Rancho Esperanza and the Assist Jiquilillo Fund have been working on getting attendance to increase in the school so our idea has been do something special for the students who have perfect monthly attendance. This is a new project which we started this past Tuesday. We offered a piñata to the students who had perfect attendance for the 18 days of February. It however, was not just a piñata with candy, Nathan and I stuffed them full with pencils, erasers, and pencil sharpeners. It was really exciting to see the children’s faces when not just candy but pencils and other things fell! They were actually fighting over the pencils, erasers and pencil sharpeners and just letting the candy fall. I must say it was nice to see kids who wanted things that they would use for school! Since we are slightly behind on the months we will be doing March next week but may switch it up and give all the kids notebooks instead of doing a piñata! Only time will tell. We’d like to keep it as exciting as possible and do something different every month. Rancho Esperanza is very excited to tackle this project solo which works well for the Assist Jiquilillo Fund which has its funds tied up in other educational projects.
Actual attendance levels for February were fairly pathetic for First grade out of 45 students only 10 had perfect attendance. Second grade out of 23 students there were only 7 who were able to participate in the piñata. Third grade was better with 20 out of 23 and Fourth grade was good with 19 out of 21 students. Fifth grade was not as successful with only 7 out of 20 and Sixth grade had only 6 out of 18. Preschool did not participate in the piñata’s as the teachers herself was rarely there. It’s hard to see such low attendance levels but we can only hope that this project which is essentially bribing kids to come to class will work. Then the education itself is left only in the hands of the teachers.
As for sponsorships it is still a hard battle with the teachers. As of Tuesday at the suggestion of Nathan I’ve changed my scope of work with the teachers and I will no longer be basing the sponsorship on the four categories of attendance, participation, homework, and need. I will be meeting with the teachers over lunch next week, to discuss only attendance of the children and their levels of need. Once the Assist Jiquilillo Fund chooses 4 students from each class with the teachers I will begin a walk through the community to verify the level of need of each of these children. For those whom I find have the most need they will be sponsored. It will be a difficult decision but I am hoping to also get some helpful insight from Dona Francisca, the local health promoter. If all goes to plan, please cross your fingers that it actually does, all will be up and running by the end of the month. Then the last thing I will have to do is trips to Chinandega the city with all the children to purchase the uniforms, shoes, supplies, etc... And finally write the bios of the children and send them out to you the loving sponsors! I think the city trip will be a challenge, just imagine, little old me walking around a big city with up to 14 Nicaraguan children in tow. What a sight to see. I may need to reassess and just get measurements of all the children. I’m not sure on this part yet.
Actual attendance levels for February were fairly pathetic for First grade out of 45 students only 10 had perfect attendance. Second grade out of 23 students there were only 7 who were able to participate in the piñata. Third grade was better with 20 out of 23 and Fourth grade was good with 19 out of 21 students. Fifth grade was not as successful with only 7 out of 20 and Sixth grade had only 6 out of 18. Preschool did not participate in the piñata’s as the teachers herself was rarely there. It’s hard to see such low attendance levels but we can only hope that this project which is essentially bribing kids to come to class will work. Then the education itself is left only in the hands of the teachers.
As for sponsorships it is still a hard battle with the teachers. As of Tuesday at the suggestion of Nathan I’ve changed my scope of work with the teachers and I will no longer be basing the sponsorship on the four categories of attendance, participation, homework, and need. I will be meeting with the teachers over lunch next week, to discuss only attendance of the children and their levels of need. Once the Assist Jiquilillo Fund chooses 4 students from each class with the teachers I will begin a walk through the community to verify the level of need of each of these children. For those whom I find have the most need they will be sponsored. It will be a difficult decision but I am hoping to also get some helpful insight from Dona Francisca, the local health promoter. If all goes to plan, please cross your fingers that it actually does, all will be up and running by the end of the month. Then the last thing I will have to do is trips to Chinandega the city with all the children to purchase the uniforms, shoes, supplies, etc... And finally write the bios of the children and send them out to you the loving sponsors! I think the city trip will be a challenge, just imagine, little old me walking around a big city with up to 14 Nicaraguan children in tow. What a sight to see. I may need to reassess and just get measurements of all the children. I’m not sure on this part yet.
As for the purchase of materials for the schools, the Assist Jiquilillo Fund has purchased 6 dictionaries, 2 atlases, 5 puzzles of the muscular and skeletal system, 6 backpacks for the teachers, 6 notebooks for the teachers, 2 100-piece boxes of chalk, large paper for posters, 4 locks for the doors, crayons for each classrooms and pencils for each classroom. Currently only one more lock needs to be put on the door which I have a carpenter and friend scheduled to do next week. This one lock turned out to be way more complicated as the last lock was snapped off the cement as a result of someone kicking in the door. Hopefully this new lock will do the trick. After the lock is put on and the children are sponsored the Assist Jiquilillo Fund and Rancho Esperanza will be looking into getting a well built for the school and repairing the bathrooms. Pictures’ will come soon so you can see the current conditions.
No comments:
Post a Comment