Education: Spring Update!
Issue: # 2 |
April/2009
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Greetings!
As the 2009 school year continues in Nicaragua, read what some good people are doing to help the poor. Please pass this newsletter on to interested parties, so we can broaden our base of education supporters. We welcome your comments and suggestions!
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What's Happening in Nica!
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School in the Springtime
The teachers and students in Villa Catalina are enjoying the benefits of their new school. Freshly painted yellow and red, the school is made up of 5 lively classrooms. Outside, the children will soon have a new playground, complete with twelve swings and monkey bars, thanks to the generosity of the January mission group from New Iberia, LA. Last week, the mission group from San Jose, CA was working in the rural village of Chacraseca, but during breaks from digging, they were in the classroom helping out and playing with the kids. No mission group can resist those beautiful little faces.
Special thanks to the students and teachers at P.S. Jones Middle School in Washington, NC, who for 2 years have collected over 300 lbs. of school supplies for Nicaragua, faithfully delivered by Janet Rodman, missionary and faculty member. Janet enjoyed working in the classroom at Villa Catalina during her February trip.
Thanks also to Sandi Lich and the students at Flowery Branch High School in Flowery Branch, GA. They collected over 30 boxes of school supplies in time to be brought down by the mission group from Prince of Peace Church this month. Above picture shows Los Rotarios student holding his new school supplies.
We salute Julie Palmour of Piedmont College in Demorest, GA and Norma Garza of Habersham Central H. S. in Mt. Airy, GA. Inspired by the work of Jane McFerrin's group (see below), Julie funded the materials and developed a sample kit of assorted teaching aids. Norma's Spanish students meticulously duplicated several of the durable kits. No doubt, the recipient teachers are eagerly putting them to use.
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| Beca Update
We are proud of the 110 students, or becas, receiving scholarships this year. With your annual pledges, you are sponsoring 65 secondary. 18 technical and 27 university students. Each beca is required to perform volunteer community service as part of their contract. With projects as varied as helping in the Villa Catalina Health Clinic, tending the Villa school garden and remodeling the Santa Matilde Library, these young adults are having fun together, getting valuable experience and setting a fine example for their neighbors. Bravo! |
| Personal Testimony - Jane McFerrin |
Teach Only Me
My friend Rosann Kent returned from Nicaragua in 2008 after a trip with Amigos for Christ, during which she and Allison Morris laid the foundation for the Bead Amigas project developed to provide a way for women living in poverty to improve their lives through art and entrepreneurship. She told me the story of a little boy she met in Villa Catalina who was about ten years old and in the first grade. His name is David and he followed Rosann around repeatedly saying "teach me and only me." As a teacher educator at Piedmont College, I could not get those words out of my head and started repeating them to colleagues, teachers, and future teachers with a wish for all of us that we would have students with such a deep hunger to learn - even while living in the midst of great poverty. 
As those words continued to resonate, an idea emerged, and after much planning a group of eleven women from North Georgia left during the last week of January, 2009 to work from the Amigos for Christ headquarters in Chinandaga - some to continue the Bead Amigas work and some to explore the possibility of working with teachers in two rural schools in Villa Catalina and Los Rotarios. When we met the children, met with parents, visited the schools and had our first meeting with the teachers, we were overwhelmed with the challenges they faced - overcrowded classrooms, students without books or even the most basic supplies, lack of curriculum materials, low pay and many others. We found that we shared many of the same concerns - how do you help students who are having a hard time learning, how do you encourage parental support and involvement, and how do you motivate students to learn? What followed was a week of sharing, teaching, learning, and a deepening appreciation for the thirteen Nicaraguan teachers we named "Sister Teachers." We exchanged teaching and classroom management ideas and  created materials to use in the classroom. We ate, sang, cried, and laughed together. We made lists of supplies needed in the hopes that we could somehow get them delivered. We all listened in awe as a fifteen-year-old girl spontaneously recited a long poem by the great Nicaragua poet Ruben Dario and showed us how children can learn from poetry as a form of expression, cooperation, and performance. We concluded the week by celebrating the work the teachers in these schools do under extraordinarily difficult conditions and left with the beginning of a plan to continue work together.
What was born of this time together is now Teach Amigas. Our goal to establish collegial, professional long-term relationships with teachers in two Amigos schools to share teaching ideas, develop materials and resources, and honor the work that the teachers do. Our goal is to fill the need of that child who is compelled to say "teach me and only me" and help develop schools that lift children out of poverty and overcome the lack of equity in Nicaragua. The way we have chosen to meet this is by supporting teachers who are fatigued, yet hopeful, that education is the instrument to help people move ahead and improve their lives and communities.
Jane McFerrin, Dean of Education
Piedmont College
Demorest, Ga. jmcferrin@piedmont.edu Above pictures: 1. Jane McFerrin (right) talks to a group of Nicaraguan and American teachers while Rossanna Canales (left) translates. 2. School girls from the community of Los Rotarios walk hand in hand after receiving their new uniforms.
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We can all have a part in this.
Jane's moving story is a testament to the power of personal interaction. We welcome you, your friends and your collegues to add to what our North Georgia friends have started. You can help our education and nutrition program, by supporting students and teachers financially, and by donating vitamins and school materials. Remember that Nicaragua is just a few short hours away by plane. Consider coming on a mission trip and supporting the Nicaraguan educators in person.
Sincerely,
Mary Mastrogiovanni
The Amigos for Christ |
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