REPORT ON PROJECTS IN ESTELÍ IN FEBRUARY 2003Prepared by and program staff with support from Stephen Seften and Vengel Moreno Written February 21st. Translated March 8th. Social WorkThe Social Work program was very busy in February putting into operation the reorganization of the activities planned in JanuaryThe social workers carried out two workshops in Estelí prison for 16 women and 24 young men. The themes dealt with in the two workshops were intra-family violence and how to deal with the effects of envy and selfishness respectively. The craft skills program opened a group for 10 girls and young women in the small town of Santa Cruz south of Estelí. The group participates in various craft skills accompanied by talks on self-esteem and problems faced in childhood and adolescence. A separate group of 5 young girls and women are learning clothes making skills with the program in the project center in Estelí together with another group of 4 girls and young women who work on general craft skills, mainly sewing, embroidery and crochet work. Another group in a nearby barrio is in the process of formation. The program also continues activity in the plant nursery. Program workers have assisted the health program develop its activities by coordinating medical attention for inmates of the local prison. The program developed the pilot legal aid program by following up the cases of two prisoners in the local penitentiary in Estelí, travelling to the local courts in Ocotal and Somoto to assist relatives with interviews and presentations to the responsible magistrates. Pre-schoolIn February the number of children receiving care in the pre-school rose to 49 First level 16 Second level 10 Third level 8 Infants 15 Total 49 The pre-school staff called a meeting of parents to form a parents group to support the centre’s activities. 20 parents turned up. The committee was formed as follows: Coordinator José Daniel Madrigal Vice Coordinator Karla Herrera Secretary Karla Caballero Treasurer Carmen Morales The parents and staff agreed to hold an activity to mark the first anniversary of the pre-school. As usual the monthly statistics were handed in to the local office of the Ministry of Education. Staff member Dolores Cruz continued her weekly participation in the Ministry-run planning workshops so as to ensure the highest standard of planning for the pre-school activities. Another routine monthly job was to weigh and measure the children so as to monitor their physical development. Program staff made two home visits to follow up persistent absences by two little girls. The absences were due to poor health. The school is able to continue to offer English classes – discontinued in the last two months of 2002 - to the children with help from Sra Karla Smith. Women’s classes and Adult EducationMatriculation has been steady but show throughout February. The women’s night classes now have a total of 52 women registered. The night classes will also be open to students of the Sunday and Saturday classes who feel they need extra tuition for certain subjects. In the accelerated adult secondary classes we now have a total of 150 students attending the Sunday classes and 100 students attending the Saturday classes. We also give normal secondary classes on Saturdays to a total of 77 other students too young to participate in the adult education program. Taking into account limitations of space we believe we are close to making maximum use of the present site as it stands. We are grateful to all the donors and program supporters who have made this possible. We have begun the supplementary workshops for the women’s night-class program. The first of these have been on family planning. As usual we have complied with the monthly reporting requirements of the Education Ministry. HealthcareIn February Dr. Ivet Castillo saw 22 patients in the local prison offering treatment including free medicine from the program’s pharmacy to the value of US$64. The pharmacy received a substantial donation of medicine in January from the Nicaragua Medical Alliance and from Dr. Peter Loewinthan, courtesy of Americares and Project Hope. These donations will enable us to continue to give extremely valuable assistance to our program beneficiaries and others. The pharmacy offers low cost medicine to all the participants of the different programs operating in the centre. Program coordinator Gladys Ruiz gave workshops on family planning to women night class students. Financial ReportThe project activities in February were financed as follows Women's secondary education programCaskeys Friends of mine in Oklahoma City US$100Pre-schoolKids can free the Children from Michael Power / St Joseph High School US$1198 Social WorkDorchester House Multi Service CentreJanuary, February and order's bags US$ 250 + 1,424 Environmental workshopFrom self generated income US$ 450Health Care
From
Dr Robert J Pooley through
De Kalb
Interfaith Network AdministrationProportional contributions from donations of January and February US$ 250 |