Project Schoolhouse

Improving Nicaraguan lives by building new, community water systems, and improving sanitation.

Renata

2024 Project Update: Rosario Schoolhouse

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We are so excited for the opportunity to continue working in this community by building our 17th schoolhouse! 

Thanks to the incredible volunteer efforts of the Rosario community and our team on the ground, the building of this school has progressed rapidly since its groundbreaking in early January. With the school’s frame and walls almost complete, community members will move to painting and building doors next.

As we near the final strides of this school, we highlight the difference between learning and not learning: having a dry and well-ventilated functional schoolhouse where the floors don’t turn to mud every time it rains and where school materials can be kept safe and dry really makes a difference. 

We expect this project to be finished in mid-May. The Rosario students are eager to start learning in their new classrooms!

Inside of School
Foundation of School

2024 Program Update: New After-School Club in Bilampi

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With the success of our After-School Club in El Aulo, we are excited to announce the expansion of the After-School program to the new Bilampi community school!

We’ve had amazing success partnering with this community, as the parents are very motivated and driven to provide a better future for their children. 

In preparation for this expansion, our staff trained local volunteers, who have been working hard to create fun learning opportunities for the students. The program will benefit 40 students with homework help, a reading club, math tutoring, and a mini-library to encourage a love of reading. Students from 4th to 6th grade are in the process of learning multiplication tables. Students from 1st to 3rd grades focus on literacy, alphabet, and art projects. 

After-School Club Volunteer

We’re thrilled to be fostering a love for learning and are eager to see how the after-school club helps them grow their skills. 

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New School
Old School

We want to thank The Kathryn B. McQuade Foundation for their support in building this school.

A Successful Cien Amigos 2023!

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Thanks to your support, we were able to meet the Still Water Foundation’s $25k Challenge match, doubling the impact of donations on the night.

We are grateful to our friends, family, and supporters for joining us virtually and in person on our biggest night of the year! This is not your typical fundraising ‘gala’ but a simple, but inspiring evening where those who believe in this work invite friends and family to learn more.

We’re grateful to the Austin Cosmopolitan Rotary Club, UT UNICEF, and Public Health student groups for volunteering to make this event go!

If you would like to receive these photos, send us a message! info@projectschoolhouse.org

A Successful Giving Tuesday

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How One Family Came Together to Help Us ‘Stuff the Shelves’

As we neared the end of the construction of the Bilampi school, we dedicated the special Day of Giving to fundraise for a new mini-library so students could have access to books, coloring pencils, and other supplies. 

We are thrilled to report the success of our #GivingTuesday initiative to ‘Stuff the Shelves’ for the new Bilampi school, thanks in large part to one of our sustaining donors.

They have a beautiful family tradition of coming together each holiday season to dedicate their gifts to one organization. We were touched to learn that this year, Project Schoolhouse was the chosen nonprofit. 

“Our family chooses one charity every holiday season. We were excited to see exactly where our family contributions would go. Not a lot of people can say that they know exactly where their donations go, and to be able to build an entire library makes us so happy.”

We are excited to share new photos once the school is inaugurated and opens to the children next February for the new school year with their new library. Thank you to all of you who donated to Bilampi’s mini-library campaign.

Outside view of the new Bilampi School

Furniture and shelves ready to be moved in in the new school.

Bilampi Schoolhouse Project Update:

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This year we started constructing a new school for the community of Bilampi. Community members have finished the foundation of the school, they continue to build the frame of the structure and work continues amid the rain.

We hope to have this school completed by the end of the year. We’re excited to report that thanks to the new facilities, 3 new grades will be added to the curriculum! Students in the community can now study through the 3rd year of secondary school. This expanded opportunity is huge, particularly for young girls whose parents thought sending them to the neighboring community to continue their studies was unsafe.

We would like to thank The Kathryn B. McQuade Foundation for their support in building this school.

School Frame
Handwashing station at school

World Water Day – News From The Field

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Today, World Water Day, we shed light on how access to clean water is life-changing. In 2022, we were able to bring clean water to over 750 people in 3 different communities and built our first-ever Rainwater Catchment System. Community members volunteer over 8,000 hours to work on projects that will eliminate water-borne illnesses and the need to walk for water ever again. 

We are grateful to our friends, supporters, and funders who allow us to continue this work.  Click below for our 2022 Annual Report. Click here for our report in Español.

2022 annual Report

Staff Spotlight: Renata Aleman on working for her Home Country 

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Each time I visit Nicaragua, it is very special in its own way. Whether it’s because I’m seeing family members, or because I am reconnected with my roots, the food, the beautiful and kind people of Nicaragua. Traveling there this Spring as part of my work was a different experience, it gave me a better understanding of the importance of clean water and the commitment community members have to their children’s education and futures. 

I was aware of how remote the communities where work were located on a map. I was aware of how hard life is in Nicaragua.  Until I traveled to the very remote communities where Project Schoolhouse works, I couldn’t fully appreciate how remote, and the lack of any clean water anywhere. We traveled for hours by truck to one community; the roads stretched for miles in uneven ground to reach communities. Most community members travel by horse or walk. I saw how far away and how hard the people travel to go to their jobs, go to school. I spoke to community members and learned from them directly about their lives, how hard they worked on projects, what a difference having access to water in their homes makes, and their wish for their children to get an education. 

