HomeMy WebLinkAbout1993-11-LWSCC-rpt.pdf LEXINGTON-WASPAM SISTER CITY COMMITTEE
P.O. Box 283, Lexington, MA 02173
November 1993
Dear Friend,
We are writing to update you on Waspam and to ask you for your support of a new educational
initiative in the Waspam region. The Lexington-Waspam Sister City Committee is organizing an
effort not only to pay the salary of a teacher in a Sumu village near Waspam but also to bring
supplies to a special education classroom in Puerto Cabezas, the trading and travel center that
serves Waspam. Your support can strengthen education during these difficult times for Nicaragua.
As you may know Matt Foti and John Fobert traveled to Waspam this spring. They delivered
school supplies and helped residents repaint Waspam's elementary school, hang doors on
classrooms, and fence in the school yard. Also, to expand operations of the sawmill we gave to
Waspam in 1991,Matt and John moved it to a tree nursery managed by a successful Burlington
Vermont sister city project in Puerto Cabezas. Waspam's sawmill committee agreed to the move.
The Sister City Committee met last month and decided to continue our focus on education by
expanding to two neighboring communities in which our members have developed contacts. First,
last summer Ken Hale traveled to Awastingni, a Sumu village off the Puerto Cabezas-Waspam
road The Sumu are a distinct indigenous group on the Atlantic coast. Ken is a linguistics
professor from MIT, and he is providing technical assistance to create teaching materials in the
Suma language.
In Awastigni Ken met Lucrecia Pedro Patron,one of two teachers at the town school. She is a
volunteer teacher,and she impressed Ken with her intelligence and skill with the children. Ken
found out from local officials and the other paid teacher that it would cost about$1,500 a year to
pay a regular salary forLucrecia and that the school and town would welcome such support. Our
first project for the year is to raise that$1,500 and to offer the salary to the town and Lucrecia.
The second initiative is again to collect and ship school supplies to Nicaragua. This year we will
direct the supplies to the Maureen Courtney Special Education Center in Puerto Cabezas.
Currently serving 125 children with special needs,the school is named after Sister Maureen
Courtney whom Lexington residents met in 1989 at the clinic she ran in Waspam. Sister Maureen
was kidnapped and murdered by Contra rebels in 1990.
During their trip this spring, Matt Foti and John Fobert got to know Sister Kathryn Schilling, who
directs the Courtney Center Established in 1991, the school serves students age 6 to 16 who have
learning disabilities or behavioral disorders or who are mentally retarded, emotionally disturbed, or
hearing impaired. The school has six teachers, a part-time psychologist and medical staff and
volunteers. The school is in desperate need of basic supplies.
As in the past we plan to make requests and place collection boxes at town elementary schools,
contact merchants and businesses for donations, and fill in the holes with purchases. Local
businesses were very generous in our last campaign, Our last supply drive filled seventeen cartons
and we hope to better that this year Purchased supplies plus shipping by freighter from Miami
will cost about$600,and logistical support for both efforts will cost about $400.
Nicaragua needs your help. Continuing political unrest, the failure of the United States to deliver
promised aid, and international economic stagnation all have combined to create very lean times.
Ironically, the Atlantic coast is now relatively calm politically after years of instability
We ask you to again consider helping out with the people-to-people efforts of our sister city group.
Together the teacher and school supplies efforts will cost about$2,500. Your tax-deductible
contribution will go a long way Please give all you can afford.
Sincerely
Walter Leutz 1
Lexington-Waspam Sister City Committee
Lexington-Waspam Sister City Committee
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