Remodelling the main school building

Submitted by admin on Mon, 01/12/2009 - 09:59




We are busy getting everything ready for the new school year which starts on January 24th. The large number of students we had last year put great pressure on the available space. So for 2009 we have decided to remodel the available space by opening up the main school building. We have done this by turning four windows into walk-through areas. As you can see from the photographs this dramatically opens up the available space in the main school building. We will use movable divisions to break up the space into smaller classroom areas. Once our friends Juan Zeledon and Wilber Gutierrez finish making good the columns and beams, we will be able to repaint the area. The new work will be inaugurated on January the 18th when we will mark the 10th anniversary of the Estelí Women's school.
remodelar1
a view with a room 		remodelar2
the new work seen from inside out
remodelar3
another view from the inside out		 remodelar4
Wilber Gutierrez and Juan Zeledón - making good

Pre-school Christmas activity in Barrio Nuevo Amanecer

Submitted by admin on Tue, 12/23/2008 - 12:22
The end of the year saw various festive activities in all the education projects. In the preschools Superemos helps in Estelí's western barrios we helped with parties for the preschool children and their families. We are grateful to the Chiristine King Memorial Trust, Evanston Congregational Church, the Central American Fund for Human Development, Dorchester House Multi-Service Center, the Ayuntamiento of Falces in Navarra, Spain for their important help throughout 2008. Individuals like Eric London, Hope Little and Laura Wilson have also made important donations to help us ensure the pre-schools have the stability they need to be able to impart a good quality of care to the children they serve. Thanks to everyone who help the children we serve in these barrios. blue horse
the blue horse needs a tail
find the tail

the tail looks for a blue horse		 party

Educator Edelma Acuña supervising the children's lunch

Celebrating the Purísima

Submitted by admin on Mon, 12/22/2008 - 16:21
The Purísima celebrations in Nicaragua remind us that Nicaragua is a deeply Catholic country. The feast of the Immaculate Conception also carries undertones of the syncretic celebrations found more explicitly in other parts of Latin America, for example in Brazil or Cuba. Here in Nicaragua the tradition is to set up an altar to the Virgin Mary and invite neighbours both to pray and to have a party. This year almost 200 people came to celebrate the feast day together with a local choir and musical group.
Purisima1 2009

celebrating - a view of the altar		 Purisima 2009

the musical group and some of the choir

Estelí Women's School : eighth graduation

Submitted by admin on Mon, 12/22/2008 - 16:10
entrada
graduating students enter the auditorium		 On December 15th the Estelí Women's School held its eighth graduation for a total of 111 adults who have made many sacrifices over the last few years in order to complete their secondary education and proceed to higher studies.

We we delighted for all of them. Our thanks and appreciation to all our many friends who made this day possible, bringing hope and pride to all these students and their families. Over 80 of the graduates were women. Over 50 of these women were beneficiaries of the scholarship scheme made possible by the generous support of our friends in the United States, Europe and Japan.

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dance interlude between distribution of diplomas		 gef8

family and friends accompanied the students on thier big day

Teacher training for Global Education Fund

Submitted by admin on Tue, 12/16/2008 - 14:37
In the second week of December, the Global Education Fund financed a teacher training activity for over 70 local teachers in the Estelí area. The training lasted from the 8th to the 12th of December covering Spanish, Mathematics and Natural Sciences. The teachers were divided into three groups participating in workshops given by teachers from the Educavida organization - Augusto Aguilera, Glenda Laguna, Darling Aguilera, Mileda Castellón, Anabel Benavides and our own mathematics teacher Saida Espino. The event was coordinated by the Esteli Women's School director Bertha Sanabria. This was an important event for us because it enabled us to facilitate practical coordination between the Global Education Fund and the local education ministry who were interested and impressed by the event. We hope we will be able to coordinate other such events through 2009. We are very grateful to Judy Richardson, Director of the Global Education Fund for making this event possible.
gef1

teachers in a Spanish workshop 		gef2

Science teachers in a workshop activity
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a piece of comic dance-theatre during the closing event		 gef4

Judy Richardson with her assistant Adriana thanks the training participants

Good progress repairing flood damage

Submitted by admin on Sat, 11/15/2008 - 11:56
We have made great progress following the river flooding that affected us again this year without causing the same erosion of the site location as in 2007. Right now our friends Juan Zeledon and Pedro Blandino have worked fast to reinforce the retaining wall-barrier that did such a great job protecting the ceramic workshop this year. Once this reinforcing work is done, we have only to reinstate the incline that tips the flow of water against the opposite bank of the river to us and then plant several rows of valerian grass which we have found does an excellent job of gripping and retaining the material around it. By getting this work done early we are giving the vegetation that always takes over in this part of the river a head start ready for the heavy rains we can expect in 2009.
Juan Zeledon with Angelo Marcel

Juan Zeledon with a willling helper		 repaired part of wall

Juan with the part of the wall he and Pedro have repaired

Teacher training by our school staff

Submitted by admin on Sat, 11/15/2008 - 11:41
School director Bertha Imelda Sanabria and Mathematics teacher Saida Espino this week gave a three day workshop to teachers from schools supported by the US-based NAMLO community development organization. Bertha Imelda and Saida have been the beneficiaries of a ground-breaking teacher training programme promoted in recent years by the Global Education Fund. GEF director Judy Markley has run the training workshops for many years in Nicaragua in an effort to broaden the horizons of primary school and secondary school teachers in Nicaragua as well as deepening their skills base. Now Saida, Bertha Imelda and colleagues from the Educavida organization are putting what they have learned into practice to benefit other teachers from rural areas of northern Nicaragua
Saida Espino

The whole group - Bertha Imelda observes discreetly at the right 		Saida Espino

Saida Espino with NAMLO teachers

End of year exams

Submitted by admin on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 12:45
The end of year exams have come around and students are busily studying to prepare themselves. Exams for the Ministry of Education's Adult Baccalaureate are held twice a year - in June-July and in November-December. The Ministry sends out staff from their central offices in Managua to supervise the examinations. This year students from a Ministry-approved school in nearby Condega and 27 of our own students from Ocotal are joining our students from Esteli. So we have well over 200 students visiting us for these exam days.
Exam in the pre-school building

a Ministry supervisor explains the exam procedure		 exam in main building

students during one of the exams
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