When schools were re-opened in the districts of Colon and Capira in Panama on Thursday, November 28, the Ministry of Education, MEDUCA, announced that children will resume classes with or without school uniforms. The Ministry acknowledged that several families had lost everything and therefore it could not expect students to observe all school regulations.

However, the MEDUCA announced that areas severely affected by the rain in Colon and Capira will continue to have their schools suspended and regional directorates will monitor the situation before resuming classes. This check on classes bears testimony to Panama’s compulsory education system that includes six years of primary school and three years of middle school. Although schools in rural areas offer basic classes and fewer teachers, MEDUCA pays attention to the students’ requirements and monitors school activities so that everybody in Panama can access education if they want to.

MEDUCA effectively suspended schools out of safety concerns for children because the heavy floods destroyed 800 homes and prompted the evacuation of at least 500 people in Colon and Capira along the Caribbean coast. While some students resume classes and continue their education, other students will hopefully be able to re-join classes as soon as their lives stabilize.

Creative Commons Love: dsasso on Flickr.com

Additionally, a large segment of youth are plagued by rising rates of teenage pregnancy, informal work, or no activity at all. According to the report, “This group, known as ‘the ni-ni generation’ [from the expression in Spanish ‘ni estudiar ni trabajar', ‘not studying, neither working'] because of being left out of both the education system and the market, denotes a persisting structural mechanism of social exclusion.” ECLAC and UNFPA make clear that this type of ‘double exclusion’ will continue to have devastating ramifications for the entire population if neglected. However, stakeholders hope that the report’s bleak results will serve as a sounding board and a reference tool to inform and galvanize policymakers.

At-risk Latin American and Caribbean youth must have access to education opportunities in order to break inter-generational cycles of poverty and stagnation. Investment in this sector cannot come soon enough.

Creative Commons Love: Ametxa on Flickr.com

Teacher, Guatemala

In Guatemala City, protesting students have taken over their schools for the past several weeks. Outside Aplicacion Belem Normal School, students could be seen protesting and confronting the riot police. The protest started more than two months ago and for the past few weeks they have taken over schools in the capital.

These university students are protesting against the new educational reform set by the government. The reform will lengthen the university courses for teaching professions from the original three years to five years.

According to the Ministry of Education, there was a meeting between the government and the students; however, an agreement has yet to be reached.

The protest has since escalated. With the presence of police, violence has also intensified. Students have even attacked Education Minister Cynthia del Aguila. Relief workers reported that she was exposed to tear gas and suffered a panic attack. Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla was also injured.

More than 40 people have been injured during the clash between police and students. Recently, a meeting was called by President Otto Perez Molina to try to stop the protest.

Creative Commons Love: Erik Törner on Flickr.com

As a result of the Rio+20 final agreement, a working group of representatives from 30 nations has been tasked with developing a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by September, which will be blended with the renowned UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Although, like most UN agreements, the SDGs are voluntary and not legally binding, they serve along with the MDGs as important symbolic and written records of global responsibility. The SDGs, said Sachs, should be simply stated and easily remembered. “They should decorate the walls of every primary classroom and be part of secondary and university education,” he said to resounding applause. Teachers take note!

Creative Commons Love: Commonwealth Secretariat on Flickr.com

Since 1988, 46 countries have benefited from the shipping of more than 27 million books for their citizens. “There is not a single more important investment than that which we are making in education-absolutely none,” said the Kenyan Ambassador to the United States, Elkanah Odembo, who also sits on the Books For Africa Board of Directors.

Costa Rica also faces book shortages, of both literary and textbooks, due to high printing costs for local businesses. Such costs have led to a decrease in the supply of books, putting a strain on schools. A change in the printing process would help change the high shortage in books.

Creative Commons Love: Emily Carlin on Flickr.com

Young people act out a flash-theater scene

Surrounded by their audience in a spacious room, a dozen young people dressed in black perform flash theater: a boy hands a bouquet of flowers to a girl; two girls embrace while a boy looks on in disgust; a girl hands a condom to a boy who pushes it away.

Each is a microcosm of the relationships these young people grapple with.  Their performances are designed for other adolescents to recognize and reflect on patterns of love and control at this critical age.

The theater project is part of The Campaign to Live and Love in Freedom by Grupo Venancia, a feminist organization based in Matagalpa, Nicaragua.

Domestic violence is widespread in Nicaragua, where a weak justice system, underfunded police, and machista attitudes make women vulnerable to abusive relationships.  While Grupo Venancia also provides assistance to women in crisis, the campaign is designed to prevent abuse at the age when young people begin exploring romantic relationships.

It also aims to open a dialogue about gender roles and sexuality.  A central theme of the campaign is the importance of loving oneself first: the tagline says, “I’m not a ‘better half,’ I’m a whole.”

As a volunteer with another of Grupo Venancia’s projects, I caught a performance to find out more about the campaign.

