Thanks to support from David Suliteanu of the San Francisco based Kendo Brands company, this year we have been able to extend the women's shelter of our program addressing domestic violence. This will not only greatly improve the shelter's dormitory area but will also free up important office space enabling us to include more interns from the local university's social work and psychology faculties in our work. We very much appreciate David's kind support for making this work possible.

During the week of November 11th to November 15th, Dr Michelle Henshaw of Boston University's Henry S. Goldman School of Dental Medicine supervised the quarterly application of fluoride varnish as part of the preschool preventive dental health care program currently serving over 800 children in the city of Estelí. Dr. Henshaw supervised the application of fluoride varnish by local preschool educators whom she and her team have trained over the last four years in coordination with Nicaragua's Ministry of Health and the Ministry of the Family.

This year with encouragement and guidance from Hector Martínez, who works with the parks and ornamental gardens division of the municipal authority of Managua, Superemos is developing the part of its site adjacent to the River Esteli as a children's recreational park. For the moment we are working on clearing and improving the area with a volunteer from Russia, Dmitry Russachek and support from his friends Sergei and Svetlana Kamarov. We hope to install childrens recreational equipment and perhaps too a mini golf course.We hope to have most of this work completed by early 2020.

Thanks to help from Japan's Nicaragua Support Association, Superemos was able to invite ten students of the faculty of Environmental Sciences from the local campus of Nicaragua's National Autonomous University to participate in a workshop about the theory and practice of making a solar panel. For this activity we were very glad that four friends from Japan were able to take part along with two environmentalists from Managua. The workshop was coordinated by Allan Parrales of the Christine King Multi-Service Cooperative on September 26th this year.

On Saturday mornings the Sones Segovianos program offers music painting and dance classes to youngerr students.

Violen teacher Mayra Velsaquez with three of her younger students

Maria Osorio is the sewing teacher
 

The ICES project works with schools in the rural area of the municipality of Estelí. Here psychologist Karen Villarreyna and legal worker and educator Maria Felix Castillo visit the school in the rural community of El Robledal in the Miraflor area of Estelí.

The Sones Segovianos program works to create both good performance skills with individual instruments and a strong grasp of music theory. Here Byron Guevara reinforces music theory for violin students of different ages in preparation for their next Saturday class with violin teacher Mayra Velasquez.

In August our ICES team, Karen Villarreyna and Maria Felix Castillo held a joint training session with Miurell Suarez, Delia Moreno and Lynette Palacios from teh psychology and social work faculties of the local campus of Nicaragua's National University. We are very grateful to Luz López of Boston University's School of Social Work and to Lyn and Len Styczynski and their interpreter Patricia Nuñez for making this training activity possible.

Everyone at Superemos was extremely sad to learn of the passing of Cele Meyer. Cele supported the work of Superemos from its inception in 1999 immediately after the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch across northern Nicaragua in October 1998. At that time Cele and her colleagues of the De Kalb Inter Faith Network raised thousands of dollars to support our relief and reconstruction work.