Help Nicaraguan Parents Build 5 Rural Preschools

Rain and mud equals dengue fever and colds during the winter on the  Caribbean coast of Nicaragua  for preschool classes which are held in inadequate quarters.  However winter as well as the school year are coming to a close.  The children in the communities of Mulukukú rejoice when they can finally come back to school  once the fevers are over. Now they are enjoying their friends, chasing  after squirrels, and chanting “The food, the food”, as mothers bring in beans and rice and tortillas for lunch. In Nicaragua the school year is February to the end of November so the children and teachers have a lot of catching up to do in class more than chasing squirrels, since many missed one or two weeks with their health problems.

The end of October parents, teachers, builders and school directors inaugurated the first of 4 preschools we have all be hoping for since early last year in the community of Santa Rita about 25 kilometers northeast of the town of Mulukukú. It was a great big party and all the communities celebrated.  Now we are hoping and planning for the new school year which opens in February 2020 and for the other 5 preschools, with dreams of avoiding so many health problems when they are attending classes in inadequate classrooms.

But classrooms are not the only thing that will be new.  The teachers are being trained this year and there are 21 preschool teachers who have been studying with Sister Sandra the Montessori philosophy, methodology and materials for preschoolers.  We are planning a new series of workshops of hand-made materials based on Montessori principles.  Preschools in rural Nicaragua have no equipment or materials except what the teachers bring from their own homes.  So with the help of this project we hope to be able to buy some supplies and we  believe we will make some great Montessori materials. We are grateful for those who have donated for the 5 preschools which we are desperately trying to build before the next school year. During the school break would be a good time to build because the climate is dryer and the parents have more time.  They are excited about the possibilities of having the new schools and are encouraging their children to attend classes now promising them that next year it will be better.  Even though it is hard work to build the schools they  are itching to build the schools for their children. These are schools built by the parents on land donated by them for the preschools, they are very proud that it will be their work that will give these children the  possibility to study in adequate classrooms. 

News from Sister Sandy, who is working to help parents build 5 preschools in the Múlukuku area, deep in the mountainous jungle areas of Nicaragua:   She is listening to the hope of the parents motivated  to build preschools for their children.  They believe in the power of preschools but lack resources for construction materials.

   The parents of preschoolers at Cristóbal Colón have finished the construction of two rooms for the sixty children that until now were sharing the second grade classroom in the primary school and a leaky storehouse.  The classrooms were finished in one month.  This week they will inaugurate the new classrooms which are still without tables or chairs.  But they say that is the least of their difficulties.  “We will find a way to solve that one way or another, but now it is time to celebrate.” 

   Visiting one of the preschools located in the town of Múlukuku I found thirty preschool children and their teacher sharing the back of the second grade classroom where another thirty children were also studying.   The noise level of the second graders drowned out the voice of the preschool teacher who is almost oblivious to the background noise and so continues helping the preschoolers color pictures of the Nicaraguan flag, bird, flower and national tree.  I talked with the teacher and the school director after class about the noise and the almost impossible task of conducting class in such an environment and they proudly showed me two small spaces where the parents had begun the construction of walls.  They were so excited because they could finally get started but they only had enough materials to get two walls built. The teachers and parents continue to hope for a real classroom.

   Meanwhile in the indigenous Mayangna territories the families of the newly constructed preschool in Kiulnawás, are struggling to repair the muddy road into the zone to be able to bring the cement for the floor of the school.  Once materials can reach the school and the floor is finished other parents will begin to build a primary multi-grade primary school in the adjoining community of Awás. Language, culture lack of paved roads, and even sufficient alimentation complicate the process.

   Santiago, our master contractor, waits anxiously for the weather to improve, and that we can raise sufficient funds.  He wants to get that call from the parents saying “all is ready for the next preschool, and we are ready to build.” 

Parents are ready because their children’s education is important, but they still lack materials to build preschools that are a necessity not a luxury.