KS3–KS4 teacher’s case study
Water and education in Nicaragua
Nicaragua rivals Honduras and Guatemala for being the poorest of the Central American countries. It is also the second poorest nation in Latin America, which is largely due to years of war and corruption. Nicaragua has suffered many types of natural disaster, including hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts, forest fires and volcanic eruptions. These natural disasters have caused devastating damage and loss of life, in a country where homes and livelihoods are already fragile. An example of the devastation was seen when Hurricane Mitch hit Nicaragua in 1998.
CAFOD has been working in Nicaragua for many years, working with a range of local organisations in their fight against poverty. The John XXIII Institute is one such organisation and is a CAFOD partner. It is a Jesuit organisation, set up in the 1980’s to help rural communities improve their living conditions and has worked in partnership with CAFOD since the mid 1980s.
Since 2003. the John XXIII Institute’s work has focused on 15 communities in rural areas of Managua and Matagalpa. Its participatory method of supporting the communities means people themselves take the leading role in decision making and organisation.
The work of the John XXIII Institute is structured into five areas:
· Motivating Community Engagement
· Health
· Education
· Housing
· Agriculture
Case study one
The community of Cerro Pando
The dusty dirt track that leads to Cerro Pando is like a dried-out riverbed full of bumps and crevices, difficult terrain even for a 4 by 4. To follow the track you have to cross a river which, when it has been raining heavily, can mean the community is cut off for days. Women carry their wares on their heads down this track to the main road and bring back provisions for their families. It’s a 4km walk to the road.
Darling Urbina Arevalo
Darling Urbina Arévalo (15) is from Cerro Pando in Nicaragua. Access to clean water has been a key issue for her community for a long time.
“We used to have to walk half an hour to the river to collect water and half an hour back. Now it’s just a short walk up the hill. We each collect 5 buckets, which is 25 gallons a day. Some families just use three buckets or 15 gallons. We use it just for cooking and drinking. We go to the river to wash our clothes and bathe.”
The community had to share their water supply with the animals and it was full of rubbish. People frequently got sick from the poor water quality, and eventually the water was not fit for drinking. However there was help at hand and CAFOD’s partner The John XXIII Institute came to the aid of Darling’s community.
One old grandmother living in Cerro Pando said she didn’t want to die until she saw water in her community. Everyone in the community took part in the hard work digging a well that they now use to pump water from. Many people had thought it would be impossible to get the water to Cerro Pando.
When Darling’s community received water it changed their whole way of seeing things. The grandmother lived to see the pipes being laid to bring water to her community. The earth was as hard as a rock but with the help of a pneumatic drill, the last stretch of tubing was finally laid. Water is now pumped from a well up the hill to the people of Cerro Pando.
Jerónimo Arévalo, Darling’s cousin, is a member of the village water committee. He sells the water at the fountain. There are six members of the committee and they take it in turns to sell the water. Darling also sells the water at the fountain. It serves six families. The money they collect is used to cover the maintenance and running costs of the water pump.
Jerónimo says “Before the John XXIII Institute came we were a bit disorganised. We were all doing our own thing. Since they came to help us, they convinced us to organise, to study and to understand the problems of our community.
This year we started the water project. The whole community worked together. The project brought us all together. This was difficult before.
Thanks to the John XXIII Institute we are getting stronger. We have community leaders focusing on different areas.”
Case study Two
The community of Las Lajas
Las Lajas is 7km from the main road. Sometimes it can be cut off for days when it rains heavily. Some children from Las Lajas walk three or four km through the mountains to get to school. Temperatures are often up to 38 degrees during the day.
A bus comes every four days. It arrives one day and leaves the next. People also hitch rides in the back of passing jeeps, but sometimes they have to stay overnight if the road is cut off by floods.
Las Lajas has a school attended by 98 children. It was built in 1976, but building stopped during the war and it was finally completed in the 1980s. The school has a broken tiled roof and the community want to replace it with a metal one as it is dangerous for the children when it is windy.
The secondary school children have to pay 80 córdobas a month, just over £2, in school fees, and also pay for books and other materials. (35 córdobas per £1)
The water project
In Las Lajas two wells were dug 250 feet deep and two systems for drinking water were set up. Water is distributed from 14 public fountains. People have to pay a fee to use water from the public fountains. The funds raised in water fees are used to maintain the water fountains and pipes.
Marisol lives in Las Lajas and has benefited from one of the new water fountains there.
“We use the water to drink and cook. It’s not good to use the water from the stream. Sometimes it’s really black; the animals share the same streams. It gets contaminated.
Before, we had to get up early to collect water between 6 and 9am, just to collect three buckets of water, but now we have the fountain it just takes 15 minutes to collect three buckets of water. Now I have more time to do other things. Sometimes I even have water left to wash myself. We collect water from the water fountain to drink and cook but we still go to the river to bathe and wash our clothes. I’ve got one daughter, Leslie, who’s 13, and two boys. David is 15 and Juan Carlos is nine.”
Case study Three
The community of Las Maderas
Las Maderas is another of the communities supported by the John XXIII Institute. It is a semi-urban community. People living there have taps in their homes but some have very old pipes. They are contaminated with lime which can cause kidney problems. It is the only community of the four with electricity. The area is vulnerable to mudslides due to deforestation. Most people here make a living from cutting down trees which they sell as firewood in the capital city of Managua. They cut the wood with machetes and carry it on their backs.
