Guillermo Molina School Success Story
(Link to Schools Construction Project Description)
Guillermo Molina School and Teacher Housing: A New Architectural Design Provides Classrooms, Library, Lounge, and Playing Field
As the dirt road turns and the modest colony of Entre Rios comes into view, one image immediately sticks out over the dilapidated wooden houses. High on a hill overlooking the perhaps 20 houses that line the main road sits Guillermo Molina secondary school, the pride of Entre Rios.
We have the best school in the province
concerned
citizen Esteban Llusco said.
Save the Children, in cooperation with ACDI/VOCA, constructed the new secondary school, replacing a 15-year-old structure initially founded by the owner of a lumberyard here to educate his employees´ children. The colony (so-called because it is not an indigenous community but one composed of people who emigrated from elsewhere to settle here) now relies on agriculture and livestock instead of lumber, and is the beneficiary of alternative development.
Entre Rios chose a secondary school because the old school, Llusco
said,was something you wanted to escape from.
Llusco was the president of the school’s construction committee. It was his responsibility to organize people from the surrounding colonies for the voluntary labor needed in order to get the school built.
When a mudslide wiped out 250-300 meters of road where supplies needed to be carried to the colony, delaying construction for a month, some students helped the townspeople carry the materials from a truck on one side of the former road to another on the other side.
Before it was simply utilitarian
said Juan Myta,
a former village official.This is better. There’s
no school in any parts like this.
The new building has given students less reason to leave the colony to attend high school in Caranavi or La Paz, where they had to stay with relatives or friends and the family would have to pay them or bring food.
Before this roof, rain fell (in the classrooms)
said Rolando Paco, a 19-year-old senior.It was totally
spent. It’s more comfortable. The blackboards are better.
Before there wasn’t as big a library. Now it’s expanded
because of the institution.
The school opened in March 2003, serving up to 150 students from Entre Rios and surrounding colonies. Classrooms were increased from 5 to 7, living quarters were built for teachers so they did not have to rent homes in town, a soccer field/basketball field was constructed, and archeological finds (stones that are believed to have been once used as mortars) were displayed on the grounds.
When they assigned me, I didn’t know they would
send me to such a nice school
said Lidia Huañapaco,
a first-year psychology and philosophy teacher.I was just
happy to have a job, but to have a school like this is impressive.
I didn’t expect anything this nice.
That attitude has been shared by the teachers who experienced
the old school, and residents say the new structure has attracted
a higher caliber of educator. Before, teachers said if
you don’t get a better school I’ll leave
Myta
said. Now it's,
I want to come here.
The colony’s new secondary school has also spurred other changes in the colony. It now offers high school equivalency classes for adults on Saturdays. Llusco hopes that the community will get electricity one day soon and be able to install a computer lab.
Even the humble town is undergoing a mini-renaissance in construction, which mostly consisted of loose wooden planks. With the inspiration of the new school on the hilltop, brick buildings are going up and the colony, with the help of the municipality of Caranavi, has begun construction to replace the primary school, a sagging building of bamboo walls and a palm tree roof where some classes are held in an annex over a dirt floor out of necessity.
We have to better ourselves because the school is a marvel
said Antonio Quinocopa, a resident.We never thought we’d
have construction like this. We thought we’d be abandoned
here. A lot of people (from other colonies) have come here to
take a look.
This article was written by journalist Rafael Hermoso, and provided to ACDI/VOCA courtesy of Save the Children/Bolivia
