Here you can follow the progress of the new school in Nicaragua that is being built in Nicaragua with the generous help of the Block and Rehl Family and Friends.

February 1, 2009:
We are currently in the process of selecting a community that needs a new school. The community must be willing to donate unskilled labor to help build their school. Namlo's project coordinator in Nicaragua is currently collecting data about possible sites for our visit in spring 2009 and final selection. Magda will be going to Nicaragua at the end of February to visit the communities that have asked for help in constructing their new school. She will identify a location for the school based on: need, willingness of the people to help themselves and commitment to participate in the project.

March 13, 2009:
Magda has just returned from selecting the community of El Salmeron in Northern Nicaragua for the construction of a three classroom primary school for about 100 children. During the first community meeting held the last week of February, each family agreed to contribute one day per week of unskilled volunteer work towards their school project. Six working groups of nine people each were formed - one for each day of the week, Monday through Saturday, to assist Namlo's team of skilled people during the construction process.42 cubic meters of sand, 18 cubic meters of gravel and over 3400 Lbs of rebar have already been delivered to the site along with cement bags, cinder blocks and other construction materials. The road is steep and very rough and only special trucks are able to survive the 30 mile trip from Esteli. Namlo's project coordinator and skilled labor supervisor are working very closely with the community to ensure the success of this project.

The first picture below is one of the community teams. The next one shows everybody working to make the rebar columns that will soon be up.

April 5, 2009:
During the last few weeks, a lot of good progress has been made with the construction of the new school in El Salmeron. Since we broke ground on March 3rd about 60 people from the community have been volunteering each week at the construction site. This amounts to around 300 days of community volunteer work towards this project.

The children who are very excited about finally having a school, also want to participate and they have been helping in any way they can.

In anticipation of the legal holiday coming up next week in Nicaragua during Easter, the community has decided to make up time by working double shifts so that the project can still be completed on time. This means that most everybody is now working two days per week instead of the agreed once a week. We are very proud of working with people that show such a commitment to education!

April 20, 2009:
The new school at El Salmeron continues to go well with great community participation. The roof beams are being installed and the corrugated for the roof has been delivered. After the roof is in place they will lay the floor and begin to finish the walls.

May 6, 2009:
During the past few days the community has been working with the expert laborers from Esteli to install the roof. This has been a major accomplishment and it was completed just in time. The rainy season in Nicaragua will soon begin but in the meantime it is not unusual to have occasional downpours. Having completed the installation of the roof is essential so that they can continue working on the inside walls and the floor.

One of the hardest parts of the construction is pouring the cement floors because once started, the whole classroom has to be finished within the same day. This is particularly difficult in situations like El Salmeron where the mixing, pouring and leveling of the cement is all done by hand. Again, the community has come through for this big task by doubling the number of volunteers during this phase of the construction. As soon as the cement work is completed and has had time to cure, they will start installing the tile flooring.

In addition, they have also completed installing the metal windows and doors. During the summer, Nicaragua is very hot and this type of window construction allows for great ventilation so that it does not too hot under the metal roof.

Everything is going very well and if the rains don't interfere too much, we may be able to complete the construction a little ahead of schedule.

This year the rainy season has arrived early in Nicaragua and for the last couple of weeks the road to El Salmeron has been impassable at times. One of the trucks that was carrying the windows got stuck in the deep mud. It had to be unloaded and a more powerful truck was brought from Esteli to complete the trip.

The community is also working to rebuild the road and the heavy rains are taking a toll on this project also. Last Friday it rained so hard that most of the sand that had been brought in by the Mayor's office to refinish the road was washed away.

In spite of the weather the construction is nearly finished. The windows are installed, the floors have been tiled and the community is now painting the walls. The last step will be to install the doors and then the building will be complete. They are planning to have everything finished in the next few days and to inaugurate it this weekend to coincide with the Nicaraguan Mother's Day.

The new three room school at El Salmeron is finished, inaugurated and already being used. The entire community is excited about it and proud to have such a beautiful school.

I would like to contribute to this project:

If you would like your contribution to go further, send your donation to Namlo as a check and save the PayPal costs.

Return to Namlo Home