HELP FOR HONDURAS: Last in a four-part series

Brother-sister duo a driving force in Honduras relief efforts

Date published: 1/24/2007

By RUSTY DENNEN

BY ALL appearances, they are two college seniors on the cusp of promising careers:

Shin Fujiyama, 23, an international affairs major at the University of Mary Washington who will graduate in May, with medical school in his future, and his sister, Cosmo, 21, a senior at the College of William & Mary in American and women's studies who has a job offer on the table.

Unlike most of their peers, the siblings from Northern Virginia have already made an indelible mark in another country. Not for their scholarly pursuits, but for something essential and basic--helping those at the very bottom of society in Honduras. They returned earlier this month from their largest relief effort in the Central America nation.

In the past two years, they've:

Established a multicollege nonprofit help agency, Students Helping Honduras, and linked up with UMW's Campus Christian Community ministry for a steady flow of volunteers;

Built a bond with the people of Siete de Abril, an impoverished village outside El Progreso in northern Honduras, providing building materials, supplies and money;

Been instrumental in expanding and supplying the Copprome orphanage there;

Worked with other aid agencies here and abroad, and with big philanthropical supporters such as Doris Buffet and her Sunshine Lady Foundation.

Shin, a compact bundle of energy with a buzz cut and passion for soccer, took his first trip to Honduras three years ago with the Campus Christian Community. He visited Our Little Roses, a home for orphaned girls in San Pedro Sula, and other sites around El Progreso.

Then he happened to sit next to Henry Osburn on the plane trip home. Osburn, a Milwaukee philanthropist, told Fujiyama about another orphanage, Copprome.

"I wanted to see what it was all about," Fujiyama said. Osburn offered to pay his plane fare back if he'd come along and translate.

Three months later, he was back in Honduras during spring break. He went to Copprome and saw the squatter village Siete de Abril.

"I asked myself, 'What can I do, as a college student with no money, no skills?'"

Go to fredericksburg.com to view additional photos from this series and to order photo reprints. All reprint proceeds will be donated to Students Helping Honduras.

Date published: 1/24/2007