2019 successes and almost 30% more students sponsored in 2020

We have wonderful news about our students’ achievements during their 2019 academic year. We sponsored 89 students last year! We had four students graduate from college with their degrees in English, Nursing, Air Transit Control, and Agricultural Engineering!! We are excited to see where these young graduates end up. 12 students finished their university coursework in December and are now working to receive their Titles. To graduate and get their Title they must take a required course, called monografí. It is the final requirement, akin to a thesis-guidance course on an undergrad level. It’s more expensive than high school and college tuition, ranging from $700–$1,500, so our support is certainly needed during this final year.

All 10 scholarship students who graduated from high school are going on to university, an impressive achievement in and of itself. The 36 students who were in university are continuing this year, and the 15 students enrolled in high school are also continuing. Only six students have left their studies—two failed, three had to leave to find work, and one emigrated to the US. 

This year, because of the generosity of our terrific sponsors, we are able to give 42 new scholarships. 27 of our new students will be enrolled in high schools and 15 will be at universities in the area. In 2020 we are helping a total of 115 students attend school, 42 in high schools and 73 in universities. Who would ever have imagined this when the Nicaragua Scholarship Program began in 2001 with 20 students! Thank you to all our generous donors and sponsors!

Help us offer even more scholarships:

Happy New Year from Jess and her family

Hello! It is amazing to me that it has been 19 years since I founded the Nicaraguan scholarship program, the Asla Foundation in 2001, and it is going stronger than ever! What started as a small project helping 25 kids while I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua, has turned into helping over 350 students attend high school and college, and over 30 have graduated from college. We are following our graduates to see what comes of their futures and we plan to profile some of them in our newsletter. Your support has made a huge difference to our students, their families, and communities.

Jess, Nate, and Auggie

I have been living in the Bay Area for the past 12 years: my regular, full-time job is as the Parks Program Manager for Save the Redwoods League, a non-profit organization that protects, restores and connects people to the redwood forests of California. I just completed a big project—fundraising over $15 million to buy the Alder Creek giant sequoia property in northern California. You can see a video about the project here: www.bit.ly/alder-grove. I have always run the Asla Foundation in my free time, and it has been a big source of joy. I am so happy to be able to continue helping our friends in Nicaragua.

We had a baby in April—Auggie—who has been a pure joy for my husband, Nathan, and me. He is teaching us a lot (including how to function on much less sleep!) Even though life has gotten busier, I feel so grateful and blessed to be able to continue my work with our youth in Nicaragua, as it was my home for over two years while I was in the Peace Corps. From seeing the need for supporting youth’s education first hand, I am also grateful for the help I’m receiving on the ground in Nicaragua with Nola and Elisa. And here in the U.S., Janet Kendall has been an enormous support—she has been the drive behind our regular newsletters, amongst many other things.

We received over 40 new scholarship applications this month, and because of your generosity, we believe we’ll be able to help most, if not all, of these new students, plus the students continuing on from last year. Stay tuned in the coming months for updates on our 2020 students, plus profiles on our students who have graduated from college.

Happiest New Year to you all!

Jess, Nate, and Auggie

Nicaragua Update

In last month's newsletter article about Nola, the scholarship coordinator for the Asla Foundation, we said we'd describe one aspect of the deaf education program she is very involved in. Nola writes:

Since February I have been working with a US non-profit organization called Manos Unidas to develop an online application (app) to help parents, family, students, teachers, and others involved with deaf people learn Nicaraguan Sign Language. You can learn more about the non-profit and the grant they were awarded for the app at https://allchildrenreading.org/innovator/manos-unidas/. The online app is called Señas Y Sonrisas (Signs and Smiles); you can download it for free through the Google or Apple Play Stores. It's a wonderful app, because once you download it, you do not need the internet to use it. This is very good here because many of the parents of our deaf children live in communities that do not have access to the internet. 

