Education

A major concern of the Solentiname Friendship Group has been helping the community meet educational needs. We have provided children with backpacks, boots, and school supplies, books, school desks and blackboards. We have paid a teacher when the government was failing in its obligation; we have paid for much needed repairs on several schools, and on an island where the number of children is insufficient to justify government funding for a school we have helped with the cost of building a small school and provided half of the salary of the teacher (another organization pays the other half). Also we have funded a small “scholarship fund” that is used to help the poorest families with the educational needs of their children (such as clothing, shoes, and school supplies).

The painters and craftspeople of Solentiname have traditionally taught each other and their children. We help to facilitate this tradition by supporting workshops in which older artists teach others, and especially children, their skills in oil painting and carving.