The Rotary Club of Toronto-Leaside

A child care and pre-school facility opened in 2001 to complement the adult education classes. Students and other project participants can place their children in a secure environment while they work or study. Initially the project cares for around 25 to 30 children, offering food, medical attention and pre-school education. The project expects to care for around 80 children daily by the end of 2002.

Paola

Luz, Luis Alexander, Marlon and Blanca

Superemos is a non-profit foundation that works with its sister organization the “Christine King” Cooperative to deliver educational and social services to disadvantaged people in the department of Estelí in northern Nicaragua

Estelí is city of around 120,000 people in northern Nicaragua. The municipality of Estelí has an area of 795 square kilometres. The population is currently growing at about 3.5% per year, without including migration from rural areas. Estelí is the principal urban center for a region which is among the poorest in Central America. It has large government debt, both internal and external, which prevents significant or even adequate investment in health education and social services. The average age of Nicaragua’s population is under 25

Over a million children and adolescents fail to participate in full time education. 36% of under‑5’s suffer malnutrition. The general adult population consumes an average 1790 calories when the minimum adequate intake should be over 2000.  38% of Nicaraguans do not have access to drinking water. These typical indicators of extreme poverty demonstrate the general situation in Nicaragua. Things are actually much worse in northern Nicaragua as well as on the Atlantic Coast.

Unemployment in the Estelí area is over 60%. The collapse of the coffee price internationally has denied seasonal employment to tens of thousands of people across northern Nicaragua. Migration from rural areas to urban centers has accelerated, putting intolerable pressure on already poor infrastructure, such as housing, electricity and water. Most people cannot afford health care.

For many families the only option for employment is for male heads of household to emigrate to Costa Rica or to attempt to enter North America illegally. This, in its turn, puts unbearable pressure on the families left behind. Family remittances from relatives working abroad are now Nicaragua’s main source of foreign exchange.

Within Nicaragua, prices are high but wages have been virtually frozen for over seven years. The basic monthly basket of goods for a family with two children costs over US$200. Nurses, policemen and primary school teachers earn around US$70 per month. Secondary teachers earn around US$100 per month. Agricultural workers earn US$2 a day, when they can find work. A building worker earns US$3.50 per day, again, when work is available. So nearly 40% of the population live in extreme poverty, unable to buy even enough food for their families.

In this context, worsening with every year that passes, the team of local people who founded Superemos has delivered education and training programmes to people in Estelí and surrounding rural areas for over four years. They established Superemos in 1999 in order to give continuity to the projects they had begun in 1998. In 2001, they helped set up a sister organization, the “Christine King” cooperative, to offer wider health and education services to people in the Estelí area.

Can you help?

Superemos runs four main projects:

Adult Education

Night classes for up to 100 women, many single heads of households, allow them to complete their secondary education. They can then get a better job and improve their families’ standard of living. Courses are supervised by the Ministry of Education and have been highly praised by the government for their outstanding results.

Pre-School / Child Care Programme

A child care and pre-school facility opened this year to complement the adult education classes. Students and other project participants can place their children in a secure environment while they work or study. Initially the project cares for around 25 to 30 children, offering food, medical attention and pre-school education. The project expects to care for around 80 children daily by the end of 2002.

Social Work, Medical Care, Legal Advice

A team of social workers, law students, and doctors assist people unable to pay for their services. They provide essential support to inmates of the local, seriously under-resourced penitentiary and they run craft skills courses for local women. The project benefits around 100 people every month

Environmental Workshop

Local farmers benefit from locally manufactured equipment to promote better use of water resources and more diverse food production. The two main products are a rope pump powered by a pedal mechanism which enables a small farmer to irrigate up to an acre of vegetables or fruit trees using a gravity fed drip irrigation system and a metal ribbed,  plastic covered growing frame to protect nursery plants from the effects of heavy rains. The project has benefited over around 40 small farmers and a community of around 50 people over the last 9 months.

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