The app was developed by a team: lead coordinator Kyle Duarte from Manos Unidas, a deaf person in the United States, two deaf teachers from Nicaragua who make the signs on the videos in the app, Gautam Lewis (who also filmed the two videos for the Asla Foundation), and me. Currently the app has 350 basic signs, and we hope to add more in the future. It is dear to my heart because I work with several other projects that also help deaf students and teachers in our communities. The Asla Foundation currently supports three deaf students who are studying at the university level right now. One of those students is Delroy Nicolas Tatum Forbes who we wrote about in the October 2016 CCUCC newsletter - you can review that article on the next page. You can also visit the Señas Y Sonrisas Facebook page at https://m.facebook.com/SenasYSonrisasNI/?ref=nf&hc_ref=ART_FOryLYfzU3lP10N096mMj2j_KuV97rWlfFB_ADIkWUDBgUAFbABKZ5eOreTgBBM. 

We urge you to download the app and see how clever it is!

In a previous article we highlighted Nola Nackerud, the Asla/Scholarship Coordinator in Condega who works directly with our scholarship students. Nola joined the Peace Corps in 2001, at age 50. One of her projects was working with deaf children and their families throughout northern Nicaragua. We asked her to tell us about her experiences and the impact of the scholarship program on one of the deaf children, Delroy (see photo below). 

I became involved with the deaf in Nicaragua when I was a Peace Corps volunteer. Having worked with deaf students in the states made me especially eager to learn Nicaraguan Sign Language, and also my site, Condega, had a school for the deaf at that time. It became my secondary project for Peace Corps. I learned that Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL) is very unique and was like the Big Bang for linguistics all over the country. If you go on the internet you can find out much about NSL. I also learned about James and Judy Shepard-Kegl who spent much time in Nicaragua in the 80's onward and started the Nicaraguan Sign Language Project. In Bluefields, on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, was a boarding school for deaf children started by James and Judy. I visited while a Peace Corps volunteer and learned about what an amazing program they started. The Ministry of Education eventually took over the educational responsibility for deaf students, so the school closed. But some students, like Delroy, were sent to Condega to finish their schooling. 

This is a story about Delroy Nicolas Tatum Forbes. You might say that does not sound like a Nicaraguan name. But it is a name from the Atlantic (Caribbean) Coast of Nicaragua, an area where not only Spanish is spoken, but other languages including Kriol, Miskito, and Garifuna. It is an area of Nicaragua that has its own unique history and culture, Delroy was born deaf to an all hearing family in Laguna de Perlas, a small fishing village on the Atlantic coast. The language most spoken in the home is Kriol; however, the official language in the schools is Spanish. No one in his family knows sign language. They mainly use home signs and gestures with Delroy. Delroy had to leave his family in order to be able to study at a school for the deaf, taking a boat to the small town of Bluefields, an hour and a half from his village. Delroy stayed with a family there since he was only seven years old. There was also a house where the deaf teachers stayed and some older deaf adults. Delroy studied through the sixth grade until the school closed. He was then sent to Condega for high school, a very long way away from home, about 12 hours by bus. I had the privilege of meeting Delroy and his family in both his village and in his school in Bluefields. When he came to Condega, we were both so happy because we had a history and we had become good friends. During his time in high school he helped in a pilot program with me and three other high school deaf students. We would go to rural areas on Saturdays and visit families who had small deaf children. We worked on sign language with the child and the whole family. Delroy was a natural teacher. It was a great program but unfortunately only funded for one year. After Delroy graduated from high school he returned to his family in Laguna de Perlas. When I heard about a teaching program in Esteli, near Condega, that would include deaf students, I immediately thought of Delroy, so I took the long bus ride to talk to him and his family in Laguna de Perlas. I explained to the family where he would study and stay. They saw the great benefit an education could provide to Delroy--not only to learn, but to be able to better communicate with others. Delroy left Laguna de Perlas to begin his college education in Esteli (near Condega) this past year, studying to become a teacher. Delroy talked about several deaf children in his village who are not able to study. His dream is to return to Laguana de Perlas and team-teach with a hearing teacher, as they do in Condega. There is no deaf university or special program for deaf students here in Nicaragua like Gallaudet University in the US. There are few resources and the rights of the deaf are only now gradually being understood. However the Nicaragua Department of Education is adapting and training interpreters for classes. Right now Delroy is taking Spanish classes to get ready for teaching in January. So begins another chapter in Delroy's life -- with the help of the Nicaragua Scholarship Program and the Asla Foundation, he is able to study and become a teacher. 