The flash pieces carried an emotional weight beyond their simple staging: the actors’ facial expressions and gestures in each mini-scene conveyed shame, distrust, fear, and hope.  Scattered in pairs and groups of three around the space, the actors repeated their scenes at intervals, their gestures and phrases becoming familiar to the audience.

Throughout the performance, the adult facilitator, Itzel Fajardo, asked the audience for their responses.  “Which image impacted you most?”

The young audience identified scenes of control, like a boy checking his girlfriend’s cell phone, or discrimination.  They also responded with connections to their own lives.

In a longer piece, volunteers from the audience stepped into a scene to replace the actor, offering their suggestions about how to change an action from controlling or passive to healthy and communicative.

Teens act out a controlling relationship

The dozen young people in the theater group range in age from 16 to 20 and come from various rural and urban communities in Matagalpa.

They performed in nine communities over a period of eight months, bringing the campaign to schools in the urban center of Matagalpa as well as isolated communities on the edge of the roadless Caribbean region.

Their preparation started almost a year ago with theater workshops and discussions led by adult facilitators from Venancia.

They used their own experiences as boyfriends, girlfriends, sons, daughters, and friends to create the stories they presented to peers.

Tania Meza, a 16-year-old in the troupe, says she’s inspired by the reactions of the audience.  “I want the audience to say, wow, I lived that, too. I want them to respond with their own feelings.”

Irma Mendez, who’s 19, shares that her participation in the theater group helped her end an unhealthy relationship.  “It’s been incredible, excellent.  We’ve been able to share our experiences and feelings and to reflect on them together.”

Fajardo, one of the designers of the campaign, worked with the teens throughout the process.  “Our goal wasn’t exactly to change attitudes, more to raise awareness.  And in that we’ve surpassed our goal, because of the changes we’ve seen” in the theater group.

For the boys, it was their first time reflecting on sexuality and gender roles.  “The process was really important for them.  Some were pretty machista at the beginning, but the reflection helped them make great strides.”

The changes were just as critical for the girls in the group, some of whom have been in abusive relationships.  Fajardo says now they talk about creating healthy boundaries in their relationships.

She sees that the teens have been deeply impacted by the knowledge that their stories are helping other young people.  “Now they see themselves as activists for change.”

For the audiences, she says, the process is “like giving them special glasses, and suddenly, they can see their reality and reflect on it.”

Audience members react to the theater performance

One union abstained from striking, citing the financial crisis impacting the country and its willingness to negotiate with the government.  But teachers from more than 2,000 schools chose to report to their classrooms while officially declining to teach.

The unions criticize the government for failing to enact a 2010 law approving a salary increase.  After the strike, unions renegotiated with the Ministry of Education for a pay increase of about 20%.  One union rejected the agreement, calling for a new strike in June.

Creative Commons Love: Cardelina on Flickr.com

Boys writing a skit about their experiences as consultants.

This is the third of three posts about an organization in northern Nicaragua, CESESMA, and their model of youth empowerment, as well as their innovative new project on sex and sexuality.  Part I is here, and Part II is here.

Nearly forty of the 70 young people who participated in the consultoria met one day in an open-sided rancho to share their experiences.  Their mission: analyze their peers’ responses and make recommendations to CESESMA.

Working in small groups with consultants from other communities, the adolescents first shared what they themselves learned.

One young woman explained, “Now I understand that sexuality is how we dress, how we love ourselves.”  An adolescent boy said, “I learned that sexuality is something it’s OK to talk about.”

A girl shared, “I learned sexual rights are that we have the right to enjoy ourselves, to dress however we want, even if the boys say we look ugly or make fun of us.”

For the young consultants, the importance of becoming informed about sexuality was mostly framed in terms of their own knowledge and understanding of their bodies, identity, and choices.  They mostly spoke in positive terms, of wanting to be informed, of now knowing they didn’t need to be embarrassed to talk about sex or sexuality.

Yet some consultants brought up kids’ needs to be informed of their rights in order to protect themselves.

Jorleny, 12 years old, explained, “In our future many people will try to trick us and it’s important we know the meaning of things, so if someone tries to trick us they can’t.”

Felix Pedro, also 12, echoed, “Kids need to know that they have rights, and that no one can violate their rights, not their parents or their siblings.”

After more discussion in groups, the consultants made their recommendations to CESESMA.

Several groups mentioned the importance of being able to talk about sex and sexuality with their parents.  One group suggested, “If a girl is abused, she needs to talk about it and not keep silent.  She should tell her mother.”  A common suggestion was that CESESMA offer training for parents so they “would understand it’s not vulgar to talk about sex and sexuality.”  Another group requested that “parents take care of their kids so they aren’t abused.”

The young consultants also requested workshops for kids and young people so they could ask questions and learn more about sex and sexuality.

Consultants present their recommendations to the group.

Through their official recommendations to CESESMA the consultants fully assumed their roles as change-makers in their communities.

Yet many of the young people talked about how much they liked the process of interviewing their peers.  It gave them confidence, and listening to the kids and teens in their communities completed the circle of trust initiated by CESESMA.

