Global Education: A Brief Look

Greetings, Starfish readers! We are launching a new blog series on global education. Also keep an eye out for posts from our volunteers and tutors, Starfish event highlights, and more every Thursday! We look forward to your comments.

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Many people, myself included, were excited to hear President Obama speak about the possibility of free and universal community college in his State of the Union speech this week. This new initiative raises hope. Not only for those who would directly benefit from it, but for also everyone who recognizes education as a powerful, positive force.

Investing in education is, of course, an investment in the future. At Starfish, we know education has the power to change lives; it gives young people more opportunities and the ability to build up their communities. And it is encouraging to think that the President's newly introduced policy may be part of a trend towards a greater global focus on education.

To nurture this trend, however, there is still much to be done. A recent report released by UNICEF and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics indicated that 58 million children and 63 million adolescents worldwide were out of school. In other words: 1 of 11 children are not in the classroom; 1 in 5 adolescents are not.

The global community intended 2015 to be a benchmark year for universal primary education and yet progress has been slow. Barriers to education include: poverty, child labor, gender discrimination, national and regional conflicts, geographic location, language challenges, malnutrition, natural disasters, teacher shortages, and disability.

A disproportionate number of girls, children with disabilities, and children living in rural areas leave school early or miss out on their educations entirely. UNESCO reports that the solution isn't a matter of simply building more schools, but maintaining education in times of upheaval, combatting the above deterrents, and further determining why students aren't in the classroom.

The situation isn't hopeless, but rather complex. Still, change is possible. Last year, for example, in Ecuador, public school enrollment increased by 16%. The national literacy rate increased to 93%. The state spent a net $1.3 billion on education and made a plan to raise their secondary education graduation rate to 80% in the next several years. It will take hard work to put that plan into action, as it will take hard work to get students worldwide into their classrooms, but it's worth it.

Exciting News from our Flor de Bastión Employees

Newly painted walls in our new place!

Students comfortably fit in our new &
 improved BIG classroom in Flor!

Hello...
We are very happy to write to you all again after a few months.  We want to tell you that things are getting even better every day here.  Now we have a bigger space and we have a lot of hopes, we've thought about a lot of things that we are going to do.  The most important to highlight is that we are like a big family, and united we are going to achieve all of our goals.

More space for more supplies!

And a whole field outside just for us! 

Recently, we had a visit from the Board & other friends of Starfish and for us it was an unforgettable experience.  Both the employees and the students were very excited about their arrival.  Some of the students were able to meet their pen pals, and for each one it was really interesting to meet them in person as they exchanged likes and preferences.  The days that they were here in Ecuador were really fun.  Both in the "Olimpiadas" (field day) and trip to the beach all of the students behaved really well and we are really proud of them.

We've also had many visits from volunteers during these months.  They've been a lot of help in our tutoring program since they share their cultures with each one of us, in addition to teaching small English classes for the students.  Not too long ago ago 2 of them left and we want to tell them through this blog that we are going to miss them and we hope they come back soon.

With love,

The Flor de Bastión Employees

And for our Spanish-language readers, here is their original text!

Hola…
Nos sentimos muy contentos de volver a escribirles después de algunos meses. Queremos contarles que las cosas aquí cada día van  mejorando, ahora ya tenemos un lugar más amplio y tenemos muchas expectativas, hemos pensado en muchas cosas que vamos a  hacer y lo importante de destacar es que somos una gran familia y todos unidos vamos a lograr  lo que nos  hemos propuesto.
Recientemente tuvimos la visita de la Directiva y para nosotros fue una experiencia inolvidable, tanto los ayudantes como los chicos nos sentimos  muy emocionados de su llegada. Algunos de los becados conocieron a sus amigos de correspondencia, para cada uno fue muy interesante conocerlos en persona pues intercambiaron gusto y preferencia. Los días que estuvieron aquí en Ecuador fueron muy divertidos tanto en las olimpiadas como en el viaje a la playa todos la chicos tuvieron un muy buen comportamiento y estamos muy orgullosos de ellos.
También hemos tenido visitas de muchos voluntarios estos meses, quienes han sido de mucha ayuda en nuestros refuerzos ya que comparten la cultura de su país con cada uno de nosotros además les dan pequeñas clases de inglés a los chicos. Hace poco dos de ellos se fueron y queremos decirles a través de esta blog que los vamos a extrañar y esperamos regresen pronto.
Con cariño,
Ayudantes “Flor de Bastión “

It's Back to School season! 2014-2015

The new school year hasn't quite started yet here in Guayaquil, but we're already getting ready for the new school year here in Guayaquil.  As the students enjoy their last few weeks of vacation, they are also busy getting their new shoes & uniforms.  The "ayudantes" and I have already purchased new backpacks and notebooks for the year.  Both spaces are starting to look more like real classrooms and we even had our first parent & student meeting a couple of weeks ago.  

This year's scholars in Flor de Bastión!

Meet some of our Starfish families - both new and old!  And stay tuned for more exciting updates as we approach the start of classes on Monday, May 5!

Starfish Scholar Juliana, her sister and niece!

Starfish Scholars Anthony, Evelyn and Argenis, with their mom and sister,
and new addition - Domenica, Evelyn's daughter! 

Starfish Scholar Mirka with her mom and sister!

Third-year Starfish Scholar Joel with his mom and younger brother!

Ready for the Rain - Flor Renovation Updates

Two weeks ago we were able to make some great progress on the space lent to us in Flor de Bastión.  You might remember in July when we had a similar "minga" or work day to begin work on the space.  Since then we've using the space you see below, but we noticed a few necessary additions made more urgent when rainy season kicked into full gear these past few weeks.  

The "Maestro" hard at work!

Mixing the first batch of cement!

Luckily, we have a great group of dedicated scholars and parents who spent their Sunday doing their part to make sure we have a great place to continue our programs throughout the next 5 months of rainy season!

Who says this is man's work?  Not Betsy & Karina!!

David, one of our youngest and most enthusiastic participants!

On Sunday we had 3 main goals -
1) Finish the back wall of our classroom

Starfish dad, Aníbal, with Starfish Employee, Marcos.

2) Cement a trench/drain so that water that seeks in the through the sugar cane walls will filter out instead of into our classroom

Step 1 of the drain! 

Finished drain!

3) Clean up the area around outside of the classroom.

Students and parents alike helped clean up in the neighborhood surrounding Starfish.
Thanks to Starfish mom Juana for the great motivation!

We are proud to say that on Sunday we completed all 3 of these important tasks and that our space is now ready for the rain!