Santa Rosa Fund Newsletter Issue 34

8/14/2019 Santa Rosa Fund Newsletter Issue 34

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SRF Newsletter 34 November 2009, p.1

SANTA ROSA FUND NEWSLETTER

Registered Charity No. 1028085 I ssue 34, November 2009

Supporting educational initiatives and projects in Nicaraguawww.santarosafund.org

More volunteers work at theSanta Rosa School

In July and August this year, two long-term supporters of the Santa Rosa Fund, Sue and KenMartin from Somerset, volunteered their time and skill to train members of staff at the Santa RosaSchool in Managua in the use of the schools computers. On page 2 of this issue of the newsletter we include their report of their time at the school and in the Nicaraguan capital city.

A b o v e SRF volunteers Sue and Ken Martin withClaudia Ramrez Sequiera, Deputy Director of theSanta Rosa School.

Left Sue training two members of staff, Perla MaraSerrano (left) and Gloria Solrzano Lpez (right).


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Member of staff Melba Ludin Hernndez at the computers

Sue Martin in the computer suite at the school

Volunteer reportSue and Ken Martin presented a lengthy and detailed report to the SRF trustees which hasenabled many improvements in the computing system at the school to take place. We haveincluded here only a few short extracts from their report, but the whole report is included on the

Computers page of our website www.santarosafund.org

Report on computer set-up at Santa Rosa School, September 2009Sue and Ken Martin

We appreciated the opportunity to work with the school and to support six

teachers. We also appreciated the help given to us by the Santa Rosa Fundin finding accommodation in Managua and in giving us contacts and adviceabout travelling around Nicaragua. As a consequence, we were able to useour weekends and occasional holidays to visit a variety of interesting placesby local buses including Granada, Len, a coffee plantation near Matagalpa, the volcanic Lago Apoyo and the Island of Ometepe. We alsospent a week in Costa Rica and enjoyed seeing another country.

This report contains our observations and suggestions about the computingfacilities at the Santa Rosa School. Simple, immediate things can be done tomake the current situation just that little bit better and these could come

within the current budgets. Developing the equipment to include internetwould incur further costs and must be balanced with other needs andrequirements of the school.

Problems There are various problems currently associated with the use of the computers at the school these are tobe expected. They include:

the local area network not working correctly;files have to be saved onto memory stick rather than hard disk;one of the computers is old and only has Windows 98 in English; some of the staff are attending training though we think this is often very theoretical.

Suggestionsthe transfer of responsibility for the computers to adesignated person or persons in the school. [Our regular readers will know that the Santa Rosa Fund currently hires the services of Gill Holmes (who lives in Managua)as a computer trouble-shooter for the school; it hasalways been our aim, agreed with Gill, that thisresponsibility should eventually transfer to the school.Spending two months at the school, Sue and Ken wereable to identify those staff most likely to be able to

perform this task, and so, along with the headteacher Mara Elizabeth Aragn, the Fund is currently investigating the possibility of paying the monthly fee of $25 that we now pay to Gill to one of the staff] ;


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Staff of the school enjoying a celebratory meal with Sue and Ken inthe Ben Dalton Library

one of the computers could be located in the Ben Dalton Library to give (controlled) access to thepupils at the school a booking sheet system could be applied;network connections could beimproved so that the printer can operate from allcomputers;internet access can be

investigated seriously whenthe network is operatingproperly and when thetelephone connection is re-installed;

Sue and Ken also donated to theschool a digital camera, amicrophone to record voices on thecomputer and use within PowerPoint,particularly for presentations tovisitors and the Santa Rosa Fundalso provided each of the sixteachers with 1GB memory stickswhich were presented with their certificates [for completing Sue and Kens course of training] .

Additionally, t he educational software company 2Simple donated two programs to the school. SomersetTotal Communications donated CDs with useful signing symbols. We also collected and left a set of freesoftware applications and resources, including image collections, simulated electrical circuits, mathsapplications and others. Currently, computer use is focused on the needs of teachers in their jobs usingOffice applications and for the general development of confidence in using images and sound, creatingdocuments and developing presentations.

Sue and Ken Martin

The Santa Rosa Fund is extremely grateful to Sue and Ken for the generosity that they showed to theschool and staff, not just with their time but also with the very useful items of equipment that they donated.The Fund will again be looking for volunteer computer trainers for the summer months of 2010. Moredetails can be found on our website.

Other projects supported by theSanta Rosa Fund

Sue and Ken Martin were joined by two SRF trustees and two other British visitors during the firsttwo weeks of their volunteering. As their first week was a school holiday in Nicaragua eventhough the Santa Rosa School opened its doors so that Sue and Ken could familiarise themselveswith the school and the equipment they all took the opportunity to visit some of the other educational projects supported by the Santa Rosa Fund. The following is a mixture of extractsfrom the notes made about these visits and projects by SRF trustee June Mowforth and other visitor Alice Klein. Please be aware that w e have retained th e sho rthand fo rm of th eir notes here.