Who is Nola?

The Nicaragua Scholarship Program would not be where it is today without Nola Nackerud (pictured above with two neighbors). Here is her remarkable story.

I am Nola, and I have been helping with the Asla Foundation scholarships in Nicaragua. It is amazing how your support changes the lives of these young people here.

I came to Nicaragua in 2001 as a Peace Corps volunteer. I had been married for 30 years and was devastated by my pending divorce, so I decided instead of staying and feeling sad I would go and do something to help others. Actually I was really helping myself at the same time.

Joining the Peace Corps at age 50 was definitely a challenge. I was an “environment volunteer” and was sent to the northern part of Nicaragua, to a pueblo called Condega (which means Land of the Potters). I worked in rural schools and did projects related to trash removal, composting with worms, climate change, and other environmental issues. I also volunteered for medical teams or other groups who needed a translator. In 2007, at the end of my Peace Corps assignments, a group from Bend, Oregon asked if I would consider staying in Condega and helping them with their projects. I said I would try it for a year and see if I could survive here on what little they could pay me. I flew back to the U.S. to go through the few belongings I had left in the attic of my nephew’s home and later were moved to a storage unit because he was getting married. (He thought my belongings would be there for 2 years, not 6!) I sold my few things and used the money to fly back to Nicaragua and begin another chapter of my life.

It is now 2019 and I am still here...almost 18 years now. I am getting by and live very simply as the coordinator of the Asla Foundation scholarship program as well as programs of the Condega/Bend Sister City Foundation. I’m also involved in library improvements, building projects in rural schools, school supplies distribution, and yes, I am a volunteer firefighter here! I also work with deaf children in their homes and schools and through that I have learned Nicaragua Sign Language. This has become my passion.

Why do I stay? Condega has become my home. Not many people would want to live under these conditions, but I thrive on the lovely people here, especially the children! I like the feeling of doing something each day that might make a difference in a life, be it something as simple as a smile or a hug, or helping a youth with homework or whatever else comes up. And so many things do come up!!

I do miss hot water, a washing machine, air conditioning, etc., but to be honest, I am so used to not having them that it is not a hardship. It is just my way of life now. For 13 years I did not have running water in my house. I had an outhouse out back and my shower was outside also. I now have running water in my house, and it is luxurious to have water come out of the tap!

I have so much admiration and gratitude for Jess Neff for starting the Asla Foundation; Jess was also a Peace Corps volunteer in a rural community nearby when I came here. The scholarships we provide change lives for the better and carry much love from the US to Nicaragua and from Nicaragua to the US.

Student Spotlight

My name is Jesbel Janelis Peralta Ruiz. I am 23 years old and receive support from the Asla Foundation to attend college. I am so grateful because without that help I would not be able to get an education and make a better life for my family and myself. I have two boys, ages 5 years and 1 year old. Also, I have two sisters, ages 16 and 5. I teach primary school in a very rural community and attend the university in Condega on Saturdays.

The rural school where I teach is about two and half hours from Condega, so I stay at the school during the week and travel to Condega Saturday mornings. I have one year left to finish my degree in social sciences. I hope to teach in a high school.

It is very difficult to be a mother, study, and work all at the same time, but I am so thankful I have this opportunity to achieve my goals. The situation here in Nicaragua is very, very hard right now. There are no jobs and there is much poverty; I want to study so that I can help the children who are growing up so that they can become youth who have goals, and therefore better their own lives.

My family is from Santa Teresa and I do have a distant memory of Jessica, the director of Asla. I was about 6 or 7 and I remember she gave me a chocolate one day, so it is very meaningful that now, all these years later I am being helped through this foundation which she started, and I am able to better my life with the resources that are given.

Exciting new videos and photographs of our students in Nicaragua!

