A year ago, Las Brumas Elementary in Matagalpa, Nicaragua was a one room schoolhouse that let in the sun and the rain, and dusty dirt floors that caused frequent respiratory issues for the students and teachers. There were no desks, chairs, chalkboards or dry erase boards. No bathroom, no sink,  no electricity, and no clean water since water is a scarce resource in the community. Families get clean water through home-drawn water pumps.

But all of that didn’t discourage the families, students, and teachers at Las Brumas from pursuing education. A preschool was established and met in the home of one of the teachers. A family near the schoolhouse opened their home so students could use their bathroom. Without any classroom materials, the teachers repurposed the classroom door as a place to hang student work and present material to the class. The nearby coffee farm helped provide the school with clean water and supported the efforts by teachers to develop healthy hygiene practices. Students began to bring plastic containers to class so they could take clean water with them and practice their new healthy habits at home.

About 69 families, live in Las Brumas: including 45 preschool, first, and second grade students, 35 parents, and 2 teachers. For income, most families work on the nearby coffee farm and make most of each year’s money during the harvest - sometimes temporarily moving to a nearby farm. Some community members travel to the city to work as street vendors, in the market, or in construction.

The dedication of the teachers, the students, and the families of Las Brumas to providing quality education for their community kept this school functioning. But the community wanted to take the education their kids were receiving to the next level - they wanted to build a better school. A well-built school with separate rooms, each stocked with learning supplies for each grade,  a playground, and a safe, sanitary bathroom. So the community approached Project Alianza.

After several community meetings and strategy sessions with the Project Alianza team, help from our local partners, and gifts from our community of donors, a plan was decided on. Parents from Las Brumas organized together to provide the labor needed to build the school - they dug ditches, organized and stored the materials, and provided meals for all of those who worked on the construction. The community built the new school and made better education for their children possible.

Only three months after starting construction, the doors of the new school opened in October 2020. With two separate and fully equipped classrooms, an area for students to play, two bathrooms with toilets and sinks, and a pump to recycle rainwater, the new school is enabling the community of Las Brumas to provide their children with quality education and high hopes for what the future will bring.