Integration Program that gives disadvantaged children the opportunity to dream, with a health, nutrition and education plan. The objective is to help this new generation of children that come from low income families to become vocational tecnitians helping them compete and advance in society.

Project Name:  Centro Escolar Pan y Amor
Centro Escolar Pan y Amor was established in the year 2000 and  attends  350 of Nicaragua’s poorest children with a 10 hour  schedule from Monday through Friday, thus keeping these children off the streets and allowing them a program of health, nutrition and access to an excellent education, which will eventually  allowing them the opportunity of  joining the ranks of useful members of Nicaragua’s society rather than  becoming a burden on society by becoming gang members, thieves, prostitutes, drug dealer, addicts or simply  remaining in deep poverty.  The school is situated on the edge of the 90 city block informal Oriental Market and the children come from mostly single parent families (normally either the mother or grandmother are responsible) with multiple siblings, who live in some of the roughest, poorest neighborhoods of Managua.  The day starts at 7 a.m. with a hot cooked breakfast, followed by a morning of formal education, a hot cooked lunch with fruit for desert, an afternoon including computer, English classes, sports, art, dance, music, choir, crafts, tutoring and supervised home work.  The children receive a glass of a cereal drink before leaving at 5;  for many this is the last food they have that day. The children start as young as new born in a day care center and go through to 11th grade which happens to be   the graduating year in Nicaragua.  The classes are kept small to allow for as much  personal  attention to be given to each  child as possible.  Some of our students initiate their first education at the ages of 10 through 15 years, this complicates our educational process, however special classes are created for these children, with the hope of at least teaching them their basic skills in  reading, writing and  math, as well as concentrating  on  elevating their self esteem and trying to  teach them the basic life skills.  Due to the great limitation of funding,  the integration of these older  children into the school,  are kept to a minimum,  concentrating more on increasing the number of incoming children at a much earlier age.  Through a team of 2 psychologist and 2 social workers each child’s case history is well known, their homes visited on a regular basis and the parents invited to work shops at the center.   The children are supplied, when needed, with their school uniform, shoes, transport to and from school and any other need they may have such as medical, dental, eye glasses as well as their note books and writing equipment. 

Due to the lack of funding, poorly qualified, although  government  certified teachers, are hired adding  to the difficulty of  educating these children having to first  train   the teachers  who  lack even the basic skills of maintaining discipline in the class room, much less being creative in their  teaching or  preparing in advance for classes.  Also due to lack of funding only the teachers have work books to teach from and although slowly we have increased the number of student  work books available, through donations, we still only have a few text books per class forcing the students to share.   However  despite the difficulties, during  the last few years the level of education at the center has far surpassed the general government public school level and our goals for the next few years is to continue this trend looking for a higher education.   The 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders (who have been at the center since very young) are already showing good signs of  being able to reach a high standard of education.  They are   capable of reading  well, understanding and analyzing what they read, they are developing good cursive script with each child showing his/her own character, with  cleaner text books and they are reaching a good level in the math and sciences.  We hope to challenge these younger children mentally as they move on up the grades, with the aim of stimulating them to become creative, ambitious young people.

Who/what does/will it benefit and how?
At this time 350 would be street children attend the center and our program helps keep them off the street, developing life skills, morals and supplying them with an excellent   education,  thus enabling them to eventually form a useful part of Nicaragua’s working society,  receiving  dignified wages which will in turn permit them to offer their future families a good home.  Over the years through a ripple effect thousands of people should be directly affected.

Our cleaning, kitchen, day care center and sewing shop staff are mostly unskilled, single family mothers with multiple children, who have been hired due mostly to their social needs and not for their skills.  These ladies receive a decent (by local standards) wage, 2 free meals a day, their children attend at the center and they receive medical and dental assistance when needed.

