Background/History

La Curva, one of the three villages that make up the larger community of Guadalupe, is located 3 miles away from San Ramon (Matagalpa) right along the highway to Muy Muy. This village has a population of 2,500 inhabitants, whose main economic activity is the production of coffee, corn, beans and passion fruit, grown in small to medium family plots. The community has an elementary school compound formed by three standalone buildings and a small and dilapidated kitchen. Two of them are single classrooms and the third one has two classrooms. However due to the increase in enrollment, as a result of the natural population growth, these classrooms have been modified to accommodate a pre-school, grades from first to sixth, and meet other administrative needs of the Ministry of Education in this region.

One of them was split to provide space for a pre-school classroom (with 30 pupils) and the office of the Ministry of Education Director for the local Rural Education Nuclei (NER, made up by three more schools); as a result, the space for the pre-school is too crowded. A second classroom, the oldest one, is in very poor condition with a cement floor, poor ventilation, rusted roof that is too low, and improvised electric lighting. It was split to accommodate the second grade and a storeroom where the Ministry of Education stores the food served to students in the four schools of the NER. The third building, with two classrooms, is used by the first, third and fourth grades. Currently, because there is not enough space for the Fifth and Sixth grades in the morning, students need to attend the school in the afternoon.

For students in the rural areas, attending schools in the afternoon entails many disadvantages and risks. Children are more awake and alert in the morning, after breakfast, which facilitates being focused in the classes. Besides, if they are at home in the morning they are asked by their parents to help with home chores or participate in agricultural work, which reduces their time to do homework. Pupils who study in the morning have more time to do their homework in the afternoon, which has therefore a positive impact in their performance.

During the rainy season, storms and heavy rains are more frequent in afternoons. Rivers and creeks increase their torrents, a high risk for students traveling in the countryside. Many times this affects their capacity to attend school or return safely to their homes.

Goals & Objectives

1.) Construction of a new 10 x 6 meter classroom with brick and concrete walls, corridor, zinc roof, tile floor, metal-wood doors and metal-glass shutter windows.
2.) Re-building the old classroom building/bodega.
3.) Construction of the principal's office. This will release the space this office is using from the pre-school classroom and will provide the five existing teachers with space to do their administrative tasks and school sessions planning.
4.) One hundred and forty-seven students from pre-school through sixth grade will obtain the following benefits: improved conditions for learning in a dignified and suitable environment.
All the students will benefit from a safer and easy to clean kitchen area, which is currently providing one meal per day to all the students. The students, who are expected to participate directly in the project, will develop skills in the field of construction. They will also be able to learn from other cultures through their interaction with work groups of volunteers from the United States.
5.) Five hundred community members will participate. We expect the participation of at least 20% of the existing population from target communities who will benefit through the following: stronger community organization, and new construction skills developed among community members that work as volunteers in the project, which increase their chances to obtain a job.
The people will have increased self-esteem, confidence to undertake personal, community actions in favor of personal, and community development.

Activities Plan

a.) Conduct meetings with community members, Min. of Education, and school committee to assess project. Once decided on, project profile and budget developed.
b.) Procurement of building materials.
c.) Construction works.
d.) Project progress monitoring sessions with community members.
e.) Project reports.
f.) Project final evaluation and reporting.