Transform Education for 90 Children in El Salvador

Faced with the emergency by COVID-19, uncertainty arises in the heart of humanity. We are currently facing a situation that tests our life skills and as Amún Shéa today our commitment grows, our efforts unite to guarantee the educational quality in the rural areas of the country.

As PEOF for many years we have joined efforts with the Ministry of Education with the objective of guaranteeing a pertinent rural education in the northern area of the department of Morazán, it has been possible to incorporate the methodology of Problem Based Learning in the eight schools that make up the System Integrated of Perquín (SIPER), literacy alternatives such as the Global Functional Communicative Method, multi-grade classroom strategy, incorporation of productive systems through school gardens, learning life skills.

The conditions of the municipality of Perquín are different from those of the rest of the country, the difficulty is not only to access territorially but also the limitations to innovate in education using technological tools, the internet and electronic devices. Now, given the emergency, the challenges in the eight SIPER schools have increased.

There is a team of 59 teachers who strive to keep in touch with the 1,300 students who receive classes in different Educational Centers in the municipality of Perquín, some without internet access in their entirety, with difficulties for the telephone signal, among other difficulties that mean a Pleasant in a moment of crisis where it is essential to have a device with internet to receive your classes.

A good part of the student population is receiving their virtual classes but the most disadvantaged are looking for alternatives, we are very pleased that there are committed teachers and even with all the limitations, they are doing their best to guarantee pertinent rural education.

Let us know their experiences:

Joya de Talchiga School Center, Educational Center located in the border area with Honduras, does not have access to transportation, internet and some resources such as energy are limited and the access they have has been thanks to the effort of the community.

Carolina Martínez, director of the Joya de Talchiga School Center “We have prepared guides through the multigrade strategy, because this is how we were working throughout the year, we provide books to the students and as director I go out house by house to deliver the weekly guides” because of a total of 40 children we serve, only two have access to WhatsApp at home through their parents' devices. It is not easy for us but we are doing it. ”

The efforts are great, we are proud of the effort that each teacher is making, our commitment as a foundation is to be able to continue providing support in the different processes, to work together, to unify efforts, ideas and strategies so that the school year of the fruits that we set ourselves in january.

Elizabeth Vigil, director of the El Chagüitón School Center "We are facing great challenges, the conditions of our children are different from the urban areas of the country where there is greater accessibility to the internet or tools such as a computer or a smartphone, many of the parents do not know how to read and write, so helping children children is a very difficult task for them ”.

Now our challenge is to revolutionize education in a digital way, it will not be easy but even from home we are looking for alternatives that allow us to generate optimal learning spaces, always under the methodology of Problem-Based Learning. The Amún Shéa team is generating learning experiences through various means, in a personalized way, attending to the conditions of each child, their learning rhythms.

We know that today we must look for alternatives to adapt and it will not be an easy task, but these years we have built a path by which to walk, as a strengthened system that takes slow but safe steps, trained teachers, strategies implemented in the classroom, monitoring processes and follow-ups for the processes that we are guaranteeing even from home.

All this is possible thanks to your contribution, with your help we have managed to move forward here and now we know that education must be in constant change, innovation and commitment to always provide educational quality by whatever means possible.

High school students of the Amún Shéa Integral Development Center participated in the VII Meeting of Knowledge and Experiences in Organic Agriculture and Agroecology organized by the Foundation for Socioeconomic Development and Environmental Restoration, the students participated in the presentations and presented their research and experimentation projects to throughout its formative process.

The students participated with the topics: Structured water and seed adaptation, where they also presented a water sculptor made simply and with easily acquired materials, where they also answered questions from those attending the meeting.

They made known the importance and benefits that the use of structured water brings to the crops and how through different tests favorable results can be achieved in the crops, through the comparison between the plants that are treated from structured water giving To know its multiple advantages and benefits.

In this way the students use new technologies applied from the technical high school students in agribusiness and the learning acquired during the technical training in agroecology. Moreover, on this occasion they exposed the experience in the conditioning or adaptation of tomato seed to climatic conditions, which allows raising the productivity of crops in a sustainable way and facing changes in the environment more appropriately.

Students are part of the proper processes of the land for planting and therefore to keep the seeds free from the use of chemicals. Students in Amún Shéa experience and create learning spaces through practice, of which they share with local producers and become mentors of other students, promoting research in various areas but above all the opportunity to improve quality education in the north of Morazán.

The commitment of Amún Shéa goes beyond teaching students how to perform organic production, leads them to appropriate knowledge, that research allows them to develop agroecology activities and conservation of natural resources for a better use of them. In Amún Shéa we seek to build a lifestyle based on agroecology, from nursery students to those trained as agroecology technicians.

In Amún Shéa we believe that quality learning processes lead us to the development of the different communities and we are constantly seeking to strengthen these processes and transmit them to the students of the seven schools of the Perquín Integrated System.

To achieve this we need your support and at the same time we thank you for your support during this time and for contributing to the strengthening of educational quality in El Salvador.

Fishing activities are a complement to the work plan to achieve Amún Shéa competencies, students from kindergarten to high school perform activities that allow them to experience and create different learning spaces.

The children know the characteristics of the fish, their physiognomy and at the same time they know the importance of these being part of their nutrition, they know the nutrients they provide them and in this way when fishing activities the students live together and develop social skills Get involved with the rest of your classmates.

