Friday, April 28, 2017 • Vol.28 No.27 • Neepawa, Manitoba
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Four ‘R’s: Reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic and Rotary By Kate Jackman-Atkinson The Neepawa Banner He may have been over 5,000 km from home, but Ron Nordstrom found a little piece of Canada nestled in a Guatemalan valley. For 28 days, Nordstrom, a retired teacher from Neepawa, had a once in a lifetime experience working with students and teachers at Joya Verde School, located in a Guatemalan village. Nordstrom travelled to the Central American country as part of a Rotary Club Vocational Training Team (VTT), sponsored by Rotary District 5550, which spans from Kenora to Saskatoon. The team operated under the umbrella of the Ripple Effect Program in Guatemala, which is the first international world community service program ever developed in District 5550. The program aims to provide opportunity to children living in challenging environments through promoting literacy and education. Like ripples on a pond, the idea is that education improves the lives and outlook of the students, who then impact those around them, who in turn impact others, in ever-widening circles. Nordstrom, who wasn’t a Rotarian at the time, was approached about participating by a member of the Neepawa club. From there, he underwent an interview process before being selected as one of the five teachers who, along with a team leader, travelled to the Joya Verde School. Before leaving Neepawa, Nordstrom didn’t know any of the other team members. “I’ve never done anything like this before, what a great experience,” he said. Need for change The education system in Guatemala faces a number of challenges, the largest of which is retention. Nordstrom explained that the government only funds education until Grade 6, after that, families must pay out of pocket for their children to continue schooling. The financial burden is compounded by an education system that does little to interest the students. Students looking to advance to Grade 7 and beyond face challenges that don't exist for most Canadian students. “There are a lot of obstacles and one of them is that there’s no school in Joya Verde [past Grade 6]…They need to get there and it’s not a walk, not even a long walk, it’s a drive,” explained Nordstrom. This means that the students, whose parents don’t have vehicles, need to find transportation. Guatemala is a poor country, more than half of the population lives below the national poverty line and almost a quarter of the population lives in extreme poverty. Joya Verde School, which means green jewel, is located in a valley in a very poor village. While there are some brick buildings, most of the children live in homes made of corrugated metal with a dirt floor. The community began as a squatters’ village, but has grown to the point that today, there are two churches and the school, which has about 125 students. Nordstrom saw first hand the economic hardships
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Ron Nordstrom with some of the Grade 5 and Grade 6 students at Joya Verde School. Nordstrom spent 28 days at the Guatemalan school as part of a Rotary Vocational Training Team, helping improve the skills of the school’s teachers. faced by many Guatemelans. “They were a poor community, but they welcomed us, were so grateful we were there,” he said. “It was quite eye-opening, it gave me a lot of respect for those people in the [corrugated metal homes]. Because you take a look at what they have and there’s no doors and its windy sometimes, the wind is just whipping dirt around. They’re coming to school with clean clothes and you think, how do you do that? How do you keep anything clean?…They do some amazing things with what they have,” he added. While attending Rotary functions, the VTT members also had a chance to see how more affluent Guatemalans live. He explained that while in Canada, Rotarians are mostly middle class, in Guatemala, they tend to be wealthier community members. The work done by these Rotarians ahead of time allowed the VTT to be effective and get right to work once they arrived. Nordstrom explained that local Rotarians organized essentials like their interpreters, cell phones, transportation and a parent meeting the first day. The government sees education as an important way
forward and Nordstrom said that the curriculum has been updated. However, there isn’t enough money to train all the country’s teachers, which is where initiatives, such as Vocational Training Teams, come in. Teachers currently being trained are learning more active methods of teaching, but many teachers were educated under the old system and don’t have these tools. The teachers at Joya Verde wanted to make school more interesting and help the students want to advance beyond Grade 6, they just needed some help. Nordstrom explained that their goal was to engage the students in learning, saying, “Their education system is very passive, ‘read this, do these questions’— it’s the same for pretty much every subject. [The school] realized it wasn’t the best way to teach, they wanted some ideas on how to get the kids more active and participating. Our job was to go down there and basically show them different ways to meet the same objectives, but make it more interesting.” Continued on page 7