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La Esperanza Granada April 2020

Dear Friends of La Esperanza Granada,

Let me share some news from far away Granada. As in most of the world, our lives have been turned upside down over these last weeks. Fortunately, to date, we have no information of any Coronavirus cases in Granada (five cases have been reported so far in Nicaragua) but we sure do not take this lightly. 

 As of Monday, March 23, the learning centers and office closed until things get better and the risk of illness has passed. This decision is not taken lightly but we follow global guidance on avoiding crowded places and encourage all children and staff to stay home to be safe. 

Other NGOs, organizations and partners in Granada have also temporarily closed. Our international volunteers rushed to get on the last flights out of Nicaragua and return to their home countries. We wish them all safe travels and good health.

Our hearts go out to all of you during this difficult time. Thank you always for your kind and continued support and our thoughts are with you along with our hope of good health for all of you. Time will be a great healer.
 
Un fuerte abrazo desde Granada.

How LEG is responding to COVID19

In view of the current Covid19 pandemic, LEG began to prepare with preventive measures, both children and educators in the learning centers in prevention:                             
🤲  Hand Washing                           
🤧  Coughing etiquette (cover your cough with flexed elbow)
❌  Not touching your face (eyes, nose and mouth)
🚶🏼‍♀️ ➖🚶🏼 Physical distance (at least 2 meter)                              
🏠  Staying home if feeling unwell

Volunteer Program

Since 2018, volunteer numbers at La Esperanza Granada have been very low, but we have had the dedication of some wonderful people, some of whom were long-term volunteers. With the current situation all volunteers have needed to leave and return to their home countries. Regina is sharing her experience of her return to Germany:

After doing a lot of research and thinking long and hard about our options, my husband and I decided to leave Nicaragua on Wednesday, March 11th.   (I say, “my husband and I”, but really, I have to give full credit to Miguel here! I would have never had the presence of mind or the character strength to make such a tough call so fast.) We realized that we had to act very quickly, so we had one day to hand over our tasks with La Esperanza (at least the parts that couldn’t be done online) and one day to say goodbye to the office staff, the high school staff and the educators as well as other people in Granada that we have grown to consider as friends.

We left with very heavy hearts – unsure what was going to happen to Nicaragua once the virus gets here and unsure what exactly awaited us at home. As the US and most Central American countries had already closed its borders to foreigners at that point, we took a bus to Costa Rica and then flew from Liberia via Amsterdam to Munich – two days before Costa Rica closed its borders as well.

It was heart-breaking to have to pack up and go from one day to the next. Obviously, it is very sad for us personally to have to cut our commitment short after having planned this year in Nicaragua for so long and having made so many sacrifices to make it happen. However, we realize that our tragedy is a minor one compared to what is going on in the world at large.

After all, we are in an incredibly privileged position: We were able to leave Nicaragua and return to our family at the start of the outbreak. We were able return to a country where the authorities are doing their best to battle the spread. We have family that very generously took us in and we can all be together while the pandemic unfolds. We will try to continue to work for La Esperanza online and will go on supporting them through our organization “Niños de Nicaragua e.V.”. In the meantime, we are doing our best to keep each other safe and keep our spirits up as much as possible.

How are LEG children learning about Respect?

As mentioned in the last newsletter, the LEG education program for children and youth is integrating life skills relevant for everyday life in the family, school and neighborhoods. We started this process with primary school children in the Learning Centers at the end of February with an afternoon dedicated to the value of Respect.

Why Respect? Last year, our educators identified “Values” as a priority for our life skills program for children. Understandably, educators wish to spend afternoons with well-behaved children! We launched the series of four thematic afternoons with the value of “Respect”, the “grandmother” of human values. 

We all agree that spending three hours teaching children about respect could be boring and repetitive. So how did we make it relevant and stimulating for the children? To introduce the topic, we worked in small groups and mapped out what “Respect” means, for example respecting people, animals and nature. All age groups could do this exercise, even our preschool children.

Then we moved on to storytelling, reading selected stories that reflect the importance of behaving respectfully. We prepared questions to ensure reading comprehension. We presented a skit that featured the adventures of Morita (played by one of our educators), an astute and bright 10-year old girl who lives in a family and neighborhood like the children’s. As expected, this modest theatrical effort was a hit! Children could easily relate to the story and understand the importance of being respectful to their parents and friends.

We facilitated small group discussions so children could verbally share their personal experiences and then helped the children make a craft. Educators planned a colorful cardboard “Respect tree” with leaves that spell out the benefits of living in a respectful way. Children can then use their beautiful “Respect tree” to trigger a discussion about respect with their parents and siblings at home. The afternoon ended with a recap of the key ideas and some feedback by children. LEG values the right of children to participate and is very receptive to comments from them, for example the desire to create their own stories. The skit and 3-D craft were particularly appreciated by children.

When the current global pandemic is behind us and we can reopen our Learning Centers, we will be eager to pick up the 2020 life skills program for children with a focus on three other values – Honesty, Friendship, and Perseverance, as well as the themes of Personal Hygiene and Environmental Sustainability. So far, the children have reacted with a lot of interest and enthusiasm and more efforts will be continued, of course, to reach our long-term goal of positive behavior changes.

Our new tablets are ready for the learning centers!

Ryan Olson, a volunteer who has worked with La Esperanza Granada for 12 years now, has been working on setting up 40 new tablets that we were able to purchase thanks to a generous donation from Een Aarde through Nica Friends in the Netherlands. 

The new tablets are now installed with 120 activities and games for learning the letters, syllables, words, numbers, arithmetic, cognitive skills, colors, shapes, the world, English, and even  block programming for kids. 

These tablets are more than just learning tools for the young students, they are also increased motivation for the children to attend our learning centers.  They just love the reward of learning with the tablets and computers after attending all the other small-group workshops that our educators provide.

MEET OUR NEW BOARD MEMBERS A new Board for the organization assumed their leadership duties the previous month. Beat Rohr as President, Elizabeth Tapia as Vice President,Mayra Orozco is the new treasure, Graham Holliday as secretary and Nancy Bergman is the new vocal. We wish them a successful journey working together!

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR DONATIONS! 

Donations:  Sara Begona $5, Jeremey Blansett $9 for a backpack and supplies. Moser Family -Robert $40, Michael $20 and Cynthia $100, Charlotte MacNaughton $40, Mary Anne $150-, Regina and John Schamberger $5000 on behalf of Philip Woods.

VOLUNTEERS 
 Regina and Michael Heijdenrijk, Robert Glover, Marie Loveday, Philip Woods, Britt Kreijkes. Again, thank you so much to the many friends of La Esperanza Granada! Stay safe. 

The Esperanza Granada Team

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La Esperanza Granada
Calle Corrales, Costado norte del convento San Francisco
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Nicaragua