Project Schoolhouse

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

People Driven Development

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.

Greetings from the Executive Director

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It was so energizing to be able to travel back to Nicaragua for the first time since 2020, and we covered a lot of ground this summer! Our in-country team was proud to show all of the project’s progress since we were last there.

Thanks to financial support from the West Austin Rotary Club and Rotary International, we have finished a water and latrine project in the community of Bilampi. The little boy in this photo lives in that community and he no longer has to carry water from the local river in that container on his horse – he has clean running water at his school. This community is so spread out that most children get to school by horseback. The teacher meets those who travel longer distances each morning and rides with them to school. The far distances between homes meant that the community hand-dug 22 kilometers of trench to lay the distribution system – they worked for almost a year, and now all have water in their homes. We always say that, through their volunteer labor, the families are the biggest donors to these projects, and this project was the perfect example. 

This community of Bilampi is featured in 2 new short films we produced over the summer, with some amazing Nicaraguan filmmakers with whom we are fortunate to collaborate. We’re excited to premiere these short films at Cien Amigos 2022 on October 27th, in person in Austin, Tx and live streaming everywhere! Cien Amigos (‘100 Friends’) is a chance for those who care about this work, like you, to invite others who might be interested in learning more. Free to attend, enjoy a delicious Nicaraguan dinner and watch short films that beautifully demonstrate the importance of these projects. This is our only fundraiser of the year, and the success determines the scope of work in 2023. We hope you can join us and bring new amigos!   

Gratefully,
Selina Serna

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.”

Greetings from the Executive Director

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Just this week we are wrapping up the water and latrine project in the community of Bilampi, Bocana de Paiwas which started in 2021. This is the most spread out community water project in our history and the families worked so hard to get water to every home, in total hand-digging 22 kilometers of trench to lay the water distribution lines to reach every home, plus 2 churches and 3 schools. We hope to return to this community in late 2022 to build new schools for the children, replacing the dilapidated wooden huts in which they currently study, one of which is dangerously close to collapsing. I fear for the safety of the children but the only option is to study outdoors.. 

 In April we broke ground on a fully-distributed water system, latrines, and a new school in the community of Rosario Las Vegas, Matagalpa. This community is all the way around Mount Musún, the mountain around which we’ve been working for the past 15 years. It’s emotional, actually, to have made it all the way around this beautiful mountain (photo above) and continue the circle back to our home office in Rio Blanco, passing all of the projects we’ve built in past years. There are many more communities off the main road waiting to partner with us, but this feels like such good progress.

Finally, in the first 2 weeks of June, I traveled with a group of UT Austin students and their faculty lead to install our first rainwater catchment system at the school in the community of San Isidro. The students first built a prototype on the UT Austin campus, then worked with our head builder in Nicaragua to modify the design for locally available parts. We envision this low-cost, quick-to-install solution as a way to get clean water to schools first, while we complete full topography studies and raise the funds needed for the fully-distributed water systems we traditionally build in the hundreds of communities still needing clean water. It was great to see the success of this project and so inspiring to witness the generosity and ingenuity of the student group.

Gratefully,
Selina Serna

People and Persistence: 15 years of Push

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Project Schoolhouse Team surveying the Bilampi Water Project

“Endurance must master every fortune.”   This is the advice that motivated Eneis to leave Sicily and cross the last tiny bit of water between him and Italy, the object of his long search.  I remember reading this passage in the Java Moon coffee shop years ago in Sheridan, Wyoming.   It became a mantra I would carry with me through the years since.   Perhaps it felt familiar because it echoed what I’ve witnessed throughout my life in that small town and in many people and places beyond there.  

I’ve been blessed with excellent role models.  My mother once commented about my father that he ‘had a lot of push.’   If you ever had the chance to stack sod with us in the snow in December on our small Wyoming farm, you’d know that she has just as much.  I recognize it in the communities where we work in Nicaragua as well. It’s a big part of why I’ve always felt so comfortable there.   That familiarity is an important factor in how we do our work.

It’s been fifteen years since Project Schoolhouse broke ground on our first school project in a very remote part of Nicaragua.  We’ve been persistent in the years since then and have steadily continued building schools and water systems in that region.  What’s notable is that we are doing it still today with the same Nicaraguan team we started with in 2007.  The most important part is the people and without them and their determination and dedication, the difficult work we do would be impossible.  

