Posts

The Power of Technology: Computers in the Centers

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Over the years, La Esperanza Granada has endeavored to provide children living in the barrios of Granda with access to computers and tablets. Now, we are pleased to announce that a recent donation means that we have been able to purchase a collection of tablets for our Learning Centers, allowing the children greater opportunities to gain experience of such technology. For the children at our Learning Centers, tablets provide an interesting new way to progress their studies. The educational games available on the tablets turn learning into an exciting challenge where problem-solving skills and creativity are tested to the limit. It is wonderful to see the children thrive whilst using the tablets, some focusing on tasks with looks of intense concentration, others working through a game collaboratively, chatting with smiles and laughter. Furthermore, by allowing access to tablets, we are able to offer the children at our Learning Centers more than an interesting new way ...

Why we left the classrooms: by Pauline

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One of the hazards of being here and involved in all that is happening is the tendency to forget that not everybody knows, and how important it is to effectively communicate what is going on to our supporters.  I guess there have been bits and pieces in the newsletter, but not a full explanation, and especially not sufficient for someone like yourself who is out there gathering more supporters for La Esperanza Granada.  So I will try and explain in a concise fashion, and hopefully this will help both update your 'spiel' and offer answers to any questions that anyone may have. Our move to the learning centers from the primary schools was planned, however it progressed more rapidly than we had expected as we had groups who came and built our third and fourth centers.  The first small center in fact we were running for a couple of years, and had taken it over from another group called Amped who were unable to continue.  We later, through Amped, received the fun...

House building project Families for Families

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Since 2011, La Esperanza Granada is building homes for families in the neighborhood of Nueva Esperanza. This project is called ‘Families for Families’ and is part of a school attendance incentive program. We reward the families whose children have good school attendance. We want to thank them for caring about their children’s education. So far 37 homes have been built and we are planning on building 2 more very soon. We renovate or rebuild houses for families who live in bad conditions. The houses only have plastic sheeting or corrugated iron for walls. Many of the homes don’t have a toilet or a shower. There usually is one in the neighborhood for many people to use, but it doesn’t give them much privacy. We visited three families in the neighborhood of Nueva Esperanza. One of them recently had their home rebuild. The two other families are next in line, and they are excited! A member of the family who recently had their home renovated says it made their li...