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- Education - Health |
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* Health Insurance * Aguas Negras * Doctor |
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| - Miscellaneous |
| Doña Aura |
The education program, as previously mentioned, is a program that runs for 2.5 hours in the morning and another 2.5 hours in the afternoon, tutoring kids so they can advance in their studies. We currently pay two teachers, and have about 6 volunteer teachers. About 50-60 kids are involved in the program which costs them one cordoba per week ($0.12). They come in either the afternoon or the morning, and go to the regular school the other half of the day.
This month, we regained our lost volunteers and more. Now we have 5-6 teachers for the morning and 4-5 for the afternoon. But, as we regained the teachers, we've lost the students. We're down to about 40 kids now. Several say it's because they don't have the money, others that exams are over so they will only come just before exams. We're having a meeting this Sunday with the parents to discuss this and other problems.
Every Friday we have games with the kids, games like cat and mouse; duck, duck, goose; etc. This past Friday we played a modified non-contact version of floor hockey with a roll of masking tape and 2 pens. The kids loved it. Just had to introduce some Canadian culture in somewhere.
The insurance program running more or less smoothly. Fourteen of the 35 participants used their cards to visit the doctor in the last month. The only problem this month was that only 20 of 35 paid their monthly quota of 45 cents.
Lots has happened, including a meeting today with 100 community members and a representative from INAA (the Nicaraguan water works). INAA is saying to the community that the project cannot move forward until the people in the Barrio pay their water bills. The only problem with that, is that lots of people haven't been paying for months and the people are so poor they can't gather enough money to pay for 5 or 10 bills that have accumulated. The community is going to petition for pardons in certain cases, so we'll see what happens now.
The community also has a newly formed commission of seven to pressure INAA into starting the Aguas Negras project. So the community is starting to organise, for that we are pleased.
We also discovered that an average turnaround time for a project of Aguas Negras is 3 to 4 years.
Another of our projects is paying a Cuban doctor who comes to the barrio three half days per week. We pay $100 US per month to the doctor, which is enough to pay for about half of his time and he volunteers the other half. This is the doctor who provides services for the participants in our health insurance program.
Our other projects here include:
Our house that we are staying in is a project, in the sense that we pay $100 US in rent each month for the house and the money goes directly to the community and the various projects that the nuns are coordinating here, such as the food program for the children.
Gretchen Ferguson is now here, doing research for her thesis on micro-credit at UBC. She is helping out in the barrio, also, by taking a few of my English classes, freeing up more of my time.
We have 2 computer contracts at this time. One is with Cantera, a popular education NGO here in Managua. We provide them with computer support/systems analysis in exchange for courses for people in the barrio. In August, 4 of our teachers went on another course at Cantera, to improve their teaching techniques. Our other contract is with Oxfam Canada, for whom we provide some computer support. We have received some advice from them for writing up our funding proposals.
Doña Aura is one of the community leaders in the Barrio, also, she is one of the busiest. She is the coordinator of the health centre, the organic gardens project and of the "ancianos" (elderly people) committee, and helps out with the monthly mass and with the new Aguas Negras committee.
Her main job, however, is opening up the health centre when the Cuban doctor comes three times a week. She opens up, cleans up, hands out numbers to the patients and collects the money for the visit.
Another big job for Doña Aura is the ancianos committee. The committee organises visits to the elderly people in the Barrio, has an exercise program for them 3 times a week and gives general support to these often neglected members of society. In emergencies, the committee raises money in the community for medical expenses or other such things if the need arises.
Doña Aura is a valuable and respected member of the community.
The last report was kind of negative, as I had a bad month. Things are vastly improved, with a new Aguas Negras community group, more community volunteer teachers and mostly because Gretchen and I took a six day vacation to Corn Island on the East Coast of Nicaragua. Corn Island is paradise - we almost didn't come back, except that we ran out of money. We stayed an extra day anyway. We stayed in a hospadaje on the beach. It was great, we stayed in hammocks all day reading, swimming, eating. What a life. I'd be there every weekend if it didn't cost $100 for the flight.
Lots has happened here as well, primarily with the newly formed Aguas Negras committee. It has lots of problems - fragmentation, disunity, miscommunication, etc.- but I feel these are just growing pains and will eventually work themselves out since it appears that the community really wants this project. The main change from the FOG point of view is that it will be even slower to start up than we imagined. But, this is okay, patience is a virtue.
Skills needed for the education, computer, health or other programs: Civil Engineers, Computer Analysts, Teachers (Math, Spanish,...), and the nuns are also looking for a driver for the truck - to drive the nuns around 6 days a week for 6 months. It's a pickup truck, so a regular license will do. Please email for details.
Naturally, we still need money for the projects. Any help is appreciated.