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Visitors from Britain, Alice Klein and Karis McLaughlin, eating cakemade in the kitchen of the AQB Rehabiltation Centre with some of the

girls from the centre

Each child has a file which contains their birth certificates, if they have one (most don't). AQB has 6 workersand 6 psychologists to 172 children in the rehab centre. There is one based in the centre full-time but therest travel around visiting the families of the children.

AQB's major donors include the ILO [International Labour Organisation] and they must produce audits for each of their donors which is extremely time consuming. After the childs entry into the programme, AQBthen tries to stabilise their lives and to rehabilitate them, following which they try to reinsert them into familyand/or society. 50% of the children drop out. After the programme there is a co-operative of apprenticeships but generally low employment. It's difficult to set up new businesses or opportunities withso few resources. Children must try to maintain the stability they have reached and develop a self-realisation in order not to return to crime etc.

If space allows we will try to include some extracts from our interview with Mara Consuelo Snchez in the next editionof the SRF newsletter.

Vi lla Es p aa L ib rar y Our group of SRF representatives had so little time in El Viejo and the Cosigina Peninsula that they wereunable to pay a visit to the settlement of Villa Espaa (set up for the victims of Hurricane Mitch in 1998).We were asked by the nuns, however, if it would be possible for the Santa Rosa Fund to cover the salary of Patricia Jarqun, the librarian in the Villa Espaa library which is based in the Rosario Mayorga PrimarySchool and which is of important use for the whole community. The monthly rate is $70 (USD) an annualsalary of $840. We had insufficient funds to do this in 2009, but the trustees will consider the possibility for 2010 at their funding meeting in November.

La Chureca Children s project on Managuas dump

Thus far, the Santa Rosa Fund has donated a total of 600 to Wales NSC (Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign)specifically for its support of the Los Quinchos project on La Chureca, the major municipal dump for Managua. More details of this project to help the children who live on the dump have been given in Issues31 and 33 of the SRF Newsletter, but a more recent report of a visit to the dump and the project made byGill Holmes gives an important update. The report, however, is six pages long and includes a lot of photographs. So we have put it onto our website, on the La Chureca project page, along with threeprevious reports of visits. We recommend that you visit the site to read this report www.santarosafund.org

It should also be reported that the property known as La Chureca, the whole 250 acres of the dump, wasconfiscated in August by the Prosecutor General of the Republic in order to turn it over to the City of Managua municipality so that it could be readied for a US$43 million development project financed by the

Spanish government.

Mara Consuela Snchez
http://www.santarosafund.org/http://www.santarosafund.org/http://www.santarosafund.org/http://www.santarosafund.org/


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Eddy Medina, the educator, on the left and Isidroon the right. In the background, are Luz Amanda,

the nurse, and Bismarck, the coordinator

L to R: Pat Mayston (SRF treasurer), PeteMayston (SRF chair), Mike Johnson (Broome

Farm), Mary and Chris (WAWA)

The project will involve closing the dump,the installation of plants to processgarbage and a settlement for the workersthere. Despite the confiscation, for the timebeing, and into the foreseeable future,work (i.e., scavenging) on the dumpcontinues as it did before, and theimportance of the Los Quinchos project for

the kids who work there has not abated.Indeed, Gills visit to the project was madein September, after the confiscation, andWales NSC has committed itself tosupporting the project throughout 2010.

FUND RAISING NEWS AND EVENTSA big th ank you to a l l a t Broom e Farm

The SRF has recently received the sum of 1,850 from Broome Farm in Herefordshire, where theJohnson family has been producing cider and perry for the last 70 years. This sum has beenraised from donations made during Friday night get-togethers in the cellar, as well as at specialmusical events throughout the year culminating in the annual cider festival in early September.They feel privileged to be able to live and work in such a pleasant environment and wish to give

back a little to those in less fortunatecircumstances. Each year one or two charities arechosen, alternating between local and internationalconcerns. Last year's collection was sharedbetween the Santa Rosa Fund and WAWA,which serves similar causes in the Peruvian Andes.This year they are raising money for Headlong, thecharity that supports head injury patients.

The photo on the right was taken in June whenPete Mayston (SRF chair) and Mary fromWAWA gave short presentations to a gathering of friends and helpers at Broome Farm, together withMike Johnson the current cider maker and family.Pete reflected afterwards on the similarity in theapproach of both charities: "we are both small local organisations, raising funds locally, relying onpersonal contacts in Nicaragua and Peru to determine which education-related projects to support.This ensures that money goes directly to where it can be used most effectively".

Pete strongly recommends anyone with a liking for traditional farmhouse cider or perry to make abig detour to visit Broome Farm. "It's easy to find, near the village of Peterstow on the A49 Ross-on-Wye to Hereford road". As well as the aforementioned beverages there are cakes, summer cream teas, orchard visits, meals (booking needed!) etc. Check the website www.rosscider.com
http://www.rosscider.com/http://www.rosscider.com/http://www.rosscider.com/http://www.rosscider.com/


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Nachos, news and entertainm ent

Hopefully, you will all receive this newsletter a little before our next public event to be held onSaturday 21 st November from 7:30 to 11 pm in the Parish Rooms, Plymouth Road, Tavistock. Weapologise if this newsletter gets to you a little too late for the event, but all supporters local to theWest Devon area should already have received a flier about the event through their door.