As 12 year-old Jaliksa told me, “They trusted us and answered what they thought, without being afraid.  And no one interrupted them.”

One group of consultants shares their experiences in a skit.

In my last post I wrote about an organization in northern Nicaragua, CESESMA, that uses a framework of human rights to address the needs of children and adolescents.  I described their use of consultorias, or investigative consultancies, to empower young people to address problems in their communities.

So, what does it look like when kids and young people are empowered to investigate problems in their communities? How do they talk about critical issues like sex and sexuality?

I traveled to a rural community in northern Nicaragua to observe a consultoria in action.  CESESMA’s most recent consultancy is about sex education, a delicate topic in Nicaragua, a majority-Catholic country.

I took a bus to the rural community of La Grecia, up winding dirt roads into coffee country.  A dozen consultants gathered after school for the last day of interviews.  Ranging in age from 11 to 14, the boys and girls chatted quietly as the facilitator handed out the questionnaires.

Earlier in the process the facilitators trained the young people in consultancy, giving them background on the theme of sex and sexuality.  Then the consultants designed the survey for their peers, including questions about their understanding of sexuality and their sexual and reproductive rights.

While CESESMA usually asks young people to frame their own investigations, in this case they proposed the critical issue of sexuality.  Nicaragua has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in Latin America and a staggeringly high rate of sexual violence against girls—two-thirds of reported rapes are committed against girls under 17 years old.

Harry Shier of CESESMA emphasizes, “In Nicaragua, sexual abuse and sexual violence against children is widespread, some say endemic, so children need to be able to protect themselves from these risks.”

Yet despite statistics that show sexual activity beginning at increasingly younger ages, there is little consensus about how to address sexuality with children.

Thus CESESMA’s goal was to find out what children and pre-adolescents know and want to know about sex and sexuality in order to develop an effective curriculum for sex education for kids.

That’s why they chose consultants between the ages of 11 and 15, and their interview subjects were kids as young as eight.

I tagged along with three girls, Josselin, Letys, and Paula, as they interviewed.  I followed Letys to the doorway of a small adobe house.  Fourteen year-old Maria came to the door, and smilingly agreed to be surveyed.

First Letys asked, “What do you know about sexuality?” and Maria responded, “It’s something between two people.”

There were long pauses between Letys’ questions and Maria’s soft answers.

Next Letys asked, “Do you know what your sexual rights are?” Maria responded, “I don’t know.” Similarly, she said she didn’t know her reproductive rights.

Yet when Letys asked what she would like to know about sexual and reproductive rights, Maria did have an answer: “their importance, methods.”

The lack of detail in Maria’s short responses is typical for children and adolescents in Nicaragua. While the national curriculum officially includes sexual education starting in primary school, in practice it is not consistently taught.

Consultants from La Grecia study their results.

And critics say what is taught focuses on sexual biology and doesn’t address the most important needs of kids and teens, like how to prevent pregnancy or sexually-transmitted infections (STIs).

A recent study of 2,800 adolescents in the capital, Managua, found that 28% were sexually active, including 6% of youth between 13 and 15 years old.  The same study revealed a critical lack of care for their health: 75% of the sexually active teenagers used no protection when they had sex.  And less than half of those who did use protection used condoms.

Yet Maria’s replies show young Nicaraguans’ desire to know more about sex and sexuality, though they may lack the vocabulary to even ask questions.

See my next post on Monday, to read the final chapter on the project.

Girls reading under the Books for Kids tent

Kids were among the notables invited to the eighth International Festival of Poetry in Granada, Nicaragua.  A wide tent of colorful picture books and cushions enticed young readers to relax amid the bustle of the central plaza, as poets and tourists circulated between events in the colonial city.  In the country of famed poet Ruben Darío, the festival offered multiple spaces to celebrate and create poetry, from open-mics to workshops to readings under the night sky.

On the final day of the festival young Nicaraguans read their poetry to crowds of visitors from all corners of Nicaragua and the world.  They shared the (figurative) stage with Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott and poets from over 50 countries.

The young poets (university students from different parts of Nicaragua) were chosen by the Nicaraguan Society of Young Writers for the excellence of their work.  The Society also publishes anthologies and holds regular events in support of young authors.

The “Reading Corner” tent is a project of the NGO Books for Kids, which works in a dozen communities throughout Nicaragua to provide access to books.  They host mini-libraries with daily schedules for children to drop by and read books, or to listen to stories read aloud.  Kids come with parents, grandparents, or on their own, and can check out books.

Books for Kids also publishes high-quality children’s literature by Nicaraguan authors.  Their list includes titles by poet Giaconda Belli and musician Katia Cardenal, and they include new talent via competitions for illustrating and writing.

Despite Nicaraguans’ deep love for their national poets, books are a luxury for most.  Yet the enthusiasm of young readers and writers at the festival attests to the transcendent power of words.

The Book Corner at the Granada International Poetry Festival