Directing a small nonprofit organization is draining and can exact a heavy financial, personal, and social cost. Ask anyone who has done it.  At the same time, it is a beautiful life experience that I always recognized brought far more fulfillment and value into my life than it took.  

In 2018, after 12 years of running Project Schoolhouse, I finally hit a wall and knew that something had to change.  In a moment of total clarity, while driving to San Antonio for a job installing desks in a university building, I realized that it was time to step down and hand the leadership of Project Schoolhouse over to long-time board member Selina Serna.   

In January of 2019, Selina took the reins of Project Schoolhouse as its new Executive Director and I became our Director of Operations.  While her impact has been extensive and important, what I most admire is her tenacity, persistence, and obvious passion for the project.  

This year, Selina and I received a humanitarian award from the Austin chapter of the United Nations for our work with Project Schoolhouse.  I think it really is a recognition of the endurance that so many people have exhibited throughout these years to keep this project going.  It takes endurance for Nicaraguan farmers to spend an entire year digging twenty miles of trench by hand to bring water to their families.   It takes endurance for our team on the ground to figure out, year after year, how to move hundreds of tons of materials into projects accessible only by foot and by horse.  And it is endurance that keeps our ever-growing team in the US working to raise the funds we need to pay for those projects.

I’m proud of this project and the people that make it go.  I’m proud of my part in it and grateful for the dedicated people that lead it now.   Project Schoolhouse is fifteen years old and is better positioned than ever to keep fulfilling our mission of delivering education and water projects to communities who are ready to step up and partner with us.

Gratefully,

Tab Barker

Derlin’s Story

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Derlin Activates Community Spirit

Derlin Activates Community Spirit

Because of the local geography, the walk to school was often unpredictable and unsafe for half the children of San Antonio.  Parents took matters into their own hands and built a permanent pedestrian bridge across a river that was dividing the community in two. The bridge is a great source of pride, providing children a safe, reliable path to school, and the entire community consistent accessibility that sparked capital investment and growing economic opportunity.

What kind of memories do you have of being a kid and exploring the neighborhood? Was it going to your friend’s houses? Or being grown up enough to walk to school all by yourself? In the rural community of San Antonio, the children on the opposite side of the river from the school could see the school from their homes, but would walk an hour in the opposite direction to a different school because often times the river was too high to cross safely.

Meet Derlin. When the community was in discussions with Project Schoolhouse to collaborate on building a school, they decided it was important to make sure children on both sides would be able to have equal, safe, and convenient access to the school. When the residents voiced this need and asked Project Schoolhouse to collaborate on building a pedestrian bridge, Project Schoolhouse was happy to respond to the request.

Derlin is a local father who stepped in as a community organizer. His easy smile and approachable nature contribute to his ability to bring people together to pursue a common goal. While Project Schoolhouse paid for the materials, engineering plans, and skilled labor, the community volunteered all of the manual labor to bring this project to fruition.

The roughly 35 families of San Antonio volunteered 3 days a week to excavate and build a school and bridge. Derlin reflects, “It’s really worth dedicating this time to work. It doesn’t matter if we have to dedicate a year or more to work because it’s an effort that we as parents can do so that our children can achieve more opportunities, so that they can have their school, have water, so that they can feel safe and happy.” Derlin kept everyone energized and engaged throughout the project with his positive attitude and reminders of why the work is important.

The people of San Antonio truly demonstrated their capacity to organize and work collectively. With a Project Schoolhouse master builder directing them, the families volunteered countless hours to get the job done. They collected 5,000 boulders from the river and then excavated the riverbed using 5-gallon buckets. They dug pits, built pillars, and even learned how to weld! They did everything by hand…including lifting and placing the giant metal beams. It took 9 months of hard labor, but the 100-meter bridge that now exists enables all children a quick and safe walk to school.

The bridge has also contributed to a great deal of community pride in San Antonio. Because they built it with their own hands, the bridge has a special meaning. Having this key piece of infrastructure has also contributed to economic activity since it provides consistent, easy to access the community.  We see residents investing in their homes and farms thanks to the stability this infrastructure lends to the community. The bridge has united the community and set them up for growth and prosperity.  It is an example of why Project Schoolhouse takes great care to listen and respond to voiced need, the bedrock of how we work.  

Written by Heather Heiss

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