Escuela Mary Kate "Maria Catalina" Rod Date of Completion: August 2003
The new school is complete.
Tintal is a small coastal village in Nicaragua where the three hundred villagers live without electricity or running water in houses made of dried palm leaves. The people of Tintal make a living by fishing, running shrimp ponds, digging for clams, raising cattle, and planting corn and beans. Before BwB decided to help build a school in Tintal, children crammed under a palm leaf roof (pictured below) to study first, second, and third grade. The school lacked walls and offered little protection from the fierce winds and heavy down pours of the rainy season.
The old schoolhouse in Tintal when BwB first arrived.
In only six weeks, the community, BwB club members and staff, worked together to make the villager's dream of having a permanent school a reality. Women and men from Tintal and BwB club members from Philadelphia worked together to dig foundation holes, build walls, pour concrete floors, construct the roof and finally paint the school. During the inauguration of the school, one villagers said, "In my life, I haven't before felt or seen something as beautiful as what is before me today. Knowing that my future children will learn to read and write in this school fills my heart with joy."
