Education
Schools – Bringing Hope through Education
In Nicaragua, rarely does a child from a rural area attend school beyond the fourth grade. In cities, this statistic is only slightly better. Where do these children end up? On the streets or scavenging the countryside trying to earn pennies for the family’s next meal, caught in the endless cycle of hopelessness and despair.
Education is the key to breaking the bondage of poverty in Nicaragua. We help establish schools in rural areas, help fund teachers’ salaries, and supply scholarships to children of all ages. We also supply desperately needed educational materials and supplies. Nearly all the schools we help fund are established in conjunction with meal centers in order to ensure that the children have the good nutrition essential for effective learning.
Scholarships
Thousands of Nicaraguan children now receive or have received scholarships funded by donors to The Tin Roof Foundation. These are awarded for kindergarten through college and help defray the costs of uniforms (for the younger children), transportation, vocational training, and college. All high school and college recipients are required to tutor younger children or work in the community as repayment for their scholarships.
Honest Answers
The problems of malnutrition, disease, and illiteracy in Nicaragua run parallel to another major problem—the thousands of children born each year to girls barely into their teens. The Honest Answers Program (also called “Building Family Values” or “BFV”) encourages youth to think ahead about what they want for themselves and their children, then govern their sexual activity so they can more likely reach their goals.
“Children must have a relevant, practical reason to put off having families,” says Gwen Aseltine, PhD, author of the Honest Answers* text used to teach the class. Although the program faced skepticism when if first began in 2002, today it is widely accepted and supported by Nicaraguan teachers, churches, and community leaders as a viable and effective approach to the problem of children having children.
* Dr. Aseltine received no royalties from her manual.
