Naomi and the Ripple Effect Project in Guatemala
Naomi is in Guatemala as part of a project called The Ripple Effect. She is with a group including Rotarians and members of our church - St. Andrews River Heights United Church. In the photo above are from the left - Alex Zahradnitzky, Helen Forrest, Gail Zahradnitzky, and Naomi.
The Ripple Effect project recognizes the importance of education and how educating children has a ripple effect that improves the well-being in communities in many ways. She has writing from Guatemala about the visits she and her group have made to schools there. They certainly have been challenges.
Letter of February 19: "We had a very interestiing day looking at schools. We met with the Mayor just to say hello and his wife, Carolina, took us to three schools she is involved with. The first was very poor, located in the middle of a squatters colony, and is a squatters shack at the bottom of a ravine which floods during the rainy season. One teacher for 55 students in one little tiny room with no running water. A very committed teacher who really is trying to make a difference in this community. The school leaks badly during the rainy season which is about 5 months. We met the students and they were enthusuastic; no supplies, no electricity but if they didn't have this school they would not have any. We are attempting to get another plot of land for them to build a new school on, but of course it will be another squatters plot, so if the land owner decides to take it back he might take the school with him. We are determined to set up an agreement so that if he takes the land back for his use we would remove the school. It is a very difficult situation but one big plus is that the mayor's wife is working very hard for education and is very involved with this school.
The second school was a 6 room school of about 350 kids with 6 teachers, built out of corugated iron and tin. It also leaks badly and floods during the rainy season, has very few school supplies, no electricity nor running water. We are very interested in becoming involved with and helping at this school.
The third school was like the second school but with the help of the mayor's wife, this school was upgraded very nicely to cement block, cement floor, and tin roof which does not leak during the rainy season. It has 8 teachers for 400 students, an enthusiastic principal, and both teachers and students wear uniforms. All of these students are getting some subsidized nutrition through the mayor's wife's office. She has a staff and has been working very hard for the kids programs. There is so much to be done in this country."
Letter February 22: "Our tour continues. We are running a very busy, tight schedule which means there is little time left for emailing and the computers are slow and in Spanish. We took time-off yesterday to climb up the side of a volcano which spews out smoke about every 5 minutes. There are about 32 volcanoes here in Guatemala and several which continue to be active. This one was active last in 1996 and at that time destroyed a few communities and killed many people. It was fascinating and hard work climbing up the mountain side on black sand and volcanic dust and rocks. There is very little vegetation on the mountain yet and it is very easy to see how the lava flowed down the mountain side.
This region is into the 4th month of a 6 month dry season, so vegetation is dry and brown but there is lots of green as well. The orchids are beautiful along with many other flowers. The country is very mountainous with deep valleys. The main roads are good but there is a lot of hard climbs up and down, hairpin turns and lots of trucks on the road because there are no railroads in this country. We´ve been seeing lots of agriculture terraced up mountain sides.
Today we left our hotel at 5AM and drove about 4 hours to visit a school which the Ripple Effect Project has been helping to build into a school of the future. It is K to 6 and has about 185 students. They have built a class room and improved the security and the electricity to install computers which will be done in a few weeks. This was one of the better schools with a few library books, some text books, and scribblers for the kids' use. It wasn´t nearly as crowded as the other schools we saw and there was a lot of community effort put into helping this school and its kids. For kids to graduate from grade 6 here is a big thing. It is very expensive for them to go to middle school but some manage to do it. Very few go to high school because of the cost of travel and books. The teachers have the equivalent of our grade 12. This community is largely agricultural and they grow 200 acres of ferns which are exported to Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain and USA. It was amazing to see a mountain side of ferns growing under netting. They employ up to 1500 people because the harvest is very work intensive.
So far we´ve visited about 8 schools and most of them are very crowded with very little supplies, dirt floors, and leaks during the rainy season. Some have nutrition programs for the poorest kids, but most have no electricity and toilets are flushed with a bucket of water. Some do not have running water at all and use a barrel on the roof to provide water. We are visiting some of the poorest schools because these are the ones this program is funding."
Letter of February 19: "We had a very interestiing day looking at schools. We met with the Mayor just to say hello and his wife, Carolina, took us to three schools she is involved with. The first was very poor, located in the middle of a squatters colony, and is a squatters shack at the bottom of a ravine which floods during the rainy season. One teacher for 55 students in one little tiny room with no running water. A very committed teacher who really is trying to make a difference in this community. The school leaks badly during the rainy season which is about 5 months. We met the students and they were enthusuastic; no supplies, no electricity but if they didn't have this school they would not have any. We are attempting to get another plot of land for them to build a new school on, but of course it will be another squatters plot, so if the land owner decides to take it back he might take the school with him. We are determined to set up an agreement so that if he takes the land back for his use we would remove the school. It is a very difficult situation but one big plus is that the mayor's wife is working very hard for education and is very involved with this school.
The second school was a 6 room school of about 350 kids with 6 teachers, built out of corugated iron and tin. It also leaks badly and floods during the rainy season, has very few school supplies, no electricity nor running water. We are very interested in becoming involved with and helping at this school.
The third school was like the second school but with the help of the mayor's wife, this school was upgraded very nicely to cement block, cement floor, and tin roof which does not leak during the rainy season. It has 8 teachers for 400 students, an enthusiastic principal, and both teachers and students wear uniforms. All of these students are getting some subsidized nutrition through the mayor's wife's office. She has a staff and has been working very hard for the kids programs. There is so much to be done in this country."
Letter February 22: "Our tour continues. We are running a very busy, tight schedule which means there is little time left for emailing and the computers are slow and in Spanish. We took time-off yesterday to climb up the side of a volcano which spews out smoke about every 5 minutes. There are about 32 volcanoes here in Guatemala and several which continue to be active. This one was active last in 1996 and at that time destroyed a few communities and killed many people. It was fascinating and hard work climbing up the mountain side on black sand and volcanic dust and rocks. There is very little vegetation on the mountain yet and it is very easy to see how the lava flowed down the mountain side.
This region is into the 4th month of a 6 month dry season, so vegetation is dry and brown but there is lots of green as well. The orchids are beautiful along with many other flowers. The country is very mountainous with deep valleys. The main roads are good but there is a lot of hard climbs up and down, hairpin turns and lots of trucks on the road because there are no railroads in this country. We´ve been seeing lots of agriculture terraced up mountain sides.
Today we left our hotel at 5AM and drove about 4 hours to visit a school which the Ripple Effect Project has been helping to build into a school of the future. It is K to 6 and has about 185 students. They have built a class room and improved the security and the electricity to install computers which will be done in a few weeks. This was one of the better schools with a few library books, some text books, and scribblers for the kids' use. It wasn´t nearly as crowded as the other schools we saw and there was a lot of community effort put into helping this school and its kids. For kids to graduate from grade 6 here is a big thing. It is very expensive for them to go to middle school but some manage to do it. Very few go to high school because of the cost of travel and books. The teachers have the equivalent of our grade 12. This community is largely agricultural and they grow 200 acres of ferns which are exported to Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain and USA. It was amazing to see a mountain side of ferns growing under netting. They employ up to 1500 people because the harvest is very work intensive.
So far we´ve visited about 8 schools and most of them are very crowded with very little supplies, dirt floors, and leaks during the rainy season. Some have nutrition programs for the poorest kids, but most have no electricity and toilets are flushed with a bucket of water. Some do not have running water at all and use a barrel on the roof to provide water. We are visiting some of the poorest schools because these are the ones this program is funding."
posted by Jon Gerrard @ 22.2.06
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