ASISTIR is the first school system designed to educate boys and girls early on and simultaneously feed their families.

The program works through a student ID card that turns public school attendance into food for their homes. Every child receives a student card that is used to register class attendance through an electronic system. From then on, for every school attendance this card accumulates money that is used as help to supply food for the family.

The money accumulated in the student ID may only be exchanged by each student's parents at the end of the month only for products of the family basic food basket in the state food banks (BANASUPRO).

ASISTIR was approved by the Honduran Department of Education with the support of the President of the Republic, to operate during the next 4 years. The children from the schools that were chosen received a special school card that kept record of their attendance through an electronic system. For every attendance registered in the card the kids received certain amount of money in their accounts. Later on, in a monthly basis, the appointed parents went to their closest food bank (BANASUPRO) and with the same card exchanged their money for products of the basic food basket. Under the program, month attendance matched or surpassed the income that the child could have received by dropping out of school to work. This way, they were contributing to their family's economy without having to work on the streets. Studying is their only job.

ASISTIR transmitted its message through a large coverage of the most important media in the country, creating a topic of conversation nationwide.

It was also covered by traditional media, generating an outreach of more than 3 million people, and by digital media, reaching more than 1 million people in the web. This news was continuous since the first day it was launched, becoming the good news of the day in the most important news shows in Honduras. The idea generated a positive perception towards the program and was able to reach a national audience of 2 million people.

The result of this campaign is to start reducing the school desertion and child labor index in the country, but we want to go beyond that, we want to change the people's cultural behavior by showing that studying is the main factor for children being able to overcome it and it is a responsibility that starts at home. We expect schools to obtain an increase in their enrollments during the next four years.

Through the media coverage, ASISTIR was launched as the first program that helps the children´s families with school expenditure and provides food for the household.

ASISTIR created a national conversation around the problems of school desertion and child labor. It created a change of perception towards the state organizations and a positive consensus across the population, because it promotes a change in thousands of families that live this situation. This positioned Honduras as a regional pioneer in the subject of education.

Through a press conference the Honduran Department of Education and the Presidential Scholarship Program "Honduras 20/20" launched the idea and made known each of its benefits, as well as the schools where the program will be implemented. We communicated to the media how ASISTIR is a very innovative and cutting-edge idea in the country´s educational matter and also announced that this project will carry on for the next 4 years. This is how we created reactions in the country and generated conversations on the topic without investing money in mass media.

Honduras is a country with countless social problems, and all of them impact in school education, forcing children and teenagers to stop studying and become financially responsible for their families. It is estimated that at least 25.000 of them abandon school to work and forget about their education. 2 out of every 3 teenagers between the ages of 15 and 17 do not attend school in any manner. Out of 100 kids that enroll in elementary school, only 1 is able to graduate from college.

In a country with more than 350.000 children working, we saw the need of creating an idea that will generate an immediate change in society. With the help of the Honduran Education Department and the Presidential Scholarship Program "Honduras 20/20", we implemented ASISTIR, the first education system capable of educating our kids and feeding their families.