Kindergarten students at the tiny school in Agua Fria, a remote community near the Telica volcano, hold up notebooks provided by Vecinos of Leon. Looking out the door is Maverick, the coordinator of the project.
Our incredible administrators in Nicaragua have done it again! In spite of the many challenges faced by the communities, including Covid, roads damaged by two hurricanes, and preparations for upcoming elections, and without any help from guest volunteers from the US, they have provided school supplies to five schools and veterinary support to hundreds of animals, all in three busy days!
This was made possible because of some generous donations from supporters who knew that fundraising was especially difficult this year, since in-person events were not possible due to the pandemic. Thank you everyone who contributed to the GoFundMe, and thank you to our generous sponsors.
The majority of the work was done by Maverick Velasquez, and his wonderful family who spent hours and hours packing boxes for each classroom. Crispin Jose Diaz Canales once again, as he has for many years, coordinated with the school district to identify needs and plan the annual project. Due to Covid, we did not supply dental care this year, but we plan to resume that service again next year. Our dedicated team of veterinarians, however, saw hundreds of animals, and treated them for parasites and gave them vitamin shots.
From all us, Polly, Mateo, Gina, Robert, and Stephan in the US and Maverick and Crispin in Nicaragua, thank you for making this possible. Please look through these wonderful pictures sent by Maverick over the last three days!
The road to Agua Fria, as it passes a nice view of the nearby Telica Volcano.
AGUA FRIA – This is the most remote community that we serve. It is very near the Telica Volcano, an active, smoky volcano for which the school district is named. This community has been with us for three years. Maverick said the road to this community was especially bad this year, due to back-to-back Category 4 hurricanes that struck Nicaragua last summer. It also requires some travel by foot, as you can see. This was the hottest part of the year in a nation that is never exactly cool.
TELICA SCHOOL DISTRICT- This year, after many years of working with the Telica School District, we helped expand their office space. The Telica School District includes 53 small rural schools in the farming and mining communities outside the city of Leon. For years, we have held meetings with school district workers at the tiny headquarters, which was squeezed into one very small house. They applied to us for a small grant to repurpose and expand an unused building on the property (top). With a grant of $550, they were able to add a concrete floor and siding to a small expansion of the little building.
LOS MANGLES- Of the schools served on this trip, Los Mangles has been with us the longest. It, too, is a very remote school, but it is reachable entirely by road. The road is such that it takes 45 minutes to travel 8 miles, however! At the top of this gallery, you can see a bit of the preparation process. The night before each trip, lists of the students per classroom (usually there are two grades per classroom) are posted on a whiteboard, and the supplies are counted out and packed into boxes for the next day. Air conditioning is very rare in Nicaragua, and it is the hottest season of the year, making the box-packing project a sweltering task. Ordinarily there are as many as 8-9 volunteers working on the project, which takes a couple hours, but with travel restrictions, there were only three people working on it, including Maverick, his wife Marta, and his mother-in-law!
LA MORENA and LA LEONA – These two schools are nearer to the city than the other two, and are more associated with industry than farming, which is why we do not bring veterinary services to these communities. But we were able to bring school supplies and supplies for the teachers. I was glad to hear that at the schools we serve, attendance has not dropped off in spite of the many hardships faced in the last two years there.