The event is principally to give our supporters an update on the projects that we support inNicaragua from the trustees and others who visited the country earlier this year. There will also beentertainment from performance poet Rob Barrett (who will host the event) and from folk singer Mick Huber.

Light refreshments (nachos, nibbles and dips) along with tea and coffee will be available, andpeople are invited to bring their own bottles. There is no entry charge, but we would ask for donations to cover the costs of the hire of the room.

Nicaragua illiteracy-freeOn August 22nd this year, Nicaragua was declared a "territory free of illiteracy" after reducing thelevel of illiteracy from 20.7% nationally to 3.56%. Minister of Education Miguel de Castillapresented President Daniel Ortega with a certificate of national achievement resulting fromimplementation of the Cuban adult literacy plan Yes I Can . The United Nations Education,Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) has certified that Nicaragua is illiteracy free.

The reduction of illiteracy to 3 per 100 residents "has made history," by achieving that level for thefirst time since independence from Spain in 1821, Ortega said in a celebration carried live on radioand television from the Plaza of the Revolution before hundreds of youth, students, and literacyteachers. Ortega said the government would not be satisfied until there is not "a single illiterateperson" in the country. He pledged to teach literacy to the Miskito and the other original peoples,and said for them "we will continue with education plans until we eradicate illiteracy totally."

Ortega announced that the next objective of the National Literacy Campaign is to raise thepopulation to the 6th grade level by 2015. He said the plan is to incorporate the newly literate intothe education system and to raise the quality of primary, secondary and university education for future national development.

The celebration was held on the 29th anniversary of the conclusion of the first literacy campaignduring the revolutionary Sandinista government when illiteracy was reduced from 53% to 12%.Under the governments of Violeta Chamorro, Arnoldo Aleman and Enrique Bolaos, illiteracy roseagain to 30% and the recent Literacy Campaign was implemented as a response to the probleminherited from these neoliberal governments which had charged fees for public education therebyobliging many parents of poor families to remove their children from school. Since 2007,Nicaraguan schools have catered for over 100,000 extra pupils who would otherwise not haveattended. The school desertion rate of 13% in 2006 was reduced to 6% in 2008.

Sources: Nicaragua News Hotline, 30.07.09 and 25.08.09Tania Sirias MINED declares capital free of illiteracy, El Nuevo Diario, Managua, 08.07.09

Compaer@s, Newsletter of the Wales NSC, July 2009


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Gill GorbuttSanta Rosa Fund trustee Gill Gorbutt died on Monday 2 nd November after fighting against cancer for well over adecade. Gill was much more than a trustee of the SantaRosa Fund. She was an indefatigable worker for Help The

Aged, a local councillor, an extremely popular mayor of Tavistock (1997-1998), a trustee of the environmentalcharity Westden and ultimately the chair of its trustees,chair of Tamwed (an organisation set up to support peopleaffected by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami), chair of WorkingTogether for Devon organisation, chair of TavistockFarmers Market, and a founder member and trustee of Tavistock Area Support Services (TASS). In April 2007 shewas made an honoured burgess of Tavistock, an honour bestowed on very few people.

Gill was always positive in her approach to people and to life and she was a superb listener. Inmeetings she would listen to the debates raging around her and then summarise the positions withgreat clarity and succinctness and define precisely what actions were needed. Her sharp andintelligent analysis always helped to clarify matters for others. And she managed to do this withsuch grace and without ever having a bad word for anyone.

For several years Gill cared for her husband David who suffers from Alzheimers Disease and shealways provided great support and encouragement to her daughter and son Emma and Tom whowere by her side when she died. She was always rightly immensely proud of them both.

The Santa Rosa Fund, Tavistock, Devon, and all the other organisations which she supported andfor which she worked tirelessly have lost a wonderful and irreplaceable friend who made a greatdifference.

Renewal of supp ort

With this newsletter we have enclosed a subscription renewal slip so that you can show your continuedsupport for the work done by the Santa Rosa Fund. If you have already made a standing order to thebenefit of the Santa Rosa Fund, please ignore this slip and use the other side of it for your telephone pad.

SANTA ROSA FUND CONTACTS www.santarosafund.org Chair: Pete Mayston, Rose Cottage, Tuckermarsh, Bere Alston, Yelverton, Devon PL20 7HB

Tel. 01822 840297 Email: [email protected] Secretary: Lorna & Martin Legg, Rock Cottage, Morwell Cross, Gulworthy, Tavistock, Devon PL19 8JH, Tel.

01822 833934 Email: [email protected] Treasurer: Pat Mayston as for Pete (above)Twinning links representative: Rick Blower, Cloberry Cottage, Brentor, Tavistock, Devon PL19 0NG

Tel. 01822 810600 Email: [email protected] Membership secretary: Martin Mowforth, 51 West St., Tavistock, Devon PL19 8JZ

Tel. 01822 617504 Email: [email protected]

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Santa Rosa Fund Newsletter Issue 34

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