Please take a moment to view a letter from a wonderful group traveling back to Nicaragua!
Dear Friends,
My name is Christian Nielsen and I am writing on behalf of a group of students from Quinnipiac University who go on an annual trip to Leon, Nicaragua in order to help improve educational conditions. We build and improve schools, conduct teaching workshops, and hand out school supplies to the children. Last year, ODS provided us with the supplies we needed to give over 500 Nicaraguan students the supplies they need to excel in school.
This year, I am asking you to help us. We are in need of the same number of supplies, if not more, for the same students as last year. We are also willing to accept supplies for teachers who are subject to the same poor economic conditions as their students.
If you are able to help, we need as many packets/bags containing the following list of supplies as possible. (Any extra supplies will either be used in another humanitarian trip or possibly sent to another ODS sponsored location)
For students:
Spiral bound notebooks w/ lined pages Pencils Colored Pencils Pens Rulers - preferrably w/o the metal edge Construction Paper Erasers Individual pencil sharpeners Markers
Our short documentary about last year's trip has been posted here on ODS homepage since last summer, and pictures and testimonials are viewable in the Photo Gallery and Dreamseed Fields sections of the site.
We will be glad to include anyone who helps us in our photo gallery and this year's documentary and you will be sent copies of each, as well as a full account of our trip. Be sure to include pictures and/or video of your supply drive or event for us to use.
Please send donations to: ODS c/o Christian Nielsen 1 Kimberly Drive Rhinebeck, NY 12572
More on our work...
A very unique and special aspect of our trip last year was meeting a boy named Pedro at the high school in La Ceiba, Nicaragua. Pedro spoke to us using English words he taught himself using a borrowed dictionary once or twice a week. Each day we returned to work, Pedro was by our side, striving to improve his English and get to know us. We learned that Pedro wants to become a doctor to help poor people in villages like his. English is seen as a ticket out of poverty in Latin America, because it opens the door to further education and jobs in tourism or with English speaking business people and corporations with operations in Nicaragua.
Pedro's desire to learn inspired us to the extent that each member of our delegation gave several dollars in order to purchase Pedro a scholarship to learn English through an organization called Allianza Americana. Long story short, after almost a year, Pedro has completed his primary English training and graduated from high school. His English has improved so much that he will likely have a job teaching it soon. This is a far cry from the future he and his family likely envisioned before we met him in March.
We hope to help Pedro further his education and will try to give more students similar opportunities this year and for years to come!