Stephanie's February Letter

Greetings from Nicaragua!

How is everyone? Seems to me this is normally one of the coldest times of the year. Light those fires! Thanks to many of you for attending the dance benefit. Your support raised about $2300 for projects in Nicaragua.

Amati is once again in school so I have time to continue work with Project MN León. Today’s effort is "550 Books."

I have mentioned before that I will be leading several teacher training sessions for preschool teachers who practically volunteer their time. I am in the process of collecting books in Spanish for 55 (up from 47) of these community preschools in the state of León.

Many kids – if not most – grow up without ever reading a children’s story, much less owning a book of their own.

I have visited a few of the preschools that will be recipients of these books. One dynamic, attentive and committed teacher, Briseyda, especially impressed me. As with most of these community preschool teachers, she has a high school education and she earns 15 cents an hour. With this wage she could pay for one meal of rice and beans for her family, but instead invests it into her classroom. She has bought scissors and crayons for the kids, working in the evening washing or cleaning other people’s houses in order to provide for her family.

Another teacher uses her pay to provide a glass of milk for the kids. She believes that knowing that the child is being fed in school may persuade parents to keep kids in school even during the toughest economic times. According to the Nutritional Institute of Central America and Panama, the single biggest factor contributing to a child’s potential for acute malnutrition is the education level of the child’s mother. These teachers know that education of Nicaragua’s young girls is essential to Nicaragua moving forward.

Most of these preschool teachers open up their own homes as schools for up to 48 students at three different levels. The government provides four notebooks and four erasers every other year. One four-year-old student I met began preschool with hesitation due to the one-hour walk, but is now multiplying and reading and hopes one day to be a doctor, the first in his extended family that will have graduated from college. Quite an aspiration for a child that learned to multiply with a stick and dirt as his “chalk” and “chalkboard.”

For this reason I am launching this initiative. Please see important details in the notice following this letter.

If you would like to donate money so that we can buy books here in order to contribute to the local economy, simply write a check to PML with “550 BOOKS” in the memo and send it to 7455 South Lake Sarah Drive, Rockford, MN 55373.

Please pass this information on to anyone in the Twin Cities area who may want to be involved with contributing to 550 Books. Point them to this web site. As a teacher, this project would have perked my ears ... an engaging lesson plan for a restless Friday!

Sincerely, Stephanie Owen