The Power of Education: Team Nicaragua 2012

BACKGROUND:

            This past April vacation 15 TAG (Talented & Gifted Latino Student Club) O’Bryant students and 2 students from CRLS girls soccer team (Cambridge Rindge & Latin School) volunteered their time to teach English, Spanish and science to young children in Jinotega, Nicaragua.  The project started in May of 2011, when the TAG E-Board began doing research on potential service learning projects in the United States and Latin America.  In the fall there was a final vote, where the majority of TAG E-Board members decided to select Outreach 360’s orphanage prevention program in Jinotega. 

            Nicaragua is the 3rd poorest Latin American nation and it has suffered from a history of brutal dictatorships (often sponsored by the United States), civil wars, and natural disasters.   Jinotega is a coffee producing town of nearly 51,000 people, where according to the World Bank most of its people are small farmers, nearly half of the population lives under extreme poverty (the average person makes $2 day), nearly half of the population is illiterate and a significant number of children do not complete primary school and also suffer from malnutrition.  While Boston public schools focus on trying to get every child to graduate high school and to go on to college, the Nicaraguan Education Ministry’s goal for Jinotega is to get every child to finish the 6^th grade!  The problems were numerous, but Team Nicaragua 2012 focused on the power of hope, solidarity and education. As the great and late Brazilian educator Paulo Freire once said:

“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.”

             Team Nicaragua 2012 under the guidance of Mr. Pitts-Dilley (9^th Grade History Teacher and TAG Advisor) and Ms. Robins (STEP Inspire Advisor) met once or twice a week every week from December to April in Mr. Pitts-Dilley’s room or at UMASS-Boston.  The team also did community service by cleaning up the beach and harbor area at Lovells Island and volunteering at the Giving Factory at Cradles to Crayons in Brighton.     

            The two major tasks were to raise nearly $26,000 (each student only had to pay $200) to pay for air travel and room and board and donate funds to Outreach 360 and to collect educational materials to donate to the local children and after school program.   

             Outreach 360 is a non-profit organization that serves children in the Dominican Republic and Jinotega, Nicaragua and relies on volunteer work and donations, as they do not receive any governmental assistance.  Outreach 360 currently has one after and before school center and they are hoping to have a total of 5 "after-school" centers in the near future.

            For half of the 65 kids who attended the Outreach 360 program in Jinotega, the program is actually a before school academy.  Due to the lack of resources and teachers, there are two school “shifts” in Jinotega and most of Nicaragua.  This is not uncommon in Latin America as nations such as Brazil can have up to three “shifts” (morning, afternoon and evening).  The typical school day for the children who attend the program is either from 8AM to 12PM or from 1PM to 5PM.  The students who attend public school in the morning go to academy from 2:30 to 4:30 and the students attend school in the afternoon go to the academy from 9:30 to 11:30.  The program is free and the only requirement is that the children must attend a local public school as the program is meant to enrich and not replace the local schools.   

POVERTY, COFFE FARMS, EDUCATION AND HOPE:

            One of the two key focuses of the program is teaching English (acquiring English is a very important job skill). There are a number of private academies that teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL), but it costs approximately $25 a month.   The students who attend the Outreach 360 “after-school” program live in the outskirts of the city and most of them live in the bottom of Jinotega’s social pyramid: seasonal coffee farm workers.  Being the child of a seasonal coffee farm worker can lead to dropping out from school as coffee season begins one to two months before the end of the school year.  Several parents take their children away from school to help them pick coffee beans as workers are paid by how much coffee they pick up (no minimal wage).  As a result, several children keep repeating the school year and it is not uncommon to see 10 or 11 year olds in the 1^st or 2^nd grade (in addition many students who have special needs do not receive the services that they should be entitled to).  There are also many reports of sexual abuse committed in these farms (only a few farms observe the national law that prohibits children under the age of 14 from working).

            These kids want to learn and be in a safe and welcoming environment.  While many of us “struggle” to get to school on time, these kids will start lining up for the morning and after school academies 30 to 45 minutes before the academy starts.  A typical day began by kids telling us (with lots of love and joy):

·      “Good morning teacher!”

·      “How are you?”

·      “What is your name?”

·       “My name is…” and “nice to meet you” (everyday, but with the same love and joy).

·      “Can you read with me?”

                           

All of this energy was to get into a house (rented) that was smaller than two O’Bryant Classrooms!  "J" was one of these amazing kids, who in the early evenings would go to the center of town and beg for money with his mother, and in the afternoon would go to the community center where we worked with him.

            But what can be done in one week?  Could we change the world?  Could we fulfill the democratic promises on the 1979 Revolution?  Could Team Nicaragua 2012 “save” "J"?  We agreed that it would be impossible to change Jinotega in one week.  If it were, the world would be a much better place.  What we agreed was to come to the academy in the morning and afternoons and to give 100% of us.  We were there to serve no matter what!  Being hungry, too hot or too tired would not be accepted!  We wanted to plant the seeds of hope and love on each and every one of the 65 kids!

TEACHING AND LEARNING:

            Paulo Freire argued that there cannot be teaching without learning and there cannot be learning without teaching (Pedagogy of the Oppressed).  We divided our team into 4 groups in order to teach English and Spanish:

·      K-1^st: Spanish

·      2^nd to 3^rd: Spanish

·      4^th to 5^th Grade: Spanish

·      English (combined grades)

Each team had to teach two 50-minute classes and participate in a very fun recess twice a day.  Each team also spent one to two hours a day creating lesson plans and an additional 30 minutes to 60 minutes a day reflecting on how the day went.  As much as we did teach and inspire the local children, we gained a lot more in return.  The entire team learned quite a lot from each and every student about the power of education, education as a tool for engagement and democracy, how to be more humble about the resources that we have back home and teaching is not easy!   As Daniel Martinez (Junior) stated:

…this service-learning trip was unique, in the sense that the work I did, even so it did not involve the building house of repairing buildings. It did involve construction of a kind; building the children’s education and construction of their future… It was challenging but most rewarding project of all. To have the opportunity to be part in the building blocks of a child’s education was a remarkable experience, one involving great learning, realization and understanding. During this experience, I realize the power of teaching. Before, I considered education as being important for anyone planning a prosperous future. However I learned education is more than that. Education is essential for human kind, a right, as it contains the hope, (and in many cases the only hope there is) for the development of communities and advancement of the people. Education is a treasure that once it is owned it cannot be taken away. I realized that to encourage these children to study, and to learn along with them. It was the biggest step I could take in changing the world.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT:

            This trip would not have been possible without the help of the O’Bryant faculty, staff and students.  We would like to thank our students, faculty and staff for supporting our bake sales, Karaoke event and donating educational materials.  We would also like to thank our faculty and staff for donations and attending our major fundraiser event at the Baseball Tavern.  We would also like to thank Quest Adventures and the Grand Circle Foundation for their support.  This trip wouldn’t have been possible without their grants for $5,000 each.    

We would also like to thank the following businesses and friends:

THANKS TO THESE AMAZING PEOPLE:

·      Higs Tickets

·      East Coast Grille (Cambridge)

·      Paddle Board New England

·      Boston Chocolate Walking Tours

·      Fireplace Restaurant (Brookline)

·      Panera Bread (Watertown) 

·      Boston Celtics

·      Boston Red Sox

·      Boston Bruins

·      JP Licks

·      Raising Cane's Restaurant (Boston University)

·      Susan Bell

·      Maggie Pitts-Dilley

·      Charlie Kim

·      Cobi Family

·      Michelle Kim-Lee

·      Sam Sherwin

·      Vicki Lewis