Nola has written us about an unexpected and joyful adventure she had recently with Gautam Lewis, a videographer and photographer who came to Condega to make a video about the Asla Foundation, and photograph our students and the communities where they live. Nola had never met him before, but she learned a bit about him before working with him.

I am so excited about these videos because they show our students, their homes and gives you a sense of their lives in Nicaragua. Below are some of Gautam’s photographs and you can watch the videos here:

Here is Nola’s story about her time with Gautam in April:

Gautam was born in India. When he was a young toddler he developed polio, and his parents, unable to care for him, abandoned him in the streets of Calcutta. Mother Teresa found him and brought him to the Ministry of Charities to be cared for there. At around age 8 he was adopted by an English woman, and he was educated in the New Zealand and England. He recently moved to Nicaragua and very generously helps non-profit organizations show off their amazing work through his professional photographs and videos. He offered to help the Asla Foundation capture the work it’s accomplishing in order to share it with more people. I found him to be a fascinating human being, and I gained so much by helping with this video for the Asla Foundation. 

Gautam concentrated on filming a few of our scholarship students. He filmed them at their schools and their homes, and some as they were walking to school. One student walks an hour and a half through the hills and crosses a river to get to her school. I really enjoyed going to the homes and talking with both the students and their parents. Many live in very rural settings, and we would drive as far as we could and then walk the rest of the way, carrying the filming equipment and sometimes crossing a creek or two. We would leave Condega by 7:30 am, return late in the day around 5:30 pm, eat, and then work on translations from Spanish to English. The days were very long and tiring, but in a very good way. Seeing the students in various settings, (their schools, their homes, their journeys to school), made me realize even more just how important the Asla Foundation scholarship program is to them. Asla helps with the lives, education, and futures of these youth. They have many obstacles in their path, but through Asla, they have the opportunity to get an education, be it high school or university, and therefore improving their lives and the lives of their families. I have included some photos of Gautam Lewis here in Condega and in the rural areas filming the students. Thank you all for supporting the Asla Foundation, and please tell a friend about Asla so that more students can receive the support that they need. 

Photos by Gautam Lewis in and around Condega, Nicaragua – April 2019

Nola Nackerud with some of our students

A few of our students with their teacher in their classroom

In the community of Santa Teresa

The community of Santa Teresa

The town of Condega

The town of Condega

One of our deaf college scholarship students recipients, Carlos Enoc Pineda

Mural in Condega

2019 Scholarship Recipients

March 2019 Newsletter

My name is Ana Rebeca Mendiola Sanchez. I am 26 years old and live in Solidaridad, a small town just outside of Condega. I am very grateful to have been helped by Asla for more than 4 years so that I could study, and am thrilled to share my news that I graduated in September with my degree in Renewable Energy Engineering. I studied at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Nicaragua(UNAN) in Esteliand also did some course work at the UNAN branch in Managua.

I would never have been able to study and graduate without my scholarship because I only receive help from my mother. My family includes my mother, 2 brothers and a sister. My mother is not with my father, and she works very hard to support all of us. Recently she was ill for 5 months, and we are all thankful that she is better now.

Right now I do not have a job, but I am looking. The economy in Nicaragua is worse than ever due to the unrest here at this time. We all hope and pray that peace will return. I hope to work for a non-profit that provides renewable energy to communities in the rural areas where there is no electricity. I did my practicum with a non-profit that installed renewable energy in the poorest communities. We would go to these communities by 4 wheel drive vehicle and also by walking for an hour or more. In one community we installed solar panels and a battery for the school and also for each family so they would be able to have light at night. We also helped to make more energy-saving stoves for cooking which use less wood. In many of these rural communities there are few men because they leave to find work to help the families. They usually go to Costa Rica, Panama, or the U.S. The women often raise bees so they can sell honey to supplement what their husbands can send home. The families eat iguanas, rice, and beans most of the time. I so enjoyed working with these communities and hope that I can find a job in the area.

Thank you, Asla, for giving me this opportunity to better my life and that of my family.

February 2019 Newsletter

Those of us who sponsor students in Nicaragua continue to make a big difference in the lives of our students, their families and their communities. In 2018, a total of 99 students received a scholarship. Nineteen of them are continuing in high school, and one graduated from high school and is going on to university to study architecture. Five who graduated and received their high school diploma decided to go to work rather than continue on to university.

