Paxos, Greece with Rup's parents Sept 2010

 

Free Software Conference

Being a firm believer in free, open source software because of its benefits to people on low incomes, Rupert was greatly encouraged and excited to see that the government of Paraguay was going to be hosting, in April, its first International Conference on Free Software. The aim of the conference was to give a boost to migration to Free Software in the whole of Latin America, particularly in Paraguay. (Photo below)


Though all of the conference was interesting, what most inspired Rup, and it would seem the Paraguayan government also, was a talk by an Indian called V. Sasi Kumar, who spoke about his experience implementing free software in schools in Kerala in India. (Photo below) Representatives from the Ministry of Education in Paraguay are going to visit the programme in India to see what they can learn from their experience. At the moment no state schools have any computers for students so this could be a big step forward for education in Paraguay.


Rup has written and published some user guides, in Spanish, for the free software package OpenOffice. These have proved very popular with people all over the Spanish speaking world. Who knows? They may even prove useful in Paraguay! (Photo of Rup with guides below)

Toy Library helping local school

State schools in Paraguay, due to the limited government funding they are given, have very few educational rescources, games and toys. (Photo of classroom below) Teachers need to make or buy their own resources which is not easy on their low wage.


For this reason we decided to offer the Toy Library to the children from the local school in Quyquyho. The teachers are delighted but it is nothing compared to the reaction of the children who are so excited about coming they count the days to their next visit! (Photos below) Around 100 children, from Reception to Year 3, are visiting every month. One teacher commented: "Children learn best through play but I have nothing like this in my classroom. I try to make my own resources but it is not enough. This is just what my children need. We can't wait to come on Fridays!"

The Feeding Programme in Quyquyho

Osvaldo and Maria Luisa opened the Feeding Programme in Quyquyho 5 years ago, well before the Children's Home was started. It caters, from Monday to Friday, February to December, for around 100 of the village's poorest, most undernourished children. In order to help these children receive an education, they are also provided with school books, materials and uniforms. Health problems are attended to as much as possible with courses of treatment given to get rid of their parasites.

In February this year the Feeding Programme, or "Comedor" as it is called here, was opened with 130 children registering. (Photos below) They were also provided with all they needed to continue their studies in the local school.






Osvaldo recently commented: "Since the opening of the “Comedor” the village of Quyquyhó no longer sees poor children selling sweets or begging and neither are there malnourished, dirty children wandering the streets. The 100 children who attend the “Comedor” have learnt to be honest, they no longer steal from one another, and they have learnt to respect both themselves and each other."
Inspiring stuff!

'El Puente' Children's Home

El Puente (which means The Bridge) is a Children’s Home in the heart of rural Paraguay set up to rescue abused and abandoned girls and provide a loving, secure Christian home for them to grow up in. Currently there are 15, ranging from 1 to 16 years old (photos below). The home is run by an inspirational Paraguayan couple - Osvaldo and María Luisa - and supported by an equally inspirational Christian charity called Operation South America (OSA). You can find out more about them from their website by clicking on their icon on the sidebar.




The home is in a beautiful part of the countryside and also runs a feeding programme and provides educational support for around 100 of the village's poorest children. FEISA recently helped them to set up their own Toy Library which is being used as an outreach to all the young children in the village and we also hope to take it to other children's homes and poor schools in the surrounding towns and villages to give them the opportunity to learn through play.





With the restructuring of FEISA, Samantha has now left the college to work in the Home as an Educator. She is currently teaching Maths, literacy and English as well as doing Bible studies and pastoral care with the older girls. She is loving it and feels like she has suddenly acquired 15 daughters! Rupert continues to work in FEISA and is planning to leave in 2010 after he has closed the 2009 accounts and trained a local accountant to take over. He hopes to get more involved in the Home next year helping Osvaldo set up some computer provision and training for young people in the village. (Rup with Osvaldo, final photo).




We feel excited by the new opportunites to serve in Paraguay and are delighted to be working with Osvaldo, María Luisa and OSA. You don't need to spend long in the Home to experience the love and grace of God in action and realise it is a very special place.

We'd really value your prayers for this next step in our lives and that we might be a blessing and support to Osvaldo, Maria Luisa and OSA.

Please also pray for Rup's health. Tests recently confirmed that he has a heart arrhythmia and the doctors are now doing further tests to diagnose what type he has and what course of treatment to give him. We have been extremely impressed with the quality of health care he has received in Paraguay and thank God for the care and thoroughness of the doctors here.

Moving on...

There have been some changes in our lives over the last few months which have brought with them many challenges.

FEISA has been faced with huge financial challenges this year. As a result, in July the new Bishop of Paraguay implemented a restructuring of FEISA and various people sadly had to be made redundant. His intention is to reduce the dependence on external funding and enable FEISA to be more locally sustainable. This reduced dependence gives more autonomy to the local leadership by reducing expatriate influence. Though painful, this has been a positive move for FEISA and has given it the best chance of surviving.

Please pray for the Lord to comfort all those who have been made redundant and to help them find new jobs after August. Also pray for the new leaders of FEISA, Ana and Gloria, that the Lord would give them wisdom and grace in all the difficult decisions they need to make.

We have also been affected by these changes. Rup is planning to complete the 2009 financial accounts and train a local accountant to take over in 2010.

