as she continues to rehabilitate Siete de Abril and El Progreso. From there, the opportunities are endless.
SHH wants as many hands as it can get. Students interested in doing good can visit www.studentshelpinghonduras.com to find out more. After sitting for one hour with Fujiyama, I was so inspired by her passion and determination that you may see this writer going to Honduras as well.