The teachers receive decent wages by Nicaraguan standards (although very low  by Central American standards) how ever we have committed to increase their wages by 20% annually until they reach the Central American wage level.  They also receive 2 free meals a day, breakfast and lunch and although insured by the government health insurance, they are also financially assisted when possible when their insurance does not cover their medical needs.The parents are benefiting from the improved attitude their children are exhibiting at home and the school is becoming well know for its discipline and higher education.  Many parents used to bring their children as a last resort, when the child was out of control, with the hope that we could turn them around and prevent them from leaving home etc, however they are now bringing them at a much younger age as they are noting and enjoying their learning skills as well as their behavior.  Our matriculation for the 2008 school year was impressive showing how the school is becoming well know in the area and we have had  to disappoint many parents by turning children away through lack of space. 

What is your role?
Board Member
Fund Raiser
Involving my company personnel in helping this and other similar centers on a personal base. 

How it is/will be measured?

• The results of this program are seen on a daily bases.  We have taken children with not the minimum of education, foul language, many lacking hygiene, mal nourished, petty thieves,   receiving shouts and violence as their discipline at home and many have already been sexually or physically abused.   On entering the center, the first things which will meet your eyes are happy, not too unruly, uniformed children who love their school and who are learning to dream.  Our children start to believe that a dream can be reached and they are starting to aim higher than their natural environment of the informal market area, in their dreams. As it would be normal in all developed countries, our pre school children  are starting to look to becoming a fireman, policeman, nurse, Doctor, Lawyer etc. On being asked what they wanted to become before they would just look at one with little blank faces.  “What could they possibly mean our future”? “It is today, a meal, having fun in a clean place and not being out in the sun and the fumes of the street.  Being treated kindly, learning the meaning of Love”!
• During 2008, 7 of the older boys from the center have been awarded  scholarships at one of Nicaragua’s good vocational schools (Don Bosco) allowing them to receive  vocational training at the same time they are preparing for their graduation at the end of the year, with the further expectation that these boys may well become  candidates for a University degree.  Some of our other older boys (mostly from the home) are already working as apprentices during the afternoons in the private enterprise, 2 already having reached their 19 years and are  now being employed full time.
• Quality of teaching and educational standards has improved.
• Computer skills are being learnt.
• English as a second language is starting this year (2008).
• Carpentry work is being learned during the craft classes.
• The older children are being encouraged to find out and learn more about the world around them, not only Nicaraguan events but also world affairs.  The boys from the Home and the secondary school children receive the local news paper and will be asked to follow and then report on national or international affairs at regular periods during the school year.  2008 is also the municipality election year which is a very important political event in Nicaragua and an opportunity to learn a little about how politics works in Nicaragua.  Our discussions are impartial and  we do not influence  the children as to  what  political party they should belong to, some of the older children will be helped to get their legal voting/ID card as the age for voting is 16 here.  Our religious teachings are basically Catholic but we respect all our children’s/teachers religious beliefs.

  Why is this project worthy of  CALIBecause it is innovative

• It’s the first elementary school for the poor with a program of health, nutrition and access to an excellent education, which will eventually include boarding school.  Allowing children the opportunity of  joining the ranks of useful members of Nicaragua’s society
• It turns into a leading project within Nicaragua.

What would we do with the money received?
Guarantee better salaries, more books and equipment, employ more staff needed for specialties like special attention for  older children with little learning, improve health care  including a dental chair at the school, help pay for additional staff like a nurse for the day care center and more staff in the day care, allow for more field trips for the children during the school year, musical equipment, work shop equipment, folk lore dance costumes (the children are often invited to perform at the Central Bank and often have to hire their costumes), more art supplies and vocational training for the older boys/girls such as attending the new Hotel Management school which has opened.

The board is in the process of planning the relocation of the school and will need to buy the land and then build the new school.  Architectural plans are being worked on to have a rough idea of the projected cost of constructing a new school and we believe we already may have a donation of 4 manzanas of land for this project.  The   land deal should become clear in the next couple of months and the agreement would be for us to buy the property which has a real estate value of around US$450,000, for US$50,000. 

What are we looking for:  A property large enough to build a school for 600 children, 300 free and 300 paying students.  The center is planned to include if possible a boys home for 25 to 30 boys from the ages of  5 to 12 years.  A girls home for 25 to 30 girl from the ages of 5 to 18 years old, a paying guest house for  working Mission groups visiting Nicaragua to help pay for the cost of the center, a house for a religious order we hope to eventually find to take over the center and run it giving longevity to the project.