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Superemos Foundation - "Christine King" Cooperative General In practice November is the last full month of the year for the programs here in Estelí since the school year ends at the end of this month. For most community projects like ours in Nicaragua, December is a month for winding up the year and preparing for the following year. Most of the project staff takes holiday in December. So while November was very busy, it was also good to be able to finish most of the project activities for the year. Donations In November we received the following donations: Karen King US$3203.93 Dorchester House Multi Service Centre, Boston US$ 532.00 Fiona Graham, Ellen Parlow and colleagues US$ 607.00 Jim and Helen Merritt US$ 400.00 These donations make it possible for the projects to finish the year with enough surplus to finance the pre-school and the women's secondary education program through January as well as to make some vital improvements to the buildings. These improvements will allow us to offer a more private service in the clinic, provide better storage for the food products in the pre-school kitchen and free enough office space to be able to offer a professional legal advice service to project beneficiaries. Social Work In November, the program held one activity with 21 prisoners in local penitentiary known as “La Chacara". The workshop developed a discussion with the participants on "How to integrate myself in the life of my barrio and in the community." One other visit was cancelled at the last minute by the prison authorities. We made a further visit to discuss with the authorities plans for future activities. Classes for night school students Only two talks were given in November because the students were anxious to devote as much time as possible to their exam revision. One workshop was cancelled while students attended the funeral of the brother of one of the secondary school teachers. Eleven students participated in these workshops. The themes imparted were: · Violence in the home · How I see myself - how others see meCraft skills The craft skills classes in November consisted of embroidering small bags and purses, cross stitch embroidery of various patterns and designs, crocheting shoulder bags, crocheted mats, rugs, painting and embroidering shirts. Seven classes were given by Vilma Vilchez with an average attendance of seven girls and young women. Eleven classes were given by Hilda Duarte with an average attendance of five girls and young women. The talks given to accompany these craft activities covered the following themes:
As in the previous month, attendance fluctuated in November because students have had to work for exams in their schools. An outbreak of dengue fever also affected some of the project's students. The team also continued working on developing the planned courses in dressmaking and cake-making and decoration. These courses will probably begin in January or early February. Health Dra Ivet Castillo made three visits to the local prison in November at the request of the prison authorities because no visits will be possible in December. Dr Garcia the paediatrician gave one session of attention to the children in the pre-school. The program psychologist Urania Espinoza continued the attention she gives the children both individually and in groups. Fewer parents participated in November than in October, mainly for reasons to do with their employment. In November, Urania began to do more work with the youngest children in the pre-school. She used a technique involving drawing the human body with 15 of the youngest children as part of her work with the teachers on evaluating children for signs of possible learning difficulties. Gladys Ruiz made an inventory of the medicines in the pharmacy. The medicines due to expire in January and February of 2003 were handed over to the local health centre to ensure that they would be used correctly and not wasted. Throughout the month Gladys worked with the social work team on plans for the program in 2003. She gave two health talks in November to two groups of craft skills students. Environmental workshop One bicycle pump was handed over in November to a small farmer in San Bartolo near Wiwilí. The pump will be used to irrigate half a manzana of vegetable cultivation, mostly sweet pepper and tomato. Throughout November the project workers from the workshop have been working on site maintenance and building the small clinic and pharmacy for the projects, which we were able to fund with donations from Jim and Helen Merritt and from Ellen Parlow. With the experience we have gained from this activity we have been able to develop a modular pre-fabricated structure which is flexible and practical. We hope to use it for house and school construction projects next year. Pre-school The respiratory illnesses that are always prevalent at this time of year continued to affect attendance. A total of 42 children attended this month. Average attendance was 36. All the staff attended the Education Ministry training workshop for the month of November and we delivered our monthly reports to the Ministry to their satisfaction. We held three meetings with parents and three internal planning and evaluation meetings Classes were given as usual until November 15th, the end of the school year for the pre-school, with special emphasis on reviewing with the children what they have learned over the year. The children enjoyed participating in the end of year activities. We were especially pleased to be able to hold a simple graduation for the five children who move on to primary school in 2003. 32 children and some of their parents were able to attend the end of year party. A total of nine pre-school children received paediatric care in November. The physical development of all the children is normal. Secondary Education November was a very important month for the secondary education program with final and end of year exams for all the students. The main problem has resulted from the lack of resources available to the Ministry of Education. This has caused the Spanish and Mathematics exams to be postponed twice into December. The exams that were held without a problem were: Physics, English, Biochemistry and Natural Sciences. The results obtained were: Physics 75% passed English 82% passed Biochemistry 69% passed Natural Sciences 56% passed Students who failed these exams have a second chance to take these exams in June and July 2003. A few students still had to hand in some of the requisite documentation for us to be able to complete their files to hand over to the Ministry at the end of the year. We expect to be able to do this in December. All the official reports were handed in satisfactorily to the Ministry of Education. We held our internal evaluations and also finalised our work plan for 2003. Average attendance to the night classes was stable through November at 48 with an active matriculation of around 65. The figure has fallen from slightly as some of the students since July have opted to move to the Sunday classes which they find more convenient. Average attendance of the Sunday classes is now 126 Financial report The project activities in October were financed as follows Women’s secondary education program Groton Union Congregational Church and Karen King ................................. US$2343 Pre-school De Kalb Interfaith Network and Fiona Graham and colleagues........................ US$472 Health and Social Work Dorchester House Multi Service Centre
Health
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US$194.44 Environmental workshop Ellen Parlow and Jim and Helen Merritt...................................................... US$642 Administration Proportional amounts from each of the projects ..................................... US$376.58 |