It solidified how important it is for me, as a Nicaraguan-American, to be part of the Project Schoolhouse team and its work. Clean water and education are just the start for children in the communities where Project Schoolhouse works. It’s a starting chance to focus on their education. Being someone who is from Nicaragua who gets to work from the US to help those still in Nicaragua is a huge privilege, even more so now that life has gotten much harder in Nicaragua. 

The days were long, the meals were delicious, but most importantly, I witnessed the commitment of the Nicaraguan people to better themselves and their futures. That’s what makes me proud to be a Nicaraguan.

Texas Enactus & Project Schoolhouse Build A New Rainwater System

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It was a pleasure to travel to Nicaragua in June 2022 with a multi-disciplinary student group from the UT- Austin Texas Enactus team. In partnership with Localized Water Solutions and Project Schoolhouse, the students worked for months to build a prototype of a remotely-monitored rainwater catch system on the UT-Austin campus. On this June trip, they collaborated with the Project Schoolhouse head builder in Nicaragua to modify the design for locally available materials and installed a similar system at the school in the community of San Isidro, Nicaragua. This rainwater system will give Project Schoolhouse a tool to bring clean water to schools and homes faster and more economically as we raise the funds needed for full topography studies and the fully distributed water systems that are the longer-term solution we have historically installed.

I had the opportunity to chat with two senior Texas Enactus students about the trip that both agreed was the experience of a lifetime. 

Matt Zhang, the lead engineer for the UT Texas Enactus team, described his experience as amazing.  Though the Texas Enactus students worked for months prior to the trip to build a prototype on the UT-Austin Campus, building it in Nicaragua was much different. For the in-country prototype, the students had to work alongside the Project Schoolhouse head builder, Manuel, to adapt the system to work in Nicaragua. They measured and studied the components that would need to be adapted in an area where there’s very limited electricity and resources. 

Matt describes working with Manuel as a great experience, constantly amazed at his ingenuity. He wishes he spoke the language so he could talk to Manuel on a deeper level, but the language barrier prevented it. Matt recalls that if they had a problem Manuel could work it through and adapt it and he was so impressed by Manuel’s ingenuity.

It was nice to have someone with so much knowledge if I had a problem. He could make it happen and make it work.”

Matt and Board Member and UT Professor Dennis Passovoy

I asked Matt about living in a community with no access to clean water even for a short few days. Matt says that it was like nothing that he had ever experienced. “It’s very in your face. There was no access to clean water. It breaks my heart that the world keeps moving on and communities keep trying to catch up. I think that’s why the projects are so important. They go fetch water before the projects come in and don’t get a lot of education. Life is the same from generation to generation.”

When I asked Matt to describe the community, he responded with admiration. The community came together and helped with meals and to take care of the UT students. “There were rotations for some of the women in the community. They would come in early in the morning to start cooking for us; the men hauled clean water from a nearby community so we wouldn’t get sick, and helped with pouring concrete and other parts of the rainwater installation. The amount of work they do, everyone is working all day. They pushed us to keep going.” 

Later, I spoke to Abigail Mihalic, Project Manager for the UT Austin Texas Enactus team. She also described the experience as amazing. Abigail noted that while the UT students spent time building a prototype on campus in Austin, nothing could have prepared them for what it would be like to build it on site. 

Abigail and friends

“We didn’t know a ton going in. We built a prototype on campus and thought it would work perfectly and that was not how it went in Nicaragua. It did turn out for the better. We changed the design from 4 small to 2 large barrels. We redesigned on the fly and spent three hours at the hardware store to substitute for locally available parts. We went back to the hardware store to figure out more parts. There were lots of bumps but the building process was great. It was very rewarding. We would wake up with the sunrise and get right to work. Manuel and the community members were amazing. They were welding and gluing PVC. We were in charge of sifting the sand used for filtration – it was hard work but it was so rewarding. We owe a ton to Manuel and Jairo (Project Schoolhouse team). They were really amazing and helpful and it was just great.”

For Abigail, it was really eye-opening to experience living with limited access to water. She described that even though they were only there for ten days and they had help fetching water, the families that live there go every day to drink from the watering hole. It solidified how important Project Schoolhouse’s mission is and how the rainwater system can be a fast solution to implement.

Abigail and friends

Her favorite moments were: the first day when they had some down time because we got to talk and play every day with the students and the community members, and the food, “The soups were heavenly.”

When I asked if there was something to tell our supporters:

“It was a great, crazy experience – sleeping with the bats that were flying over us at night; meeting everyone in the community, and joking around with everyone. Work over the year in preparation was abstract, but being in the community and seeing what the situation was, the lack of access to water, and how the rainwater system could be a sustainable solution that could be spread to multiple communities quickly, was so rewarding. Hopefully, we can keep working on this project. I am grateful to Selina, Tab, and the Project Schoolhouse team; and the UT Austin Enactus team was there for us and made it happen; So grateful we made it happen and so blessed for the help.”

Both Matt and Abigail have graduated from UT Austin but when I asked what was next, both shared their enthusiasm to keep refining the rainwater system as a priority. Matt mentioned that probably all of his friends and family were sick of him retelling his stories from his time in Nicaragua. They recalled how special the last day in the community was. They were finishing the water system. The children and the teacher of the community of San Isidro made posters showing their gratitude. “The work came to fruition, it started raining.”

Current Water Source in San Isidro