Superemos and "Christine King" Multi-Service Cooperative

Irlanda Chevez is a student of the Estelí Women's School. She graduated with her baccalaureate qualification in December 2011. Irlanda explains why the Estelí Women's School is important to her and her fellow students:

In 2011 we continue remodelling classroom and workshop spaces to try and improve the facilities available for the students of the Esteli Women's School and participants in the foundation's other training activities.

the base for the remodelled ceramic workshop

This year was another very successful year for the Estelí Women's School.

On December 18th we held the 11th graduation for 76 students who were able to attend out of a total of 93 students in total who graduated with their baccalaureate in 2011.

Eveyr year teh foundation hosts the traditional celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception organized by the "Christine King" Multi Service Cooperative. In Nicaragua where Catholicism continues to be the main religion, the celebration is an important national event called the "Purísima"

On Saturday December 3rd the Estrellas #2 preschool in Barrio Felipe y Mery Barreda held its graduation ceremony for children who have completed 3 years of pre-school.

Parents are anxious for their children to complete three years of preschool bcause it means the children can start primary level education at the age of 6 instead of having to wait until they are seven.

This year Superemos has continued work on improving sanitary facilities to replace latrines. Earlier this year we helped the local Cesar Jerez Secondary School by installing three systems. They have proved to work really well confirming the experience we have had of this system in the Estelí Women's School.

The system works as a mini-septic tank but since it is completely sealed the waste degrades more completely than in a conventional septic tank. This means that the plastic barrel in which the waste accumulates seldom if ever requires emptying.

We now carry out preventive health care activities in two of Estelí's urban barrios - Nuevo Amanecer and Felipe y Mery Barreda - and four nearby rural communities, El Limon, San Pedro, Paso Ancho and San Roque. On Sunday November 20th, Gladys Ruiz and Luisa Duarte visited the community of San Roque to do a preventive health activity with local children and to meet with their parents, mostly the mothers, to discuss broader community development issues. San Roque is a rural community with a history of problems relating to cattle theft and youth crime in general.

An integral part of the women's education programme are the twice weekly gender workshops in which women students discuss among themselves their problems and aspirations. Feedback from the workshops enables the Esteli Womens' School staff  to respond better and more effectively to the needs of their students. This is especially important when the twice yearly centrally supervised examinations are held when the anxieties of the students can affect their performance under the supervision of unfamiliar educators from the Ministry of Education in Managua.