May 2010 Newsletter- Visit to Los Pollitos  

I visited the school for two days at the end of March and again in April. The new classrooms look great. Even un-painted they are bright, clean and well proportioned. The teachers were preparing for the last day of school before the Easter holiday known as “Dia del Verano” – Summers Day. I helped them decorate the classrooms with palm trees and a large paddling pool was placed in the playground. The following day the kids turned up in swim suits and sunglasses and happily splashed around pretending they were at the beach.

The school year in Nicaragua starts in January. The classrooms, though still not finished, were ready for use but we did not have enough funds to pay for 3 more teachers. It’s impractical to start new classes during the year so Los Pollitos will not become a full Primary school until next January. Though disappointed at first, I think this is a blessing. We will have the resources to finish the classrooms and buy teaching materials and time to find more Sponsors. We have also raised the salaries of all the six current teachers. The new rooms are being used for the Nursery School while the old ones house the first three grades of Primary.

As I mentioned in the last Newsletter more than 50 ex-Pollitos are currently studying at university. I met three of them: Melissa (below right) has just started studying Finance; Giovani (centre) is in his fourth year of Electronic Engineering and Henry (left), whose mother is Paola (one of our teachers) is studying medicine. They told me how important the start they had at Los Pollitos had been to them and how much it had improved since their day.

Before I left Managua in March I arranged a payment of $435 to buy paint and when I came back to the barrio two weeks later the parents (and a couple of kids) were hard at work. It was only when I saw that 70 gallons was only enough for the new rooms and the outside of the old ones that it struck me how large the school now is and how much of a challenge it will be to maintain. It’s also true that the interiors of the old classrooms look shabby in comparison. I could see how much of a lift the new rooms were giving the teachers and kids so I think it’s really important to keep the whole of the school looking bright and inspirational.

So for the rest of the year we will need to keep raising money at pub quizzes, catering and any other method, daft or otherwise, we can think of. We also need to keep increasing the number of Sponsors, so please think hard about signing up or, if you are already a Sponsor, pass the word on: we are the best value organisation around as every penny we raise goes to the school and it really is working. Do keep coming to the quizzes and visiting the web-site. You can make a difference.

Brian Mack: On behalf of IMFA and the teachers and kids of Los Pollitos.

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