Superemos annual report 2017

Superemos Annual Report for 2017

General

Superemos made important progress in many areas in 2017 to improve our community work on behalf of low income families in Estelí. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our colleague Veerle de Vocht we have improved our administrative capacity since she began working with us in September 2016. She has helped us develop our ability to evaluate the impact of our various programs, improve our reporting generally, do better at keeping our web site up to date and also manage our work flow more efficiently.  That administrative progress has also helped us improve our work with the annual medical brigade organized by Dr. Peter Loewinthan which was one of the most successful ever.

Thanks to Dr. Loewinthan's guidance we have been able to develop our institutional relationship with Nicaragua's Health ministry and through 2017 developed two initiatives one to improve support for local medical personnel in their management of cases of domestic violence and another to try and improve MINSA's coordination with visiting medical brigades from overseas. Apart from these encouraging developments and the successful work of our education, training and health care programs, we were able to dramatically improve our classroom spaces and facilities thanks to help from various donors who made it possible for us to completely rebuild our oldest remaining timber structure.

Progress on the new second storey of the rebuilt classroom module

We replaced this with a two storey steel framed structure adding another 80 square meters of classroom space and also improving sanitary facilities, ventilation and access in adjacent areas.

This work has dramatically improved the experience of our students and other program participants in their use of our community center. An important event this year was a visit from the team of Actuality Media team who made a documentary about the Estelí Women's School and its related activities.

We are very grateful to all our supporters for the invaluable help they have given our programs all through 2017 enabling us to serve local communities in and around Estelí effectively and also complete our remodeling program and carry forward our work successfully into 2018.

Programs

2017 Medical and Dental Brigades

The group included Lilia Montero (hygienist),
Grace Hannawi (student), Lizania Montero (pediatric dentist),
McAllister Castelaz (student) and Megan McDowell (student).

In February, as well as hosting the medical brigade organized by Dr. Peter Loewinthan, Superemos also hosted a dental brigade organized by the Henry S Goldman School of Dental Medicine at Boston University.

They attended dozens of children from local preschools identified earlier as needing dental care as part of the dental preventive care program Boston University is carrying out together with the local Health Ministry and the Ministry of the Family.

The medical brigade in 2017 included 21 medical professionals and two medical students who visited communities in three municipalities Estelí, La Trinidad and San Nicolás over a period of three weeks. The group was also able to impart training workshops to local volunteer health promoters and assist the pediatric unit in the local hospital to improve their ability to look after children requiring intensive care. Members of the group included a social worker and three family psychologists who worked with our team on helping families to cope with domestic violence.
 

Elaine Chiang (medical student) - Olivia Rowse (medical student) - Lauren Sweetser (medical student) -
Tashya Whitehead (pediatric resident) - Dr. Bruce Kenny (family medicine) -
Ashleigh Welko (pediatric resident) - Francesca Okolie (pediatric resident) -
Meghan McCormick (pediatric resident) - Dr. Clare Alexander (family medicine).

Estelí Women's School

In 2017 the school has an enrollment of over 100 women students of whom 60 received scholarships.

Our students live in the municipality of Estelí, mainly in the city itself but we also have students from outlying rural communities near the city. Classes exclusively for our women students were held from Monday to Wednesday evenings from 6.00pm until 9.00pm.

As in previous years, the program guaranteed transport home to their barrios for our women students after class. In 2017, the school imparted the Ministry of Education’s Adult baccalaureate program taught in two levels.

Level one covered 1st to 3rd year with Spanish Language and Literature, Mathematics, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences and English. Level two covered  Spanish Language and Literature, Mathematics, Social Sciences, English, Biochemistry and Physics. Classes received periodic supervision from the Education Ministry.

Primary school educators learn a teaching activity

Exams are held twice a year and are set, supervised and marked by the Education Ministry from Managua. The school gave personal development classes covering issues like reproductive health, women’s rights, gender and domestic violence. In 2017 over thirty of our women students graduated with their baccalaureate.

