Villa El Carmen, Nicaragua

March 2, 2007 to June 30, 2007
Submitted to USAID by innerCHANGE associates international

innerCHANGE associates international, llc
341 S. Ritter Road
Sewickley, PA 15143

Executive Summary

The Children, Health, Education and Supporting Services (CHESS) concept became a reality as a result of the collaboration between three main partners: Gran Pacifica Nicaragua (located in the municipality of Villa El Carmen), Pittsburgh Rotary Club and innerCHANGE associates international (iCHai). With partner contributions and the receipt of USAID’s Program Alianzas para la Educacion la Salud, grant award of March 2, 2007, CHESS will, over the course of the 28 month project, deliver almost $300,000 in products and services to the community of Villa El Carmen. Under the project management of iCHai, funds will be used to achieve the encompassing goal of improving the quality of life for many of the people of Villa El Carmen most prominently by direct efforts to empower the community through improved primary school education and health training within 12 rural schools and 3 health posts. This inaugural version of the CHESS quarterly report will reach outside the boundaries of a traditional quarter, April through June, to include March of 2007. It is critical to capture those tasks accomplished during March because they provided the foundation for the project success to follow.

Program Objectives

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 Club of Pittsburgh, as well as non-profit organizations already operating in the municipality of Villa El Carmen, this project builds on primary school peer-mentoring programs, primary youth leadership programs, mother’s nutrition programs, 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 existing initiatives through the following seven programs.

Health Education Workshops in schools

These workshops will include topics on appropriate use of latrines, importance of washing hands, handling and water cleaning. The project will run six (6) workshops as a whole. In 2007, 2008 and 2009, the same workshops will be delivered twice to different groups of 32 teachers covering the total number of primary teachers in the target schools. The cost will include the honorarium of the trainers, meals and transportation of trainees and trainers to the place of the workshop.
Trainings on How to Use Water Filters

Over the life of the grant, eight (8) workshops will be held to educate the teachers on the importance of clean water. The presentations will include discussions on the significance of keeping and consuming clean water, health related problems that derive from unsafe/unclean water, and the importance of having a method that helps provide clean and safe water. Water filters will be introduced to the teachers so that they understand how they are made, how they work, how to keep them working properly, and how to monitor their effectiveness. The intention is for the teachers to share their new found knowledge with the students who will, in turn, take this information home to their families.

Practice sessions will be held so that everyone in the workshop has the opportunity to see how the filters work. Two workshops will take place in 2007; two will follow in 2008 and the final four in 2009. The costs will include the filters used in the trainings, honorarium of trainers, meals and transportation of trainees and trainers to the place of the workshop.

Continuing Training for English Teachers

Workshops on interactive methodologies of teaching the English language will be held four times in 28 months. These workshops are run by professors from Universidad Centro America (UCA) with Masters level degrees in Teaching. Members of the staff are also involved with the National Association of English Teachers in Nicaragua and offer these workshops for free as part of their mission to improve the quality of English teaching in Nicaragua. The costs that appear in the budget are related to meals served during the trainings and transportation of the teachers and professors to the workshop sites. At present there are ten (10) English teachers in Villa El Carmen; many of these teach English knowing only vocabulary and grammar further emphasizing the importance of this part of the project.

As part of the plan for continuing education, the English teachers in Villa El Carmen will be given the opportunity to attend the annual conference at UCA to receive additional training as well as educational materials to use in their classrooms. Teachers will also have the opportunity to develop a support network of experienced English language teachers from all over Nicaragua and elsewhere in Central America.

English for Primary School Children

Local English language teachers from Villa El Carmen schools will teach two (2) hours per week to students in the fifth (5th) and sixth (6th) grades. Seeing as each school is multigrade and very small, all students may be in the same classroom. For example, five (5) schools only have two (2) or three (3) classrooms so a single room can span four (4) different grade levels. Eleven (11) out of twelve (12) schools are not teaching English to their primary grade students. Due to the wages ($1.25 per hour) paid to local English teachers sufficient funds are available to cover all the schools.

