AACC Nicaragua program

Description of Project:

Purpose and goals:

Jalapa Valley, Nicaragua is situated in the northern mountainous region of Nicaragua bordering Honduras.  Due to harsh conditions of war, corruption, very limited access to resources, low educational opportunities and an extremely high unemployment rate of 85% the economic situation is grim and chronic poverty is the reality. 

There are two factors that make employment for adults and schooling for children possible. The first is potable water and the second is childcare.  The water hauling and potability has been solved, however childcare is still a problem and still keeps women from employment and young m others from finishing high school.

Several communities in the Jalapa Valley of Northern Nicaragua now have access to potable water; other communities are currently constructing potable water systems. The water systems help by enabling people to maintain a level of basic hygiene as well as supplying clean water for drinking. The success of water projects in these places has empowered their citizens to work toward accomplishing new goals and participate in the lives of their communities.  Many of the towns are now looking at early childhood pre-school and infant programs to continue to enable their communities toward health and self sustenance. Early

Childhood programs allow parents to go to work while their children are in a safe environment learning preventative health skills such as washing hands, sanitary toileting, food preparation, brushing teeth, and other general hygiene practices and essential life-skills that will enhance the health of the entire community.  In addition, school readiness skills are also taught.  Early childhood programs are essential to continue to build safe and healthy places for the community. Parents are also reached through the parent partnerships formed with care-providers and teachers in addition to the practices the children bring home from their program.

The task of hauling water for the home is assigned to women and children, especially girls.  In places where there is water available women have been emancipated from this task and now have more time to earn an income, which is very needed in most households.  Several young girls in the Jalapa Valley have been able to return to school and many are finishing high school because potable water is now available.  Early childhood projects enable women to work, young women to finish school and enable very young girls to obtain schooling early on. Research supports positive correlation between early childhood education and those who finish high school.

In addition to clean water, improved health, community empowerment and increased literacy these projects have brought hope to the communities - something difficult to measure by statistical methods but clearly evident in the work we do.  Increased unemployment (85%), cuts in social services, and the resulting deterioration of the country's social fabric have caused great uncertainty among Nicaragua's people.  When people are able to make concrete improvements in the quality of their lives they have hope for the future.  Potable water and safe environments for their children allow men and women the time and energy necessary to support their families and contribute to the sustenance and improvement of their community.

Project Goals:

• To develop early childhood program models for rural Nicaragua for children ages birth through 6 years of age.
• To implement these models for one year with weekly site visits, reflections, and time to dialogue with villages around the Jalapa Valley.

Development Goals

• To construct a pre-school and an infant/toddler center in the communities where the need is greatest.
• To set up childcare sites within existing churches, homes and other community buildings in the eight villages not constructing a school.
• To provide a center for the handicapped children of the Jalapa Valley.
• To construct Northern Nicaragua’s orphanage for street children 7 – 16 years of age.

Educational Goals:

• To provide weekly classes for women interested in teaching and taking care of young children as a their primary job.
• To provide education and training in the form of classes and site visitations with women and men across the Jalapa Valley. The participants then take back their knowledge and skills to their community and become site coordinators of early childhood programs and families within their town and continue to develop their abilities and create possibilities for childhood care and development professionals as a career.

Partnership Goals:

• ·To develop a partnership with local health agencies promoting preventative health practices.
• To develop a partnership with the local radio station to promote the importance of early childhood development and care.
• To establish a partnership with the local high school so that students with children can have access to childcare and finish their schooling, with a focus on young women.
• To establish a partnership with local parents to volunteer at some level in the childcare center or home their children attend.

Sustainability Goals:

• To investigate and find other monetary sources for salaries for the teachers in the early childhood programs.
• To provide a teacher’s salary for the site coordinators. 
• To provide follow up training

To provide start up materials for successful educational programs.