Joaquim School

Joaquim Chissano

[Teril]We visited another school today.  We are considering partnering with them on a project.  This little school has 4 classrooms three built by the government.  Their foundation is up off the ground to control flooding and they have desks for about two rooms.  The community has come together to build a classroom to add to this knowing it a little hard to house 2200 students in 3 sessions in 3 classrooms.  (Oh!  They do have an office that has two rooms too!)

Community built classroom

We were impressed that the community built classroom uses the model of the government built classrooms in that the foundation is good and high and the windows are up out of reach of children.  They let in the light but you can't see distracting things outside them. [Stan] I would like to see better material used for the roof.  They need metal doors and windows that can be locked.  We will meet with the community leaders again to hear their plans and see how we might work together.

classroom under the tree

[Teril] There are 18 classrooms held under the trees during their 3 sessions per day.  I don't yet know what they do when it rains. Kids sit on their capulanas and write on their backpacks the lessons they copy from this chalkboard they move in and out of the lockable classroom.

Roofing problems

[Stan] When it rains they do not have class.





A big storm came thru last November.  It blew off the roof to two of the Government build classrooms.  The community put up a makeshift roof hoping it would work that blew off too.
As you can see, they do have desks that they carefully move to the corner with a roof for protection.

collecting blocks

The community has been involved as you see this pile of blocks they have been collecting.  Hopes are waning in their ability to solve their classroom problems.  Maybe we can help.

What do you think?