In each of the activities the students receive in the classroom the previous orientation of what they will do, they are guided by the teachers and they know the process of feeding, development and breeding of the fish. Children's perception of fishing activity is what reflects students' learning and motivation by having the opportunity to learn by doing.

Lenin 9th grade student: “I really enjoyed the fishing activity, it's a new way of learning, I had never had the opportunity to fish and now I know how to make my own hook and fish for the first time, share with my classmates and laugh while we waited Fishing was one of the most beautiful experiences I will remember this year”.

We are responsible for building quality learning without losing sight of human development, where the practice of values and the promotion of coexistence is essential, as perceived by the students Amún Shéa, Guillermo is a fifth grade student and says: “I do not I could fish, but my friends did and I felt very happy because we were together and we could measure the fish and know if they were ready to eat them, my friends took them home and cooked them with their family, it was a class different but very funny”.

Integrative activities are always an opportunity to promote teamwork and that is reflected in the students' daily lives, who also guide students of different levels and become a support for teachers who have changed the classroom and the blackboard for the practice with activities that go from the visit to the pond, the greenhouses, tree planting, walks through the forest, visits to the communities and coexistence with schools that live other realities of the rural education of the country.

Thank you for your support and for helping us build quality learning in rural areas of the country where we are constantly seeking development for communities through education.

In El Salvador the youth sector has been violated for many years, they stopped believing that it is they who have the strength to overcome the barriers of poverty, violence, migration, among other factors, but in one of the most remote municipalities from the capital San Salvador we are convinced that we have the most powerful weapons in our hands, the strength of young people and education.

In Amún Shéa many of our students find spaces for strengthening human quality, sensitive to values, promoting teamwork and promoting integration activities that strengthen bonds of trust in students, who manage to integrate from third grade through ninth grade sports activities, becoming tutors capable of giving accompaniment to the rest of the students, the practice of sport also leads us to have meetings with other educational communities, knowing different realities and experiences of much learning.

The practice of softball allows to create spaces of coexistence and promotion of social ties, we are aware that our Salvadoran society deserves to make all the efforts that lead us not only to seek educational quality, but also human quality, training students to become beings with healthy interpersonal relationships, who are able to work as a team and integrate into different learning spaces and skills development.

Today we appreciate your support and financial support during this time of success, where we have built learning through the experiences that enrich us and lead us to a broader commitment, the desire to lead more young people to change the reality of the society and that they are able to create opportunities for themselves.

We believe that the smile of each of them is the reflection of all the illusions that are hidden in his mind and that these stories deserve to be carried from heart to heart.

The learning of literacy is fundamental from the first years of study and it is important to have bases that ensure that students will have an effective and meaningful learning, which at the same time enhances their understanding and reasoning skills. In our interest to achieve success and development through quality education we look for alternatives that direct the processes in the right way, so Amún Shéa adopts the Global Functional Communication Method as a learning strategy in the levels of early childhood education , first and second grade.

Initially the method was used as a guide for the teaching of literacy for people with learning difficulties. Literacy has been one of the great challenges teachers have faced and exhausted efforts with traditional methodologies. The Global Method in essence is a different way of teaching and has been successful for children with Down Syndrome, Autism, Dyslexia, hyperactivity, among others, but its personalized form in Amún Shéa we have incorporated this methodology with the objective of guaranteeing the learning of the literacy and the strengthening of understanding and reasoning of what children read and understand.
Leidy Hernández, teacher of the Learning Community 1 (first and second grade) at the Amún Shéa Integral Development Center "I define the global method as a methodology that respects learning rhythms and interests, and as teachers we must take into account that the processes they are personalized and the teaching is based on each child, thus identifying those elements that attract them and in this way it is achieved that learning is not forced but on the contrary they find a motivation to learn ".

Children learn to read with words from their environment, what they like most, or what they do on a daily basis. Family ties are very effective to start with the words they will remember most easily; therefore, it is recommended that a diagnostic evaluation be done to assess the level in which it is located, the purpose is to be equitable with each process.

Jaime (seven years old), first grade student: "I'm Jaime and I learned to read 60 words in two months, I learned syllables and now I read short books, I like to read but I learned with numbers because I like math".

The method helps children to feel safe to read and allows them to identify words taking into account their environment, as Sofia (seven years old) first grader said: "I learned to read with my mom's help, but my teacher taught me to read, she gave me words and I saw the images and that's how I knew what she said on the cards with the images she saw, now I write my name and other words".

Esteven (seven years old) first grade student: "I learned to read with the cards and what I like most about knowing how to read is that now I can also write words and write them on a poster to present them to my classmates".

This is how the method develops literacy skills and this contributes to cognitive development not only in language but also in science, mathematics, life in society and personal life. Quality education must pay attention to each child in particular and attend to diversity.

"I'm Diego and I'm 7 years old, it was difficult for me to learn to read, I could only read nine words, but with the cards and the images where I could see the words I can now read fifty-seven, I know I can learn many more words."

In Amún Shéa we are committed to continue building a quality education that manages effective primary education, with the aim of breaking the barriers of educational conformity and finding alternatives so that learning is the priority and attention is paid to diversity.