2012 was a very busy year for the programs and projects supported by Superemos.
We are very grateful for all the moral and financial support we have received thanks to many individuals and to our long standing partner organizations, especially the Central American Fund for Human Development based in Illinois,USA, the UK based Christine King Memorial Trust, the Dorchester House Multi Service Center of Boston, Massachusetts, USA, Evanston First Congregational Church of Illinois USA, the Help for Nicaragua Association of Japan and the Albanisa Social Fund.
We are glad also to express our thanks to the Barr Foundation of Oklahoma for their kindness in facilitating the transfer of donations for our programs. As in the past, through 2012 most of our programs were carried out in partnership with the “Christine King” Multi Service Cooperative here at the project centre in Estelí.
In January we took advantage of the school vacation to finish remodeling work begun in December. We finished building a new structure to house the ceramic workshop and completely re-wired the whole site, including the main school building. We were also able to carry out general maintenance work, re-roofing defective roof areas and painting much of the external walls of the various buildings.
electrician Franklin Zeledon installing new wiring in the new ceramic workshop space
Secondary education
Our main project continues to be the Estelí Women's School. In 2012, 60 women students from the 85 women students on low incomes benefiting from our scholarship program graduated with their baccalaureate. Overall 108 students graduated with their baccalaureate from the both the women-only night classes and the mixed Sunday classes.
graduation ceremony of the Estelí Women's School 2012
Music Education
Our colleagues, Hannah Curteis and Alfredo Quintero continued to develop the “Sones Segovianos” music education program promoted by Superemos since 2010. They have been joined by local musician and educator Alberto Velasquez. A total of over 100 children aged from 5 to 16 participated in the music education classes based at the Superemos project centre in Estelí through 2012.
violin teacher Mayra Velasquez with student Wendy Pao
A further 25 children participate in the music education program in Palacagüina where Superemos works with educator Enrique Cruz and the local municipal authority. Sones Segovianos held a very successful end of year concert in the auditorium of the local campus of the National Autonomous University in Estelí together with Enrique's group from Palacagüina.
Preschools
Sinai pre-school educator Edelma Acuña with her young students
Through 2012 we were able to continue supporting two community pre-schools on the western outskirts of Estelí – the Sinai pre-school in barrio Nuevo Amanecer and the Estrellas del Futuro pre-school in Barrio Felipe y Mery Barreda. In April, volunteers Mark Herbert and Julie Grippo from New England laid a new ceramic floor in the oldest classroom of the Sinai pre-school to continue the improvements we are making to that pre-school year over year. Our commitment to the pre-school in Barrio Felipe y Mery Barreda ended in December 2012 due to uncertainty about its future. As well as support from the CAFHD, the Sinai preschool received assistance from the Ayuntamiento of Falces in Navarra, Spain.
Teacher Training
Superemos also facilitated two important teacher training workshops for public primary school teachers in rural areas. In January the training was held in La Trinidad about 20km south of Estelí. Then in July a second training was held in the municipality of San Lucas, north west of Somoto, the departmental capital of Madriz.
San Lucas - teachers in an activity creating a map of Nicaragua's departments
These training activities, benefiting over 60 teachers using the Learning by Doing methodology , were funded by the Global Education Fund. We are very grateful to the GEF founder Judy Richardson and her collaborators Morgan Smith and Alan Olds for making these trainings possible. It was especially courageous and typically generous of Judy to make these activities possible at the same she has been fighting a life-threatening illness.
Program addressing domestic violence
With support from Dr. Peter Loewinthan and his colleagues of the Dorchester House Multi Service Center of Boston, in 2012 Superemos began a programme to combat domestic violence, a social phenomenon affecting many families in Nicaragua. The group working on the program are young professionals, lawyer Ixel Martínez, psychologist Karen Villareyna and social worker Roberto Espino. They are assisted by Daysi Flores and Luisa Duarte who are both law graduates and co-founders in 1993 of the first women's refuge in Nicaragua. This team settled on the name ISIS as the title of their program.
Roberto explains a point to his ISIS colleagues
The program started in May 2012with training activities. In June after adapting buildings formerly devoted to other uses we were able to inaugurate a women's shelter with accommodation for up to 10 women and children along with appropriate kitchen and sanitary facilities. From June to the end of 2012 the program gave respite and shelter to 50 women and children as well as psychological, legal and social work support for 25 other women.
The team's educational work involved 25 visits to local rural communities and 28 visits to a total of 9 urban barrios in the city of Estelí itself. These visits consisted of house to house contacts, group reflections and workshops to raise awareness about the problem of domestic violence. In all, these activites involved the team working with over 600 people.
