Feeding Children
In the school year beginning March 2008, Amigos began supporting six additional schools: El Frances Abajo, El Frances Arriba, Pueblo Nuevo, Pueblo Caldera, Alto Boquete, and Macano bringing the total to 13 schools serviced by Amigos.
School and Orphanage Construction Projects
COMPLETED PROJECTS
Amigos de Boquete completed rehabilitation projects in six schools during 2007-2008.
Two selected projects are highlighted below.
Alto Quiel
Below are pictures of the final installation of windows in the Alto Quiel School. Amigos de Boquete also installed security bars, rebuilt the kitchen and bathrooms, fixed the sanitary water system, and upgraded the classroom lighting system.
Palmira Arriba
The Palmira Arriba School project (“Before”, “During” and “After” photos below) has been our largest project to date, involving the replacement of the roof of the kitchen and the administration building, the rehabilitation of the kitchen, and the construction of a private bedroom with a full bathroom so that the teacher would not have to sleep on the dining room table and so that she can have the privacy of her own bath. (The Palmira Arriba school is so remote that a teacher sleeps there five nights per week.)
Below are pictures of the Palmira Arriba kitchen and administration building before new construction.
Below are pictures of the Palmira Arriba kitchen and administration building during construction.
Below are pictures of the Palmira Arriba kitchen and administration building in the “all but paint” stage.
Palmira Arriba Paint Project
Amigos de Boquete painted the new Palmira Arriba administration building with the help of the parents of children who attend the Palmire Arriba School.
Macano School Project
The Macano School Project is the third successful joint venture that has been completed between Fundacion Amigos de Boquete and Club Rotario de Boquete. However, in this case the Project was initiated as a result of our meeting Joern Ziegler, a school teacher at the Rauschenberg school in Cologne, Germany, who believed that his students would wish to reach out to the students at the Macano School in rural Panama. It was together with Joern and his students that we conceived of the Project and worked to make it a reality.
Macano is a small primary grade school located in a remote rural area adjacent to Boquete, Panama. It currently has approximately 30 students, with one teacher and one cook. Amigos de Boquete provided food to the children during the 2007 -- 2008 school year and when we received a $4,500 donation that was raised by the extraordinary students, supported by their dedicated teachers, at the Rauchenberg School in Cologne, Germany we approached Club Rotario de Boquete requesting that they undertake another joint venture with us.
Rotary took the lead in constructing a water system including a 750 liter water tank, pressure pump, and related filtration systems as well as the construction of a sanitary water disposal system.
Amigos de Boquete, supported by the money raised by the Rauschenberg students, took the lead in providing electric energy and lighting, the building of a computer room with an Internet connection, and the construction of a suitable kitchen. Our funds were also used to construct a basketball court and a soccer field, both items that were specifically requested by the students of the Rauchenberg School.
Our joint ventures with Rotary have all been successful, but none has had a greater impact than our project in Macano. In particular, the existence of reliable potable water and a safe sanitary water disposal system, together with electric energy and an Internet connection, has been truly transformational.
Our thanks to the students and teachers at the Rauschenberg School for their hard work and great generosity; and to Joern Ziegler for his dedication and vision.
Our thanks as well to Club Rotario de Boquete and the Reynoldsburg/Pickerington Ohio Rotary Club for their generous support of this Project that has made such a difference to the children of Macano.
Please click below to watch the movie we made about this wonderful project.
Our thanks to the Rotary camera crews that filmed the project and especially to Marty Corwin of MC Productions in Las Vegas, Nevada, who produced the movie and provided the voiceover.
We all hope that our work will serve as a model for other similar projects and we are delighted that our relationship with the children of the Rauschenberg school continues with another fundraiser planned for late September, 2009. We are confident that lasting relationships will develop between the students in Germany and the students in Panama as a result of this Project and that this world will be a better place because of that.
