Re-imagine rural education in COVID-19 El Salvador

Amún Shéa is happy to announce the imminent opening of the William Brinker Laboratory for Plant Tissue, Soil, and Water Analysis. The lab is the direct result of donations of many supporters but owes its existence to the efforts and generosity of Dr. Brinker, who saw that donations targeted towards such a project have the opportunity for an enormous impact on both the students of Amún Shéa and the community of Norther Morazán.

The laboratory will take on many roles at Amún Shéa. It is an incredible hands-on resource for the students, a gateway to career opportunities, a link to upper education, and a source of income to help support the growing efforts of the school. Stainless steel lab furniture and high-quality laboratory materials are being installed at this very moment and we have the great honor of working with CENSALUD, a prestigious medical school in El Salvador, in staffing the lab and developing a diploma focused around lab work and plant genetics.

The diploma will be available to any interested students at Amún Shéa and will hopefully grow in the future to be available to students from nearby schools as well. Although not every student at the school will elect to participate in the diploma, all students will go through a basic course in lab work and have the lab as a resource for their education in the sciences. Those students that do chose to pursue in-depth work with the lab will be well prepared to continue into higher education or begin a career as a lab technician, a much sought-after skill in Central America.

Furthermore, the lab provides a much-needed community resource. Northern Morazán is replete with farmers, businesses, and organizations that need lab-testing done to determine water quality, soil-suitability, or plant health. Getting these tests done is, at the moment, only realistic for a lucky few, as the current labs are over-burdened and unable to manage the huge number of requests that they receive. Providing this service will give us a steady source of income to augment the donations that pay our teachers, allow us to give scholarships to our students, and generally keep us doing what we are doing.

The William Brinker Laboratory is an inspiring example of what your generosity can help accomplish, especially considering the potential for the life-altering changes that it may bring to our students. We are excited to see it grow and impact Amún Shéa and we hope you are too.