Fundación Aprender—Biblioteca Los 3 Ernestos

Fundación Aprender—Biblioteca Los 3 Ernestos
Newsletter– Second Quarter, 2013
Founders: Gabriela Prado and James Womack
Librarians: Gretel Prudente and Teresa Moraga
Fundación Aprender is a non-profit organization
committed to providing educational opportunities for the youth of Las Salinas de Nahualapa,
Nicaragua.
We continue to work with our full focus at the
Biblioteca Los Tres Ernestos tutoring boys and
girls in order to help them throughout the school
year. In 2013 we are sponsoring 91 students. We
recently distributed many donated supplies to
the kids who needed it most. The children received all the donations you gave us: clothing,
toothbrushes, notebooks, shoes, pencils, etc. In
exchange, they brought bottles full of garbage,
the new “eco bricks”!
Please take a look at what we have been up to during April, May and June 2013 ! Want to help ...?
Do not hesitate, there are many ways ! Come to volunteer, send school and sports supplies or clothing
with a friend or come yourself, that is the perfect excuse to visit Nicaragua! Or make a donation to help
us continue volunteering our time in order to
serve our community! Thanks Ian, Stefano,
Sienna and Lauren from Toronto Canada,
gracias Jeff Crelling, thanks Malia Alfonso
and Lauren Baumgardner for your school supplies donations!
Gracias
SFS Missions, Pierre and Odile Kory for
your monthly donations that are crucial
to keep our Biblioteca Los Tres Ernestos
open every day !
Fundación Aprender offers daily tutoring classes, art and yoga workshops, game
days, fun and creative activities and sport clinics at the new Multi Sports Court.
All is free and open to everyone.
GRACIAS to all of you who keep supporting us!
www.aprendernicaragua.org
Swimming Lessons
Carly Melhtes visited us from
Australia and taught Swimming Classes at the local hot
springs pool with Meg
Wadsworth and Debby
Ankone. A dozen children
enjoyed playing in the water!
Thanks Carly also for your donation of donation of soccer
balls and footballs.
Beach Days
Everybody loves Beach Days !
For having a fun Beach Day we need lots of organization and many volunteers ! We had this opportunity
while many surfers got together and decided to share
their morning with us: Thanks Carly Melhtes , Rick
Briggs, Saffron Van Rossem, Jasmine Joy, Jeff Cagle
and Patrick McBride for playing with us! Thanks to all
the moms who came along and Gretel Prudente and
Teresita Moraga to help organize it all !
We fit 40 people in two cars !!!
And 100 mangos and 50 bananas were enjoyed!
Surfing Lessons
Gracias Paula Lindsey and Michael Lindsey for
continue to bring Waves of Love to Las Salinas ,
and for sharing with our kids all your amazing
energy teaching personalized surfing classes !!!
Gracias Natalie Chesser, Brennan Mesler, Casey Dean, Macky Bowlin, Steve Morris, Joey
Dean, and Tyler Souder for being great teachers and surfing buddies.
Tennis !
Vegetable gardens!
SFS Missions is one of Aprender’s
“partners”. They came to visit Las Salinas in May
and this time besides bringing a donation of
shoes, school and sports supplies, they were
part of our Vegetable Garden project by building our 23rd organic vegetable garden! this
time in a house near the Astillero community.
SFS planted tomatoes, eggplants, soy beans,
white and red bean, papayas, "cuadrado"
plantains and a nutritious local plant called
"quelite" . Thanks Chad and Laura Cheney
Starkey !! Gracias Ches Scott, KC Mabry, Lee
Baggs, Chris Starkey, John Bledsoe, Jay Morton,
Mike Kozlowski and all the people supporting SFS Missions for the generosity and efforts you make to
help our community!!
Music Classes at the School !
Stephanie Merrit visited us in May. She taught
Music Classes at the local High school guided by professor Luzmilda Silva. In her own words : "I am humbled
by the time I spent in Las Salinas. It gave me a reality
check; to impart something meaningful is a courageous task. It requires boundless creativity, focus, and
mental agility. Teaching was challenging, but also inspiring and eye-opening. I am thankful to Las Salinas
community, the school, and Fundación Aprender for
allowing me the experience. My advice to future volunteers: take the name of the foundation to heart. Be
prepared to learn, just as much as you are to teach or
to give. My homestay experience was the best. I really
enjoyed getting to know Gioconda and her family."
Beach Yoga !
Thanks Johanna Westen, Teresita Moraga, Ellen Jirik,
Amy Rowland y Sally Gole for a beautiful yoga morning on the beach. We played and practice yoga at
Popoyo Beach, enjoyed mangoes and bananas and
got our feet wet in the ocean !!
English Classes from Kindergarten to Adults!
Johanna Westen has come to volunteer with
Aprender from Germany, through Mosaic Project
organization. She will be staying in Las Salinas for
three months. She is teaching English classes daily
for different groups divided by ages: kindergarten,
elementary school students, teenagers and adults.
Private Classes are offered for free at the library for
all of those who are willing to deepen their
knowledge of the language!
Yoga Classes !
The 2013 chapter of the Sewing classes started
Organizació
The children in Salinas continwith a new teacher. Jesennia Chavez is offering clasue to practice Yoga, this time
ses twice a week in the Library’s Art Room.
classes are offered daily at
the Library and Art Room by The students are acquiring a skill that can be
transformed into a new income for their families. They
our volunteer and yoga
have learned how to make clothing patches, pillows,
teacher from Yogi-nomad
aprons, skirts and bags! .
School, Johanna. The stuThanks Chad and Laura Starkey and SFS Misdents are learning new asasions for supporting the Sewing Program!
nas (poses) such as Shoulderstand and Crow Pose !
Hand made Jewelry Workshop
A group of women and teenagers are learning a new
skill, making jewelry. The workshop has been open for almost
two months already, and the students have learned how to
make earning and necklaces with feathers, shells and beads.
The results are
amazing, and they are
starting to see that not
only them are enjoying
it but some people
have been buying
their jewelry as well !
This is a bonus to their
efforts and now with
the money they collected they will buy new materials to continue learning! Thanks Johanna for teaching us a new skill !!
www.aprendernicaragua.org
Kickboxing and Zumba Classes
A lot of excitement at the Art Room when the
music starts to sound and Gretel Samantha Prudente
Miranda and Johanna Westen started the first Kick
Boxing Class followed by Zumba !
Classes are taught twice a week, but the
young women are getting together daily to practice
and getting fit and strong while having lots of fun!
Nail Salon and Henna Style
Paula Lindsey and
Organizació
Jenny Bee Berning
came to the Art Room
to share their love with
the girls in Las Salinas, by
creating a mini Nail Salon ! Paula has been collaborating with Aprender for years, we love
her and the children
love her too! These are real Waves of Love !!!
A new trend in Salinas! from Germany to Nicaragua... the girls
are super excited about decorating her hands with Henna!
Henna has been a tradition in India centered around the idea of
"awakening the inner light". The girls LOVE Johanna who is teaching and sharing this "new" technique.
GRACIAS ! MERCI ! THANK YOU
We hope you enjoyed this first quarterly update. For those of you who support Aprender on an on-going
basis, your efforts are having positive, long-lasting effects. We see it daily: kids learning new things, feeding
their curiosity, experimenting, gaining confidence, growing, and developing new skills –both social and academic. Thank You ! For those who are just now learning about what Aprender does, we invite you to visit
our website AprenderNicaragua.org to learn more.
GRACIAS ! MERCI ! THANK YOU and see you soon !