A total of 54 students are continuing with their university studies. They are studying in a variety of areas, including agriculture, nursing, engineering, teaching, mathematics, and English. AND — there are eleven new university graduates!

Only nine students, three in high school and six in university, left school before finishing the year and lost their scholarships. It’s important to remember that this past year the country was greatly affected by political disruptions and turmoil, which forced many people to leave the country to look for work or find work locally to support their families.

The fact that so many students are continuing their studies, or were able to graduate, is a tribute to the determination of our students.

We are completing the awarding of scholarships to students for the 2019 year. School begins in mid-February and finishes in mid-December. As soon as we have the final number of students we are supporting we’ll let you know.

Christmas and New Year in Nicaragua

The majority of the population in Nicaragua is Christian, so the holiday season is focused on Christian traditions. The Christmas holiday season usually starts on December 7 with the beginning of Purisima, which celebrates the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. On this day people go to friends’ houses and sing songs about the Virgin Mary and Christmas. In response, the families give out oranges, sugar canes, candy, plastic bowls, pieces of cooked squash with brown sugar on top, or other plastic utensils. Some places that are more well-to-do will even give out glass dishes. You can read Rick Steves’ description of his Purisma experience in Leon, Nicaragua at https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-readlisten/nicaragua-pure-joy-in-a-humble-land.

On December 11-12, the communities celebrate the Virgin of Guadalupe. There is a shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe, and an evening mass on the 11th with songs and celebration. On the 12th there is mass again at 1pm. That evening there is a procession through the streets with a statue of the Virgin, and the people dress in festive traditional clothes and dance along.

During the holiday season, town central parks are decorated with lights and the nativity scene. Families celebrate together on Christmas and New Years. New Years Eve ends with lots of firecrackers and fireworks. There is a tradition where some families make a stuffed person out of old clothes, put a hat and shoes on it, and fill it with firecrackers. It sits by their house until midnight and then is lit in the streets-- the firecrackers go wild! The fireworks and burning of the stuffed person signify the old year is gone.

Success Story about one of our recent Graduates!

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Abel Roque at work as a nurse in Condega

My name is Abel Enrique Roque.  I have been fortunate enough to have had a scholarship through Asla for the past four years of college, graduating in 2018 I am 28 years old, the youngest of seven children, and am from a small community in the hills, 17km (10.5 miles) outside of Condega called Peñasco, about an hour from Condega by bus. I went to primary school in Peñasco and high school in Condega.  Many people thought I would not go on to high school or university because I was born with one leg shorter than the other which led to some bullying by other kids, but I have persevered to have a career and help others. My parents divorced when I was one year old. My mother worked hard for all of us so having the scholarship from Asla was very important to our family.  

I studied nursing at Juana Maria University in La Trinidad, about an hour and a half from Condega, and graduated in September 2018. The hospital there donated a house where students could stay. For each medical specialization we had practicums in various hospitals in the area. I would visit my family every 8 days.

I was so happy when I was able to obtain a job in October at Ana Maria Lopez hospital here in Condega.  We have had one main hospital and clinic for many years, but now we also have small clinics in different parts of town to help all the people who live in Condega and surrounding communities. Each clinic has a doctor and three nurses. I am one of the nurses who takes care of people from two neighborhoods and one community.  Usually Mondays and Wednesdays people come to the clinic for various health reasons.  Tuesdays and Thursdays we go to our assigned neighborhoods and the community to check on people who might need to go to the clinic but can’t travel to Condega without assistance.  If they need more help they are sent to the main hospital or clinic for more follow through. Fridays are usually half a day at our small clinic and then we meet at the hospital with supervisors.  I am very lucky because in my small clinic there are two boarding rooms, so I am able to stay in one; a doctor who lives in Esteli or another town can stay in the other.

My family is very happy that I have a job, and I do love my work. I love helping people who need my support. Again, I am so thankful and grateful for the opportunity that I was given by my sponsors through Asla.  Thank you so very much.