Project Description

The goal of the proposed Children, Health, Education, and Supporting Services (CHESS) project is to assist the municipality of Villa El Carmen, Nicaragua, in achieving community empowerment through improved primary school education and health.  Over the course of the 28 month project, the overall objective is to develop, implement, and coordinate a sustainable and replicable partnership model that will be operational in most of the communities of Villa El Carmen.


In partnership with two key international partners, Gran Pacifica Nicaragua and Rotary International, as well as non-profit organizations already operating in the municipality of Villa El Carmen, this project builds on primary school peer-mentor programs, primary youth leadership programs, continuing training for teachers, parent-teacher associations, and health education programs in primary schools that are constantly being strengthened in the target communities.  The CHESS project proposes to extend and enhance these initiatives through the following nine programs:


Health education workshops in schools

These workshops will include topics on appropriate use of latrines, importance of washing hands, handling and keeping water clean. The project will run a total of six workshops in coordination with Institute Juan XXIII from UCA. They have worked in the area running health projects for ten years.

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8 workshops will be held as a total in 28 months with the objectives to: 1. discuss and learn about the importance of keeping and consuming clean water and what clean water means (which is not necessary the water extracted from wells); 2. to discuss health related problems that derived from unsafe/unclean water. The main goal is to show the importance of having a device that would help consume clean and safe water and learn to use the water ceramic filters (how they are made, how they work, how to keep them working properly) the teachers and families will receive to use in schools and homes.

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Workshops on interactive methodologies of teaching the English language will be held four times. The workshops are run by professors from Universidad Centro Americana (UCA) with Masters Degree in English. These professors are also members of the National Association of English Teachers in Nicaragua and their mission is to offer training to those teachers that it the most. The 10 English teachers from Villa El Carmen will have the opportunity to receive these workshops. In addition, Gran Pacifica and Rotary Clubs will cover 18 courses in the English language at $90.00 each approximately for those teachers that need it the most.

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Local English teachers from Villa El Carmen schools will teach 2 hours per week to the students in 5th and 6th grade or if the school is multigrade and very small to all the students in the classroom (5 schools have only 2 or three classrooms which mean that up to four different grades are together in one classroom). 11 schools out of the 12 are not teaching English to their primary grade students.

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1. Global Education Fund Trainings: a one week long training in active methodologies of teaching Spanish, Math and Science.
2. Workshop for preschool teachers: Academic Support Services (ASC) in Managua who has been offering workshops for teachers for 2 years in Nicaragua will run these workshops. They have experience in training teachers in interactive methodologies of teaching taking into consideration different abilities in the child.
3. Workshop on self evaluation of teachers: The Education Institute of Universidad Centro Americana and Institute Juan XXIII have designed workshops for teachers on how to self evaluate their skills, strengths and weaknesses in their own learning and teaching. We consider this workshop as one of the most important ones because the teachers gain independence, self esteem and initiative after they finish the workshop.
4. Workshop on how to manage multigrade classrooms effectively: Academic Support Services will run these workshops. They have experience in training teachers working in multigrade classrooms. The Ministry of Education does not train their teachers to work with two or more grades at once. In rural areas about 90% of the teachers work with these conditions.
5. Workshop on how to teach with a gender perspective: The project will contact other organizations with experience running this type of workshops. Plan International, UNICEF, and Save the Children are some of the organizations running similar programs in the country.
6. Workshop on dental health: Colgate Palmolive in Nicaragua has educational programs for elementary schools. While they teach teachers appropriate use of tooth brush and dental floss they also donate 100% or 50 % (depending on availability) of the tooth brushes for the students of the teachers attending the workshop.

Library programs for schools

Gran Pacifica and Rotary Clubs will fix spaces for libraries in at least three schools. Workshops on how to organize and use libraries will be held. Local bookstores such as Hispamer offer trainings in how to organize and use libraries appropriately. Appropriate furniture and books will be provided to establish welcoming work and reading areas.

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Workshop for primary and high school teachers on Precolumbian history will be designed and run by Manuel Roman-Lacayo, PhD, an archaeologist associated with innerCHange. He will train teachers on how to incorporate information on petroglyphs and precolumbian history into the social sciences curriculum, through multiple activities including hands-on experiential learning, presentations and group work. This activity has a two-fold objective. First, as a practical workshop and second as a way to model learner-guided inquiry informal education methods.

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In addition to the workshops for teachers, working with teachers and community leaders, we will hold after-school workshops for parents and families of the students covering the critical topics of first aid, health and nutrition, hygiene, and clean water.  The target populations are primary school children ad their families in 12 selected primary schools in different communities throughout the municipality of Villa El Carmen, with a total target population of over 1,000 families. As an integral part of the education programs—and as an incentive for participation—families would be given ceramic water filtration devices at the completion of associated training programs. 

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By addressing safety challenges in primary schools, we want to create a more attractive environment to entice students to remain in school. In our 12 target primary schools in communities throughout Villa El Carmen, health and safety hazards range from the absence of clean water; latrines needing repair; broken and rusted fencing around playground areas; broken and rusted playground equipment; and hazardous, jagged-edged building sidings.


In addition, in a special partnership with Rotary International, we propose drilling up to five new water wells next to primary schools that have good sources of water.

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