Educational programs for pre-school and primary school age children

Workshops on the following topics will be held to educate pre and primary school teachers:
• Importance of dental health in the pre and primary grade ages;
• How to make creative activities for their classrooms;
• Self evaluation to gain initiative, critical thinking and problem solving skills in their own teaching process as well as learning process including model school methodologies;
• Effective management of multi-grade classrooms;
• Teaching with a gender perspective.
Library programs

In concert with local school officials and other partners, an effort will be launched to renovate abandoned classrooms and repair existing facilities to create inviting library spaces within the community schools. Workshops will be offered to allow for collaboration on topics such as techniques for fostering a love for reading in students and how the libraries can be utilized to their greatest potential.

Hands-on Science and Archeology Programs

Working closely with parents and local government and community members with a profound knowledge of the natural and archeological reserve area, practical trainings in science and social studies will be made available to the students. Advanced students will be taught how to use their field experience to design brochures in both English and Spanish; these brochures could be made available to visitors. Other workshops will include training students on the preservation of flora and fauna and preparing narrative dialogs for guided walks through the site; students will be taught how to answer extemporaneous questions about the site that may arise during these walks. An added benefit of this training will be opening the door to the possibility of future employment in the tourism industry for the current students.

Program Strategies

Within its humanitarian division, iCHai engages skilled associates and critical partners to manage sustainable and culturally appropriate programs and projects. With Janet Foerster acting as Program Director and providing chief oversight in the United States, Ligia Diaz Roman, an iCHai associate, serves as the in-country Program Manager. Ligia is in the unique position of being able to provide on-sight supervision and support to two local facilitators; these young adults are from the community of Villa El Carmen. They act as liaisons with the schools and make sure that programs are being implemented, help to organize activities and visit all 12 schools regularly to provide feedback to the teachers. Gran Pacifica provides on-site physical storage for donated materials and books, on-site financial services, office space, transportation, and human resources.

Program Activities,
March 2, 2007 – June 30, 2007

Immediately after receiving word that the CHESS grant had been approved, local project coordinator Ligia Diaz, hit the ground running. As iCHai’s local presence, Ligia worked with Helio Alfaro, of Gran Pacifica, to gather data on schools (Enrollment Statistics 2007) and health centers in Villa El Carmen. Relying on leads provided by local authorities -Villa el Carmen’s Mayor, Ministry of Education and Health delegates and the local English teachers- Ligia and Helio were able to confirm which schools and health centers needed the most help and would benefit the most from CHESS intervention. Once the schools were identified, activities were planned and staff hired. Plans had to be formalized and presented to the Ministry of Education delegate for approval. Once approval was granted, meetings with teachers, students and parents in the schools were held to educate the community on what was coming. A major milestone for the project was this initial contact with the teachers; they very much appreciated the training and open dialog about the topic as the Ministry of Education often focuses on other subjects and does not provide such training to the teachers. Meanwhile, providers were contacted to buy the textbooks and supplies needed to operate. The projects took off in a flurry of activity and the momentum, for the English program in particular, has not slowed since.

English for Primary School Children The three partners supporting CHESS firmly believe that students should not have to wait until the seventh grade to start learning the English language. For those students that do actually make it to high school, the transition is a hard one; for those who can’t continue their formal education that far, there is no chance to learn even the basics of the language.

We want to do more than simply teach the semantics of the English language; in order to do just that, we strive to plant the seed as early as possible in their lives and make it as much fun as possible. Therefore, on April 16th, the first English classes were held in 11 of the 12 schools with eight English teachers from the municipality

We were very fortunate to find nine English teachers who are very committed and obviously love what they do. The teachers had to overcome many challenges to be effective in this environment. Many had never taught small children before; the multi-grade classrooms encompassed all grade levels and instruction had to be modified to include everyone.

Text books were unavailable.The seemingly simple logistics of the location of the schools themselves posed a huge obstacle to teachers working in multiple locations within a limited time period; they simply could not get from here to there in a timely enough manner. And, of course, one could not have expected that the launch of the CHESS project would coincide with a national strike in the education system. Despite these factors, the project is proving to be a success. Over the course of just one month.

(April 16 – May 16), 58 hours of English language instruction was delivered to as many as 417 primary schools. In subsequent months (May 16 – June 16), we saw an increase to 96 hours taught while keeping costs at a minimum of $100 in teacher fees. Even with the flux caused by teacher turnover during the June to July timeframe, 63 hours of English were still taught and the numbers quickly rebounded once that teacher was replaced to an amazing 103 hours.

In addition to the Nicaraguan teachers, the CHESS program benefited from a very energetic native English speaking intern. Kristin Allen went to all the schools and, in addition to evaluating the English teachers, jumped in and sang songs with and played games to teach the children English. The students were having fun and they were learning too!

