Student Sponsorship

 

When Pat started her work in Nicaragua, she met Maribel, a precocious 7-year old who wanted desperately to learn to sew. She could barely reach the pedals, but was a quick learner and an inspiration to the older women, who soon learned to sew, too. Because public schooling in their village ended in the third grade, Pat decided to sponsor Maribel's education. Maribel, who aspired to complete third grade, went on to college.

 

Círculo has about 100 students sponsored through Amigos del Estudio. Most of the poorest families in Linda Vista and neighboring barrios now have a child in the program. The monthly assistance not only allows the sponsored child to study, but usually permits all the siblings to attend school, too--and everyone eats better!

 

For two reasons, our student sponsorship program has focused on the youngest school-age girl in a family. First, if money exists to send anyone to school, the first choice will usually be a boy. Second, the earlier girls get interested in their education, the better chance they have of staying in school and postponing pregnancy beyond their early teen years.

Preschool

 

Círculo de Amigas adopted a little preschool up the hill from our house. Volunteers painted the interior and then leveled and fenced a play yard. Now the children have a lovely place to play where cows and horses are no longer free to wander through and dirty. The picket fence and swing set are painted with bright primary colors. A sandbox is set off with a low block wall. Wheeled toys and large stuffed animals brings happiness to the little school whose children rarely see a toy.

 

Cooking Stoves

 

Círculo de Amigas has campaigned to change families from cooking with rain forest wood to propane. As of December 2002 we had provided 82 set-ups of 3-burner stoves, complete with valves, fittings, fuel tanks (full), stands, and a safety lesson! Each set-up costs $100.

 

One 5-year-old asked if her family's stove would still be working when she grew up enough to use it. We certainly hopes so!

 

Water Barrels

 

How we take for granted our water taps. In Linda Vista, finding water is often the first hurdle. Storing it, free from bugs and debris, is the next.

 

Círculo de Amigas has worked to help get water delivered to the barrio, and to get covered barrels to families for them to store it in. The European Community has just finished a massive project in Jinotega to provide potable water and sewage to all. Unfortunately not all the families can afford to connect to the system - only $50, but not 'only' to them.

 

Sewing

 

Teaching a group of poor Nicaraguan women to sew was how Círculo de Amigas began.

 

In 1986, retired U.S. school teacher, Pat McCully, started collecting sewing supplies and pedal-operated sewing machines. She took them with her in 1987 to a small Nicaraguan community of 23 families who lived in 16 houses without electricity.

 

Pat says, "I came to know some incredibly strong women; women who work on a par with the men in the fields; who clear the brush and prune coffee bushes with machetes that scare the hell out of me, but who were scared to death of sewing machines. These women shared their stories of fleeing their homes and leaving behind everything they owned when burned out by the Contras during the war."

 

In 1991 Pat returned to another Nicaraguan village with a pickup truck full of more donated supplies. She stayed there three and one-half months, hiring a local widow--and mother of 13 children--to help her. The sewing program blossomed from there.

 

Many Círculo graduates now use their seamstress skills to augment their meager incomes from taking in laundry, making and selling tortillas, or selling odds and ends door-to-door. (Sewing machines are sold to graduates at a low cost.)

Health Clinic 

 

The recession that started in 2008 affected donations to the point that we had to close our clinic early in 2009. Fortunately, there are now other clinics in the area that didn't exist when we came to the barrios in 1993, so we are still able to direct our students and their families to accessible, affordable medical care.