Health Program
In 2012, the health program continued its main components developed in previous years. The program of preventive health care for children in local urban barrios and rural communities continued helping around 350 children every month. The program provided assistance for many individual patients, ensuring they were able to do laboratory and other tests and to get access to medicines either free or at a reduced cost.
members of the Dorchester House medical delegation at work in February 2012
In February, we received a large medical delegation over three weeks from the Dorchester House Multi Service center with 11 doctors, two nurse practitioners and two nursing assistants. Working closely with the local Ministry of Health, the delegation visited a total of 16 communities seeing around 1000 children and a similar number of adults. The group also held workshops to exchange experiences with local health workers in various municipalities of the department of Estelí.
As a result of the follow up to the delegation, we were able to help various patients with disability obtain aids like wheelchairs and walking sticks. We were also able to help the dialysis unit of Estelí's regional hospital remodel an existing disused space to provide dormitory accommodation for patients with chronic renal problems who travel from remote communities to receive their dialysis. Prior to this initiative, those patients would sleep in the corridors of the hospital waiting for their treatment the following day.
new dormitory area for patients receiving haemodialysis in Estelí's regional hosital
Later in the year, prior to the visit of another delegation from Dorchester House, we were able to produce a couple of portable dental chairs in the cooperative's welding workshop in anticipation of a dental team scheduled to accompany the delegation in February 2013.
As part of our overall health activities, over the last couple of years Superemos has promoted the use of ecological toilets to replace the continued widespread use of conventional latrines. The ecological toilets consist of a very simple mini-septic tank system that degrades waste anaerobically. The system can be installed within domestic dwellings, uses much less water than a normal flush toilet and is much more hygienic than the traditional latrine.
Through 2012 we installed around 40 of these systems in and around Estelí. As a result of an evaluation of this pilot work on our part, the system may well be adopted for future sanitary programs of the local municipal authority, finally replacing the use of conventional latrines before the use of that outmoded system reaches the point in urban areas of potentially contaminating the local water supply.
Skills training
With the support of the social fund of Albanisa, Superemos continued its computer training program throughout the year in Estelí and in Ocotal. In Ocotal the program was discontinued at the end of December because so many other training programs were available many offering better facilities than our program could afford. Even so, all through 2012 the program in Ocotal served around 25 women and young people, while in Estelí the program served a total of around 30 people, teaching them basic computer skills.
solar panel workshop with equipment from the Help for Nicaragua Association of Japan
We also continued our other very diverse skills training activities, working closely with the “Christine King” Multi Service Cooperative. Through 2012, we facilitated training in ceramics, baking, sewing, welding, craft skills and in solar energy technology. These programs benefited over 120 people throughout 2012. We are especially grateful to both the Help for Nicaragua Association of Japan for providing the equipment with which to produce solar panels and to the Casa Canadiense organization in Managua which helped the “Christine King” cooperative with equipment for workshops in bakery skills.
| Superemos Foundation | |
| Income and expenditure report for 2012 | US$ |
| US$ | |
| brought forward from 2011 | 18545 |
| Donated income | |
| Ayuda Nicaragua de Japón | 700 |
| Central American Fund for Human Development | 49000 |
| Dorchester House Multi Service Center | 34639 |
| Global Education Fund | 6175 |
| Friends of Hannah Curteis | 2682 |
| Estate of Eileen Sefton | 23924 |
| Other individuals | 2040 |
| Medical delegation 2012 | 20365 |
| Medical delegation 2013 | 14435 |
| Peter Loewinthan and friends | 10765 |
| Proyectos Sociales Albanisa | 9600 |
| Ayuntamiento de Falces | 1469 |
| Local contributions | |
| Individuals | 997 |
| Christine King Multi Service Cooperative | 1340 |
| Bank interests | 624 |
|
Total income for 2012 |
197300 |
| Expenditures | |
| Computer skills program | 13100 |
| Health Care | 24338 |
| Humanitarian assistance | 1470 |
| Social work/family advice/addressing domestic violence | 19313 |
| Medical brigades | 10701 |
| Music Education | 8651 |
| Other cultural and education activities | 6760 |
| Payments facilitated for third parties | 10183 |
| Preschools | 8978 |
| Skills training | 14272 |
| Teacher trainings | 6060 |
| Women's secondary education | 20325 |
| Administration | 17525 |
| Site maintenance/remodelling | 16900 |
| Bank charges | 214 |
| Total expenditure in 2012 | 178790 |
| Carried forward to 2013 | 18510 |
| Note. Donations for 2012 from the Evanston First Congregational Church and from the Christine King Memorial Trust were received at the end of 2011 and so do not appear in the income for 2012. |