A group of John Jay High School students recently traveled to Nicaragua through a non-profit called Bridges to Community, to help build a rural school. The students helped KTKI deliver student-created picture books and school supplies by packing these donations in their luggage. Once in Nicaragua, they passed the donations along to Bridges to Community country representative, Kenia Rodriguez, who agreed to deliver the donations to a school in need. Ms. Rodriguez wrote to tell us about the class that received the KTKI Friendship packages:

“These materials were given to Patricia Murillo, who is a volunteer teacher in the community kindergarten of Cocal (1.86 miles north from Nindiri citytown). The concept of community kindergarten is when there is no infrastructure for a school in a community, people volunteer their houses to set a school-like room to meet the need. Teachers only receive $21.74 as a monthly monetary support and scarce donations. They form as a quick response to reduce the school construction gap. She teaches 21 students, ages 3-5 years old, and has been teaching for 3 years in the community. Patricia is committed to getting a piece of land donated for building a school soon. She also mentioned that, at this time, she is using part of a house as a classroom (owner: Andres Sevilla), but that conditions are not always nice and any kind of support is welcome!”

Proof that the generosity and creativity of our KTKI member schools and students is greatly needed and appreciated!