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Superemos Foundation - "Christine King" Cooperative GeneralOctober was a busy month for the programs here in Estelí. The secondary education program students have been studying hard to prepare for the exams in November. The pre-school has been getting ready for its end of year activities and the environmental workshop had been winding up its cycle pump project. The craft skills workshops have been busier than usual, with several more of the young women students and girls becoming competent in advanced crochet and embroidering skills. We have been planning with INPRUH and the local community in a barrio called La Porra the construction of another pre-school for young children in that barrio. Free the Children of Canada has again offered funding to make this possible. We expect to start that project in November and have it finished before Christmas. The cooperative has steadily improved its institutional organization and has already completed most of the work on its plan for 2003. So far the cooperative and the foundation have prepared 5 funding proposals to different donor organizations to guarantee funding for the whole of 2003. We should finish this year 2002, with a small surplus of several hundred dollars, sufficient to take us securely into 2003. We are very grateful to all our supporters for making this possible. DonationsIn October we received the following donations: (USD) Union Congregational Church, Groton Massachusetts $2,038 Dorchester House Multi Service Centre, Boston $513 Deaneen Newell $300 We appreciate very much this support for the services we provide to people here in Estelí Social WorkProject staff visited the local prison known as "La Chacara" three times in October. On October 6th they gave a workshop to 14 women prisoners on the theme of defining their personality in relation to their home and their family. On October 30th, 21 young male offenders participated in a workshop around the idea of what they would do if they were free to participate actively in their community and what the benefits would be for them. The workshop developed into a discussion on how to involve youth in the life of their community in a positive socially beneficial way. A more informal visit earlier in the month involved a couple of conversations with inmates looking at the question of legal support and advice for prisoners either awaiting trial on remand or already sentenced but without having had due legal representation. These conversations were an important resource to help the social work team design a program intended to improve prisoners' access to legal advice. The team hope to implement this program next year. Craft skillsThe time table for the craft activities continued through October as follows: Saturdays 1.00 pm -4.00 pm Mondays & Tuesdays 8.00 am - 10.00 am Wednesdays 2.00 pm - 4.00 pm The attendance for this project in October was as follows: Date Attendance 2 12 7 7 9 7 14 4 16 10 21 3 22 13 28 6 29 17 (In two sections) 30 9 Attendance fluctuated a lot in October because students have had to prepare for end of year exams in their schools and colleges. These skills workshops continue to be a forum too for talks on gender and self-esteem. Gladys Ruiz, the nurse who supervises the pharmacy, gave three talks on preventive health care lasting forty minutes each. The Saturday workshops have lost students because they can't afford some of the material we need to be able to do all the work we want to teach. We hope to resolve this problem by increasing our funding for these workshops next year. For December the program plans to start courses in dressmaking and cake-making and decoration. Classes for night school studentsThese continued their timetable in October as follows: Mondays & Wednesdays - 5.30 pm- 7.30 pm. There was some disruption to the timetable of the classes because students are preparing for end of year exams. The themes imparted in a total of 6 workshops were:
HealthThe team made two visits to the local prison in October and gave two sessions of paediatric attention to the children of the pre-school. The program psychologist Urania Espinoza worked with a total of 39 children in October both individually and in groups. 15 parents also participated in individual consultations with their children. Urania also began a series of meetings with the pre-school teachers to improve their skills in evaluating the needs of the children. We have been analysing how further to improve the health services we offer local people in our small dispensary. The staff planned together with Dra Ivet Castllo two visits a month for gynaecological and general consultation in addition to her two visits a month to the local prison. We also agreed with Dra Castillo to provide free medicine for blind patients to whom she gives free consultations. Dr Carlos García, the paediatrician will see children four times a month (every Tuesday). The pharmacy continues to provide free medicines to many patients in need and at low cost to others. In December we will donate medicines close to their expiry date to the local health centre to ensure that they are distributed before they expire. Environmental workshopThe mechanics working on the bicycle pump project finished installing most of the pumps remaining in the workshop in October. We now have just two remaining, both of which have been assigned and are awaiting transport to be delivered for installation. Of the five installations in October, three were installed in and around the nearby community of San Pedro, one in the public water well, one for a small farmer and one for a woman’s vegetable and basic grains collective. Another pump was installed in Teotecacinte in Nueva Segovia to benefit 6 families and one was sent to Juigalpa with our colleagues in FUNDECI to install as a model for local farmers in the Juigalpa area. Other activities undertaken by the workshop in October included routine auto mechanical repairs, fabrication of a tricycle for a delivery round, some metal wood-burning stoves and a metal table and chairs for a nursery. Pre-schoolA total of 45 children attended this month, but there were many absences due to the presence of respiratory disorders and dengue fever. Among activities for the month we held a party for the children and organized activities to celebrate World food Day and Environment Day. We also prepared the first promotion of the Third Level children who will go on to First Year of primary school in 2003. The promotion will be dedicated to FIONA GRAHAM to thank her for her commitment to making the pre-school a success. We also distributed over 60 items of clothing donated by staff of Fiona Graham's office in the European Commission in Brussels to all the children. A total of ten pre-school children received paediatric care in October. Every month we weigh the children and measure their height in liaison with Dr Garcia, the paediatrician. This month all the children showed normal development At the end of October we held our monthly Parenting Skills Workshop in which 20 parents participated. The themes we worked on were:
On the administrative side, we did an inventory of the equipment and materials of the pre-school and complied with the statutory monthly reporting requirements of the Education Ministry as usual. The staff made home visits together with the psychologist to two homes due to the absence of the children to the pre-school. These absences were due to sickness. Secondary EducationThroughout October we have been preparing students for the end of year and final exams they will take in November. The following numbers of women night class students will participate 2nd level A 12 2nd level B 12 First level A 18 Total 24 finalists 18 end of year first level The following numbers of mixed Sunday class students will participate: 1st level A 30 1st level B 31 2nd level A 49 2nd level B 20 Total 61 finalists 69 end of year first level (Of these students over 80 are women.) Early in the month the staff had a meeting in Managua with the vice-Ministerial team responsible for secondary education in Nicaragua to review the administrative policy of the Ministry relating to our adult Baccalaureate program. Some changes were made to the way the exams would be supervised. Thanks to the support of our donors many of whom wrote to the Ministry about the proposed changes, the idea of returning the program to centralized control in Managua was dropped. Administrative supervision of the program will be devolved to the local Ministry offices in Estelí leaving a large measure of autonomy in the program's implementation to the school Director. The school retains responsibility for setting exams and issuing diplomas. Everything is in order for us to go ahead now and implement the end of year exams. In October we began the matriculation process for next year and worked out our plan for 2003 when we hope to incorporate an additional 70 students into the night classes and open a couple of nuclei of the program in Matagalpa and in Ocotal so as to make it easier for students from outside Estelí to participate in the program. Financial reportThe project activities in October were financed as follows Women’s secondary education program Union Congregation Church, Groton, Massachusetts US$1298 Pre-school De Kalb Interfaith Network and Fiona Graham and colleagues US$1198 Health and Social Work Dorchester House Multi Service Centre Health US$153.27 Social Work and Craft Skills US$394. 24 Environmental workshop From self generated income $516 (USD) Administration Proportional contributions from donations of September and October US$472 |