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In May of 2008, two friends, Polly Keary and Myra Ayers visited a third, who was doing volunteer work in Nicaragua.
Before going Myra and Polly, asked their friend Mateo Garibaldi (Executive Director and founder of Adelante) if there was anything they could bring to him.
Mateo said he didn't need anything, but he would like to make a gift.
If Polly and Myra could bring $100, the three could buy school supplies for about 100 kids who attended a primitive school in a farming community.
If the women could bring $124, he said, the four teachers who worked there could each have a mop and broom for their classrooms, which they had told him they needed.
The friends approached the Rotary Club of Monroe, Washington. The members donated $600.
Overwhelmed, the three friends brainstormed with some of the parents at the tiny, four-room school.
They identified about $400 worth of needs for the school, which operated without electricity or plumbing.
The friends bought school supplies for every child, water containers, teaching materials, a bright pinata, rice and beans for the children's lunches to fill the gaps in the government supply, and books. With the remaining $200, they commissioned a local welder to make soccer goal posts out of metal pipe. With those, they created a soccer field in the schoolhouse yard.
And, yes, the teachers got mops and brooms.
Amazed at what a few dollars could accomplish in Nicaragua, the friends vowed to do more.
Together, they formed Vecinos, an initiative to support education in rural Nicaragua.
They committed to adopt three rural schools and raise funds to supply them with needed materials.
Every February, the start of the Nicaraguan school year, they will return, and spend every nickel of donated funds on the materials that teachers and parents have said they need the most.
All kids deserve a level playing field.
Here is are some examples of how far your money can go in Nicaragua:
.09 ¢ = ruler
.09 ¢ = pencil sharpener
.60 ¢ = lined notebook for elementary school
.75 ¢ = Taxi to anywhere in the city
.15 ¢ = public transportation to anywhere in the city
.56 ¢ = 1/2 liter of Coca-Cola
.51 ¢ = 1lb of Rice
.51 ¢ = 1lb of Beans
.25 ¢ = 1lb of sugar
$100 dollars: Would provide about 40 kids in a school a pen, pencil, and two notebooks that would last them the school year.
About the Founders
Polly Keary, is the editor of the Monroe Monitor, a community newspaper in Monroe, Washington, and is a member of the Monroe Rotary Club. She is also a long-time blues musician in the Seattle area. While majoring in Communications at the University of Washington, Keary minored in Spanish with the idea of working in Central America as a journalist. She lives in Everett, Washington.
Myra Ayers is a Leasing & Marketing Specialist for one of the largest property management companies in Washington state. She has a passion for ballroom dancing & teaches kick boxing in her spare time.
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