Sam's role as Coordinator of Social Programmes ended with the restructuring (all social programmes closed down for lack of funds), so she has now left FEISA feeling the Lord leading her into new areas of ministry which she began to explore earlier this year. (Blog entry to follow)

We thank God for the privilege of being involved in such a life changing ministry and for the amazing people we have worked with, learnt from and developed lasting friendships with during our time in FEISA. (Photos 1 and 2, Rup and Sam with staff and friends from FEISA. Photo 3, the inspirational team of UK volunteers who have faithfully supported FEISA over the years.)




The future after FEISA? We shall write more about this in our next blog!

Please pray for Rup as he completes the 2009 accounts and trains a local accountant and for the new areas of ministry that the Lord is leading us both into.

Thank you so much for your very valued prayers, love and support.

Challenge and Change

After 5 years of developing educational programmes in indigenous communities, lack of funds means this will be our last year. However, as all the programmes involved training and provision of resources (teacher training, literacy, nutrition and Christian education) then we are encouraged that the communities where we have worked are able to continue without us. (Photo 1 shows the recipe books we gave to the women involved in the nutrition project.)


In February and March we gave training, supervision and the last of the resources to teachers and mothers from the 9 schools in the community of El Estribo where we were working last year. They were delighted with the preschool workbooks in their own language, Enxet, and the beautiful wooden calendars designed especially for their context (photos 2, 3 ,4, 5 and 6).






As I look back over these years I feel privileged to have worked with such an outstanding and dedicated team of professionals whose different but complimentary gifts have enabled us to develop such a wide variety of educational projects. I have learnt so much from each of them and have been made keenly aware of how important it is for the body of Christ to work together, appreciating the unique contributions of each member. It has been fascinating and illuminating to learn about indigenous culture and I feel honoured to have been able to get to know my indigenous brothers and sisters more closely. I am also humbled at the generosity of so many groups and individuals without whom these projects could never have been achieved.

As we finish the educational programmes this year, please pray particularly for the following projects:
1. Finishing the literacy resources for Enxet women
2. For the preschool workbooks we have produced to be approved by the Paraguayan Ministry of Education and funded by UNICEF so that all indigenous schools in Paraguay can benefit from them.
3. For the Bible Society of Paraguay to approve our children's Bible resources and produce books based on the Creation story for all Enxet children.
4. For the teachers and women we have trained to be able to apply and adapt all they have learned and make the most of the resources we have given them.
5. For funds to be able to do more supervision and support visits to the 9 schools in El Estribo.

New Anglican Bishop of Paraguay

After 16 months without a bishop, there was great excitement on March 29th at the consecration of Paraguay's new Anglican Bishop, Rev. Peter Bartlett (Photos 1 and 2).



The service, presided over by Archbishop Greg Venables (photo 3), was attended by bishops from different parts of South America as well as pastors from all the Paraguayan congregations. It was wonderful to see the variety of cultures and nationalities represented, worshipping God together (photo 4).



Please pray for Peter and his wife Sally as they settle into this new culture and especially for Peter as he begins this hugely demanding role. The Church and all its ministries in Paraguay are deeply affected by the economic crisis so pray for wisdom and strength for him as he leads the church forward in these challenging times.

Training indigenous teachers and mothers in Paraguay

• On average indigenous children receive only 3 years schooling

• Only 58% of teachers in these communities are indigenous and most of these have little or no teacher training

• 91% of teachers do not have materials in their pupils' native language

• Illiteracy is 8 times above the national average

The harsh consequences of this are that communities are losing their language and cultural identity and children are not receiving the quality of education they need to prepare them for their future.

After a plea for help from an indigenous community in 2005, FEISA began a pre-school teacher training programme with an emphasis on learning through play – a revolutionary concept for indigenous teachers who tend to use traditional rote-learning methods.

We soon realized that what these communities most lack is training and resources as the remoteness of the schools and high expense make provision of these very difficult. We made sure that all resources were appropriate to the indigenous context and produced worksheets to develop pre-writing skills, mathematics and literacy, all in their native language, Enxet (photo 2). The aim of the programme is to provide a holistic education to enable children to grow in all aspects of their development. At the request of the community, who asked us to provide Christian education, we also produced the first ever Bible materials for children in Enxet based on the Creation story (photo 3).



This year we extended the programme to a new Enxet community, El Estribo, working with 9 indigenous schools training pre-school teachers and volunteer mothers – 17 people in total (photos 4 and 5). Along with the training, the schools were also provided with all the teaching resources and furniture they needed - many children were sitting on planks of wood for lack of tables and chairs.



The response of the teachers and children has been encouraging and heartwarming. They said that this is exactly the training and resources they have needed for years but no-one has shown any interest in them before. The children now rush to school in the morning excited to play and learn and do not want to leave at the end of the day! The training programme, with its emphasis on involving mothers in the education of their children, has enabled schools to reinforce the native language and culture where the teacher is not indigenous (photos 6, 7, 8 and 9).






We thank God for the generosity of the many donors that have made this project possible and we continue to trust Him for the funds we need to continue the project in coming years. Over 200 indigenous children have benefitted so far and many more young lives can be transformed if we are able to extend this work to other communities.