The Estelí Women's School has also collaborated for over a decade organizing a training program for rural primary school teachers.

This year a team of seven facilitators and a training coordinator went out to Bocay - a Northern central community - to train 25 local teachers of rural communities in methodological strategies to give math, natural science, social science and Spanish class so as to improve their classrooms skills and make their teaching more participatory for them and their students.

ICES - Addressing domestic violence

In 2017 our Intervention Change Education Service worked in 6 rural communities around Estelí as well as with students from the Estelí Women's School and our other community training and education programs. They gave workshops and talks to 220 people each month. Over the year our team gave  psychological care and counseling to over forty people and legal advice and support to 18 people. The project staff consists of our lawyer Maria Felix Castillo and our psychologist Karen Villerreyna who both have many years experience in formal and informal educational methodology. During 2017 Karen and Maria Felix have worked with the Ministry of the Family and the local campus of Nicaragua's National Autonomous University to develop way of providing better support to health workers in rural areas concerned about patients suffering domestic violence.
 

Karen Villarreyna working with a group of children in the rural community of Miraflor
 

Preschool educator applying fluoride varnish

Dental preventive health program

In 2017 Superemos continued supporting the innovative dental preventive health program carried out by the Henry S Goldman School of Dental Medicine at Boston University under the supervision of Dr. Michelle Henshaw in coordination with the local Ministry of Health and the Ministry of the Family.

2017 was the second year of the program's scheduled five year duration.

The program operates in 13 preschools supervised by the Ministry of the Family in the urban area of the city of Estelí. . 

 

Preventive health care

Optometry workshop with Dr.John Godoy

During 2017 our preventive health program provided medical care for participants in the Estelí Women’s School including weekly visits by a gynaecologist from the local health center, usually seeing 40 patients a month. We also helped on average 8 patients a month to control chronic conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes and around 12 patients a month with medicines or laboratory tests not available in the public health system. Gladys Ruiz Gonzalez the president of Superemos coordinates the health program and also gives talks on reproductive health, family health and hygiene in 6 rural communities in the municipality of Estelí as well as helping local parents in those communities improve their children's dental hygiene, also checking for skin and scalp conditions.

 

This work helps over 300 children aged 2 to 12 years old every month. As part of this preventive work, Superemos, in coordination with the health ministry, organized a one day workshop for 19 health promoters to learn basic skills in identifying eye disorders. The program also provides the framework to provide support for patients seen by the annual medical brigade of who may require follow up, usually around 250 out of the 1500 or more patients seen by the brigade.

 

Music, dance and art
In 2017 the Sones Segovianos project continued to offer high quality education to children and young people mainly from low income families in music, dance and the plastic arts. The classes impart strong social and humanistic values and are supervised by Nicaragua’s Institute of Culture. In 2017 we had over 100 students aged from 3 to 20 years which including students with disability.

The program offers classes in both classical and traditional Nicaraguan instruments and in 2017 continued to develop its youth orchestra with 25 members. Since 2013 the program has offered dance classes and since 2014 art classes. Dance students learn traditional dance, classic ballet and Latino dance. Art students learn drawing and painting, mural painting and collage.

the Sones Segovianos youth orchestra

 

Vocational training and personal development
 

Sewing class students discuss how to develop the program

The main activities of our personal development and vocational skills training program in 2017 were :

* sewing workshops for over 40 women from low income families 12 hours a week using the same calendar as the academic school year

* the ceramic workshop involving 5 permanent staff and occasional training for people interested in learning basic ceramics skills

* maintenance of the plant nursery which involves occasional training for people interested in ornamental and medicinal plants, the use of worm-culture for compost, reforestation and vegetable gardening

* three solar panel workshops teaching 12 people the principles of using solar power and applying that theory to simple installations for illumination

* computer skills classes 9 hours a week for over 30 women and adolescents from low income families
 

Income and Expenditure 2017