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NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES
Spring 2012 Download PDF
Summer 2009 Download PDF
Spring 2009 Download PDF
Project Guatemala Download PDF
Project Bolivia Download PDF
Foto Bolivia Project Download invite

VIDEO ARCHIVES
Kenya
Bolivia

Guatemala

Introducing: PROJECT KENYA!

Write Around the World (WATW) is pleased to announce the latest educational project we will sponsor: a small and primitive school in the tiny, poverty-stricken village of Nangili (outside of Webuye, Kenya). This mostly-forgotten, rural community is home to a great number of destitute, young children whose only means of support is through a program run by a local Bishop, Alex Wafula, and his wife, Pastor Florence Wafula. Alex and Florence created this basic education and feeding program, after establishing a local church in the area, to help keep these children from sheer neglect and starvation.

The village of Nangili receives almost no attention from the Kenyan government. Its once mighty paper mill now sits dormant. Large NGOs drive right through town on their way to more interesting places. Recognizing the need in this tiny area, Alex and Florence started a school for children who have been orphaned or left with single mothers who have no means of support. Typically, the families of these children cannot afford the high fees imposed by government-run schools. 

"When I was originally thinking of starting Write Around the World,” says Mike Lewis, “I envisioned little children writing in the dirt with sticks because they did not have any pencils or paper. So when the kids here got down on the ground to practice their writing lessons with pieces of charcoal, it really struck a chord.”

Currently, the one-room school sits in a temporary structure that is very hot, and has poor lighting, a leaky roof, and virtually no ventilation. There isn’t a toy in sight. During the hot months, the dirt floors are sprayed twice a month for the problematic Chilgoe flea that burrows into the foot and causes large painful ulcerations. During the rainy season, malaria becomes a serious threat. Malnutrition is always a major health concern as well: during the two weeks Write Around the World founder Mike Lewis spent visiting the area, three local children died of malnutrition!

The 63 school children, 22 of whom are orphans, attend the school from 8 to 5 pm, five days a week. The levels range from preschool to 2nd grade.  The children are too young to walk alone and are escorted home by one of the two teachers, rain or shine. They are fed morning millet porridge, a hot lunch and afternoon tea.  The Kenyan government requires that religious instruction be part of every school program and Life Spring Academy complies, by providing the basic requirement. 

In addition to founding the local church and school, Alex and Florence have also become social workers, school administrators, medical caseworkers, and citizen advocates to the local government.  (In addition, they have established a larger ministry organization called Life Spring Ministry.) Alex and Florence are doing some great work for the local children and community of Nangili, but they desperately need our help.

Write Around the World will direct all financial and other means of support exclusively to Life Spring Academy school and its children, in keeping with our organization’s secular mission.  We are not endorsing any religious views or sponsoring any other church-related activities through this engagement. In sponsoring Life Spring Academy, WATW pledges to help raise $22,000 towards a new and safer school building, a used van for student transport, scholarships for children to continue their education beyond the second grade, books and other educational resources, as well as food.

We are incredibly excited about this new opportunity, and we will be hosting fund raisers, informational slide shows, school supply drives, and other activities in the coming months. Watch for your invitation to join us!

(Click here to view our Letter of Intent concerning Project Kenya)

 

 

Introducing: PROJECT BOLIVIA!

Project Bolivia is now in full swing! For the time being, Mike has settled in Sucre. organizing shipments from the States and Canada. While there, he will be volunteering at our project center, Ñanta, and organizing shipments and purchases from the States and Canada.

Sucre is the prosperous capital of Bolivia and attracts families from the countryside to the city with hopes of a better life. Many of these families are under an intense strain to make ends meet, and often times the mother is left alone to fend for herself. The children are then forced to work on the streets, sometimes being the family’s solitary earner – foregoing school in the process. Ñanta is an alternative education center for the working street kids of Sucre.

Please watch Mike’s video introduction of Ñanta.

 

 

Introducing: PROJECT GUATEMALA!

Our partner in Guatemala, Fred Zambowski and Let's Be Ready continues to open rural preschools, and we are trying our best to keep up the demand for items most easily acquired in the US:

  1. Leap Pads and early childhood books (Spanish)
  2. Wooden blocks, puzzles, board games
  3. Puppets, costumes, dolls
  4. Musical instruments
  5. Kitchen items: dishes, cook pots, plastic/wood fruit and vegetables



Between 25-30% of children from rural Guatemala either repeat or drop out of the first grade, contributing to a high illiteracy rate – the highest in Central America! Estamos Listos is an organization dedicated to preparing Guatemalan children for success in the first grade. The organization has three branches: an outreach program using clowns in public spaces of poor communities to educate family members on how to prepare youngsters for elementary school, a teacher training program that teaches proven methods in the field of early education to Guatemalan pre-school teachers, and its newest program, Pequenos Pero Listos.

Pequenos Pero Listos (Small but Ready), will be Write Around the World’s primary focus. This branch of Estamos Listos works specifically to establish preschools for underprivileged children in rural communities. The classes are taught by local teachers (often offering employment to out of work teachers) who have completed advanced training from Estamos Listos. The local communities must provide a facility for the classes to be taught. Once a teacher and location are secured, a class “sponsor” must be found to fund the project, which covers the teacher’s monthly stipend, necessary school supplies and class furniture. Sponsoring a class costs $3,300 annually.

The curriculum used is Guatemala’s New National Curriculum for subject matter and assessment tests in conjunction with Creative Curriculum, a preschool curriculum used in Head Start and many other early education programs in the U.S. Each school works hard to maintain an optimal 12 to 1 student-teacher ratio.

Pequenos Pero Listos’ first project was only one year ago, but like all good ideas – it took off. The project now has 16 successfully operating kindergartens, with a goal of doubling by the end of 2009. Currently, school supplies are brought into the country in the suitcases of supporters and sponsors. Some items are purchased in Guatemala City from donations. This process cannot support the desired growth, and WATW is planning on lessening this burden by providing the necessary supplies to meet the upcoming expansion so they can focus on what matters most – educating more children!

Fred Zambroski is the founder and driving force behind Estamos Listos. Fred is an American now living in Antigua, and is passionate about the success of this Estamos Listos. He, like all administrative and supervisory labor, is 100% volunteer based. For more information see www.letsbeready.org


 

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