The Forgotten Children of the Land of Lakes and Volcanoes

 On 3rd November I received the news that a hurricane was on its way and that already there were strong winds and rain.  Next the power lines were lost.  On 4th November parts of the Caribbean coast were evacuated as a national disaster struck.  I hoped that Ometepe being more centrally located and in the lake would be protected.  But no. Later that day came the news that crops had been flattened, the roads were like rivers and poorer homes had been badly damaged.  Everyone was in a state of shock.  Marvin's comment was that he preferred the plants to be killed than the people!  But it is their livelihood and their food. The poorest people live in makeshift homes of wood, plastic, sometimes a bit of tin on the roof, and many of these had blown apart or had water run straight through them. I want to offer sincere thanks to those who responded to my Facebook appeal and within 24 hours had provided funds for immediate help.  Marvin set about gat...

 When I was in Ometepe earlier in the year we identified the water and sanitary facilities as in need of overhaul and improvement in several of the schools. Because of current challenges, we have been unable to obtain a grant or raise the full cost.  However having paid for school uniforms and set aside the cost of the university courses as promised. it seemed best to use funds to make a start on the project.  We have therefore now sent $1200 to begin improving the facilities at the Rafaela Herrera primary school.  The materials ae being collected and work on digging new latrines has begun.  Some repairs to the tank and plumbing were undertaken in February and more of this work can now be addressed. Bill from builders' merchant Digging the latrines, all done manually!  Some paid labour is being used plus voluntary work from parents. Materials being collected ready! More photos will be posted when the work is completed, and we will then update the budget for...

 At this time of year we start to organise the school uniforms for the new school year.  This is a long process of seeking out the poorest families in all eight schools according to their total numbers and gathering information on their ages, parents and family circumstances, to ensure we are addressing highest need. Marvin and his wife Sylvia have coordinated all this information and obtained the costings from the local shop. We are funding 98 uniforms/shoes this year.   We have allocated £1000 this year.  El Corozal asked for shoes from their part of the budget because some of the poorest families receive a donation of uniform from elsewhere or they are passed on to them. The children continue to receive incentives and rewards for their achievements, from the boxes of goods we send.  Here they are receiving sports bags, collected from the Rotary depot at Farnham, excess promotional materials, that were not needed.  As you can see they are very much a...

 The satellite school at Tilgue has requested help to repair  their electrical system and a sum of $150 about £120 has been sent to help with this and work is currently being undertaken by a local electrician and the help of the parents. We had replaced the light bulbs so that the classrooms were illuminated but unfortunately a severe storm damaged them, so I have requested that a surge protector is now installed to prevent this happening again.  I observed when I was in Ometepe, the dangerous state of the infrastructure that children are working in and felt that this is as important to address as the educational equipment.  Particularly as we are able to send a lot of equipment boxed up in the containers, albeit that some is second hand. The headteacher Hemer, continues to distribute pens and pencils at the start of term, eking out supplies.  Unfortunately we are not obtaining more from the regional Rotary club at present, just through local people's second han...

Whilst I was in Ometepe, we gathered evidence of the many needs of the schools and formed them into a yearplan thinking of the best time tom offer support and the priorities across the schools. Since my return we have funded three further projects. The first was the repairs to the roof in the secondary school.  One of the classrooms had a rusted roof which let in the rain and with the approaching raining season it was clearly going to make for very uncomfortable learning and teaching.  With the help of Marvin and Pedro Antonio we purchased materials and the repair was made. There was a repair to a retaining wall needed in the primary school, again to prevent the foundations being washed away by the heavy rains.  We found ourselves able to support this task too. More recently we have supported the construction of a retaining wall to prevent the mud being washed downhill onto the children's play area. Meanwhile the school used some of its...