TIERRA NUEVA’S KIDS LEARN, LAUGH, AND GROW – THANKS TO YOU

Yajaira leads class in Tierra Nueva’s beautiful new schoolhouse, built through your generosity and a partnership with rural school builing expert, BuildOn.
 

IMAGINE THE MOST CHARMING BLUE SCHOOLHOUSE…

The laughter of children filters through the open windows of the new Tierra Nueva schoolhouse. Students are divided into two groups, with third graders facing one whiteboard and fourth graders facing another. Like a talented orchestra conductor, their teacher Yajaira Obregon skillfully directs both groups of students, instructing one group, giving an assignment, and slipping behind them to instruct the others.

The children sit happily at small wooden desks. Their notebooks are open and their eyes trained on Mrs. Obregon. These children are more excited than most to study. They remember a time when their classroom was not nearly as pleasant to learn in.

“[The schoolhouse] motivates children. Here they feel protected. This is very important… because they are the future teachers and doctors of their community.” — Yajaira, teacher

14-year-old Jovani focuses on his math homework because he knows it will help him reach his goal of becoming an agricultural technician.
 

“WHEN IT RAINED, OUR NOTEBOOKS GOT WET.”

“I studied in a small shack near the entrance to the village,” remembers Selena, 14, a seventh grader who wants to be a translator when she grows up. “We were not comfortable. We studied in the open air and wrote on our legs,” she explains. “And, when it rained, our notebooks got wet,” she recalls.

Not only were conditions uncomfortable, the children had to walk more than a mile each way, leaving them tired and unmotivated to continue their studies.

A group of community mothers cook a healthy lunch for all the children attending school each day.
 

MORE TIME, LEARNING, AND PROUD PARENTS

Fueled by your kindness, Agros partnered with BuildOn, an expert in rural schools, to build a three room schoolhouse in Tierra Nueva. Now, attendance is nearly 100%. Now, students like Jovani, who’s also 14, have time and energy for school, homework, baseball and helping their families out in the fields.

“My dream is to be an agricultural technician,” he explains. “There are lots of mathematics processes that need to be done in the field,” he adds. You wouldn’t think so, but there are lots of things to calculate, the angles, the prices and the value of the crops,” he explains.

Jovani is only the second member of his family to have had the chance to go to school. “[My parents] are proud since they didn’t study,” he says. “Now, I can get ahead, and in the future I can help them and the rest of my family,” he adds.

After their lesson, one grade works on exercises together while their teacher flips around to the other side of the class to get the next grade of children going. These boys are dry, happy, and finally equipped with the space and tools they deserve to learn.