There is a basic medical centre in Las Maderas that has been open for four years. It sells medicines cheaply to the people in the community. People from outside the community also come for treatment. The medical centre helps anyone who comes.
Las Maderas also has a school that provides education for both children and adults. Young people are trained to teach adults in their community. The John XXIII Institute supports the primary school by providing school materials at reduced prices. The school also trains teachers.
Wendy Hernandez lives in Las Maderas and her family has benefited from the John XXIII Institute’s housing project:
“Before we lived in a wooden shack, but eight months ago, the John XXIII Institute helped us with our new house. We are much happier because the house we had before wasn’t the same. It was smaller, more squashed. We are very grateful to the John XXIII Institute. If they hadn’t come to organise people, we wouldn’t have this.”
Case study Four
The community of Ojo de Agua
Ojo de Agua is one of five communities in the municipality of Ciudad Dario. There are 54 families in the community, 250 people in total. They are mostly farmers, growing tomatoes, melons, corn, beans and other crops.
The John XXIII Institute has supported the community of Ojo de Agua with house building and, in the near future, hopes to develop a community water project. The Institute has done a participatory survey to see what people need and what can be done. In times of drought the community have to ration water.
“Since the John XXIII Institute came to the community we have become more organised. We have been working with the John XXIII Institute for four years now. We have built 24 new houses. We will get water this year with the help of the John XXIII Institute’s engineer. We had a new school here in 2003, built by the Ministry of Education. They also provide the teachers. For the last three years the John XXIII Institute has been supporting us with school materials. 90% of the community can now read and write. We’ve opened a secondary school too. The John XXIII Institute has supported scholarships for people to go there. It helps children and adults, because it is expensive for parents to pay for school books.” Carlos Merced Martín, President of the People’s Association.
“We sell school materials cheaply. A big notebook with 70 sheets usually costs 14 córdobas, but we sell them for five córdobas. As we sell them now, people don’t have to pay transport to go and buy them elsewhere. A pencil usually costs two córdobas; we sell them for one córdoba. We buy them from the John XXIII Institute at this cheap rate and the money we get for selling them goes back into the collective fund. We run extra classes for children who need support in Spanish and other classes at the weekends. We’ve been doing this for three years. Three years ago we started selling the materials cheaply too. Before, we had a small school with no chairs and no facilities.” Amada de la Cruz Urbina Rosales, Secretary of the Education Commission
KS2 teacher’s case study
Water and education in Zambia
Zambia is a landlocked country situated in southern Africa and has a population of just over ten million people. The country is rich in natural resources especially copper. However declining copper prices and prolonged drought have seriously damaged Zambia's economy. Three-quarters of the population live on less than 60 pence per day.
CAFOD has worked in Zambia for many years and one of its key partners is the Diocese of Monze. The Diocese works with local communities to help them achieve sustainable livelihoods and develop ways of coping in times of prolonged drought. The village of Kalisowe is one of the communities the Diocese of Monze has worked with.
The community of Kalisowe
Kalisowe (meaning lost place), is a village 56 Kilometres from the medium sized town of Monze in Zambia. A key issue for the people in this community has been access to water. During periods of drought, people were walking up to 15km in search of water, often having to dig deep holes to gain access to a water supply.
The Diocese of Monze looked at this need and supported a development project in Kalisowe. In 2005 two pumps were installed, one manual and one solar powered. The solar powered pump pumps the water up a hill 26 metres high to a 5000 litre tank from where it is piped to the school, village and school garden. The water is used for domestic purposes and to irrigate trees and other plants. Two caretakers have been employed to supervise the tank and the solar panel. It serves around 300 households.
The Diocese has also supported the running of a radio interactive education programme known as Tawonga. During the rainy season, the village was completely cut off by the swollen rivers so children could not go to school. The Diocese helped get radio programmes made in Lusaka by the Ministry of Education broadcast on the local community radio station (Chikuni Community Radio), so that the children could still learn regardless of the weather. The children are now given lessons via the radio and the village identified people who had been educated enough themselves to help the children and adults through the lessons. The school has set up a garden to grow vegetables. The children look after the plants, sheltering seedlings from the sun and burying grass in the soil to improve its fertility. There is also a village grinding machine that grinds maize to make granules for brewing a non-alcoholic sweet beer.
The Interactive Radio Project started in 2000 and broadcasts on 91.8FM. Since it is a community based radio 60% of the output is spoken in the local language and 40% in English. 60% of the music played is local music. The radio station gives a voice to the views and opinions of the community and gives out information and news. Reporters from the radio station go out into the villages to get stories and have correspondents’ in the outlying areas to send in news. The radio station also broadcasts national news and interactive radio education to villages like Kalisowe. It is a not-for-profit radio station.
Many people don’t have enough money to send their children to school in Zambia. Only recently have the government abolished school fees in most parts of the country. There are no formal schools in some remote villages like Kalisowe. The place is surrounded by rivers, so it is very difficult for people to get to formal schools especially during the rainy season so the interactive radio education is a good option for them. Sometimes older people in the very remote communities also go to the radio school because they also want to learn how to read and write. As a country, Zambia has an aim to get all children into primary school by 2015 so this helps project is helping the country achieve that aim.