Follow up visits to the schools, even after the teachers strike, have yielded very encouraging results. At one school, the California School, iCHai/CHESS staff was greeted by students singing a song in English. Some students were able to introduce themselves in English. At the Osneida School, students were able to associate the English words with pictures of fruits and animals. They were so enthusiastic about showing off their new skills and appear to thoroughly enjoy their new text books.

The indirect benefits of this education are immeasurable at this time. Students have told members of the CHESS team that their parents are very excited about them learning English as it opens up a new range of possibilities for the future.

.		Distributing the Books In order to support the English language classes, 240 English language textbooks were purchased using Alianzas and Rotary Funds; (Purchase and Delivery of English Textbooks) At present, there are enough books for the young students to read and to complete language exercises in pairs.
On the oppressively hot morning of Tuesday, April 17th, the three local members of the CHESS program staff faced the significant task of transferring some 1216 text books, marked for use in the elementary grades, from the Gran Pacifica office to the pick up truck that would be used to transport them to Villa El Carmen. Luckily, Carlos Jerez of Gran Pacifica pitched in to help load dozens of books.
Luckily, Carlos Jerez of Gran Pacifica pitched in to help load dozens of books. The following morning, we arrived in Villa El Carmen at 8:00 am and were greeted by teachers, parents and community leaders including Lesbia Rosales, the delegate of the Ministry of Education. Eager hands worked diligently to unload and organize the incoming books.
On May 7th, Programa Alianzas staff member, Cristina Pereira accompanied CHESS personnel on a second trip to distribute books.
This time the destinations were three of the rural schools;(Delivered books at our 12 Schools) Again, regardless of the fact that the teachers were currently on strike, they continued to show their support to the program by accompanying the parents and students who came to the schools to offer their services. To the right is the director and assistant director of Santa Rita #1, the largest school that benefited from this donation.
Health and Hygiene Workshops The very first workshop in health and hygiene was attended by our entire target audience, some 63 teachers of primary and preschool grades. The teachers came from 12 different schools, 10 of which are in very rural areas with unpaved roads and no electricity; some schools do not have water for the students. These schools encourage the students to bring the water they will drink during the school hours from home.
		The workshop was led by Ms. Marlene Suarez, a nurse with more than 10 years of experience in community health projects. Over the course of the 4 day training, Ms. Suarez worked to instill the importance of washing hands before and after recess and after using the latrine. Collecting, selecting and disposing of waste correctly in the schools must become a habitual practice in the children so that they will bring practices to their homes. The workshops proved to be a huge success. They were thoroughly enriched by the enthusiastic participation of teachers who participated in different activities throughout the workshop.
Over the course of this workshop, the teachers defined several goals for their schools, classrooms, students and their families. Teachers pledged to encourage the habit of washing hands with students and to hold short workshops with students and parents about personal hygiene and care of the human body. In concert with these preemptive measures, the teachers will check the children, to see whether they have parasites or other illnesses that can be easily spotted and to work with MINSA (Ministry of Health) to hold campaigns to deworm the children.
Water Filtration Workshops In order to support the CHESS initiative of teaching the citizens of Nicaragua the important practices of hygiene and the role of clean water, 30 teachers in Villa El Carmen received hands on instruction from Frank Shuringa, owner of the Nicaragua based, Filtron, a water filter company. Using a proprietary mix of clay, sawdust, and colloidal silver, the Filtron clay water filters have been proven to eliminate 98% of the bacteria, parasites and impurities in the water.
		Mr. Shuringa donates his time to the CHESS cause because of his deep belief in this project. Teachers received instruction on why the devices are useful, how to install them and use them. The practical, hands on session was very important to the teachers. It was also important to teach the teachers the illnesses that could develop from drinking contaminated water.
To date, each classroom has a water filter and the teachers and students refill them whenever it becomes necessary. (Direct Beneficiaries and Amount of hours per day using water filter devices)

1 Only the Institute Gustavo Carrion is not part of the program because their sixth graders are already participating in English language classes.
2 The English teachers involved are Helio Alfaro, Elvis Gutierrez, Maria Isabel Cruz, Luis Felipe Reyes, Nestor Muños, Henry Fonseca, German Chavarria, Germania Gazo, and Mary Obando.

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