La Esperanza Granada – July 2020

Dear friends of La Esperanza Granada,
 
Covid continues to be a problem in Nicaragua and most organizations have remained closed. Although there is no mandatory quarantine or covid prevention action in Nicaragua, schools are closed now for vacation until July 23 and students will receive school classes on national tv channels.
 
The rice and beans program is continuing as well as the life skills workshops for the university students. We are taking all safety procedures and decided to begin the workshops again to give the university students experience on how to safeguard against covid. It is important learning for individuals and their families as well as preparation for opening the learning centers in the future. The university students continue to study online, attend the workshops, and assist to distribute rice and beans. It is nice to be back together, even with distance.
Below we share a story from a family that is receiving rice and beans through your kind donations

Meet Elman’s family

Elman Antonio is a regular student at Amped Learning Center in Pantanal. Elman is in grade 3 at José de la Cruz Mena School. He is 10 years old and he lives approximately 7 km from the learning center. His mom and dad, Azucena and Alfonso and two older sisters live with Elman.

Elman has been going to the Amped Learning Center for the past three years. Azucena said “I sent him to Amped because I want him to learn. He says that most of the things he learns in the learning center he doesn’t see at the school”.

Azucena usually works sowing okra but since Covid hit the country the owner of the farms where she used to work stopped needing people.

Alfonso, with a borrowed cart and his own horse used to work outside of a hardware store in the city moving materials such as sand, cement, bricks, gravel, etc. from the store to people’s houses. He had to stop going because the hardware stores were closed for a while and now there are few people buying those materials.

Both of them remain home waiting for someone to call them to do any farm work. Meanwhile, they are at home doing house shores like fixing the wooden fence. While we were visiting, Alfonso received a call from someone asking him to fumigate a field.

Azucena remarked “this is how we are looking for food every day. Nowadays it is awfully hard, but I am so thankful to God and La Esperanza Granada for this help with rice and beans. For us it’s a great help”.

As with Elman’s family there are many people struggling each day to take food to their homes

Life skills program

We have started the life skills program again with our group of 31 university students. In June, students benefited from two workshops about self-knowledge and assertive communication. We followed all the preventive measures to minimize the risk of transmission. In the self-knowledge workshop, students completed questionnaires and exercises to know themselves better, and for example, to identify their strengths and weaknesses. They also learned about Assertive Communication and how to apply it in everyday situations. We asked two students their opinions about the themes:

Alexandra, a nursing student remarked on the importance of self-knowledge “it is very interesting and important because as young people we get depressed, we worry and give a lot of importance to problems or situations that really are not so serious or big. All of this because we do not really know ourselves as we are inwardly”.

Leyri, an engineering student shared “The theme of self-knowledge is a key theme, as young people we have to know what we want from this life, our goals and purposes. Self-knowledge is important because it serves as a way of knowing how to react to situations and how to make a decision in our life. No one else will be able to decide for us. Based on self-knowledge we will take the best decisions from today onwards”. On the topic of assertive communication, Leyri commented that “assertive communication is an especially important theme. In our society this type of communication is needed and we as young future professionals need to be able to express ourselves clearly. It is key to solving problems properly, in the right way”. The life skills program will continue with topics of financial literacy, first aid and environmental protection.
High School  The Ministry of Education has not cancelled or stopped the school year. The principal of Nueva Esperanza High School told us that the Ministry has given instructions to start teaching classes online, but the community does not have the resources to implement it (access to computers and internet). Most students are not attending classes and the school is giving out worksheets to complete and return to the school for marking. However, the Ministry of Education will have classes on TV during the vacation break and the expectation is that students will return to school with their work completed.
To donate, please using the following link:

https://www.la-esperanza-granada.org/donating/

THANK YOU FOR YOUR DONATIONS!Donations: Alexandra Ghiozzi $100, Terry Leary $100, Sara Begona $5, Christopher Kondas $25, Valeria Moers $50, Lauren Siegmund $20, Michael Richards $15, Rebecca Weatherhead $5, Giovanni Ruzzante $20, Vicki Skinner $5, Timothy Jaroche $100, Brian and Emily Shea $100, Judith Andreica $100, Jennifer Tatum $100, Wendell Blubaum, $100, Cynthia Moser $50, Dale Schroeder $50, Geralyn McGuire $100, Jerome Gustafson $100, Ruth Carson $40, Peter Kitchen and Sue Fernie €100, Nicafriends €500.

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
Granada 40000
Nicaragua