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The Rotary Club of Toronto-Leaside |
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Report on Estelí projects March 2003 Prepared by Vengel Moreno, Translated by Stephen Sefton. April 6th 2003 PRE-SCHOOL In March, the pre-school held a fancy dress party to celebrate its first anniversary. The parents committee supplied food and refreshments. 40 parents participated with 33 children along with, representatives from the health, social work and adult education programs. We held our monthly planning and evaluation meeting. The pre-school received an inspection from the Ministry of Health. The inspector passed all the facilities with a recommendation that the program improve the kitchen and refectory buildings. We expect to be able to do this with funding expected later in the year. The monthly parenting skills workshop had 23 participants. Attendance during March varied from 27 to 38 out of a total register of 42 children The preschool received a visit from Fintan Kilbride, a board member of Free the Children of Toronto, Ontario, Canada (and a member of the Rotary Club of Toronto-Leaside). SOCIAL WORK The wide–ranging social work activities in March included the following activities:
The program has continued upkeep of the plant nursery, planting trees and flowers for the projects and showing interested people how to use worm culture to improve soils. The craft skills program is now providing a small income to the women working on crocheted bags which are sent for sale in the United States through the good offices of Dr. Peter Loewinthan of Dorchester House Multi-Service Centre. The legal advice project is still in development. Progress should be more rapid now that the program has a formal agreement with the local penitentiary allowing access to prisoners on remand as well as prisoners who have been sentenced. The talks for women in the adult education program continued in March. A total of twenty six women participated. Subjects covered were as follows: Topic Section Date AttendancePriorities for parenting I B March 5 18Criteria for “success” I B March 12 16Critical thinking I B March 19 16Appropriate curiosity I B March 26 20Leadership II B March 5 8Criteria for “success” II B March 12 8Emotional maturity/mental health II B March 19 4Appropriate curiosity II B March 26 6HEALTH PROGRAM The program coordinator made three visits to Santa Cruz to deliver health education talks to women in that rural community for a total of 18 women and girls. The talks focused on preventive healthcare Dra Iveth Castillo saw 22 patients in the local penitentiary in March with a wide variety of ailments. She prescribed medicine from the project pharmacy to a value of US$50.
Program coordinator Gladys Ruiz also gave a workshop for women students of the adult education programs. Among the subjects covered in the workshops in March were; · Reproductive health and family planning · First aid for burns and how to avoid burns in the home · Domestic hygiene and its importance · Physiological changes through adolescence 61 people participating in the projects as well as 22 prisoners in the local penitentiary benefited from medicines despatched by the program pharmacy. 15 patients took advantage of the program’s gynaecological service which gives attention to program participants twice a month at a symbolic cost of US$1.50 per person. ADULT EDUCATION Classes during March have been well attended with 90% attendance to the night classes. Students from the weekend classes have also participated in the night classes to complement teaching in subjects in which they feel weak. We have had no desertions from last month’s registered students. More students this year are participating in the personal development workshops given by the social work program as part of our integral approach to women’s education. As usual we marked International Women’s Day with a successful event. Many students told us we ware the only school in Estelí to celebrate this day. We carried out 10 teaching supervisions during the month. Academically, the classes are being given extremely well. More emphasis needs to be placed on imparting social values, punctuality, consideration for others and care for the school environment. Some students have still to complete their scholastic documentation. We will need to complete this by the end of May to satisfy Ministry of Education requirements. We are planning a visit by the program tutorial staff to the Ministry of Education in Managua to receive the latest instructions on exam procedure for the current academic year. Our program continues to have difficulties with the Ministry of Education in Managua following yet more staff changes in the department responsible for Secondary Education. Every time there is a change of staff we have to begin again explaining the history of our program and winning the confidence of the new administrators. This inevitably has a deleterious effect on the interests and ultimately the performance of our students. ENVIRONMENTAL WORKSHOP The workshop continued routine activities through March pending release of funds for a project to install 20 bicycle pumps in communities in the department of Madriz around Somoto and Palacaguina. This project should begin before the end of April FINANCIAL REPORT The project activities in March were financed as follows
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