Bainbridge Island churches send books, study supplies, funds.

ISLA DE OMETEPE, NICARAGUA – A hushed crowd of children moves a step closer as Grace Episcopal Church member Dallas Shaffer takes hold of her suitcase zipper.

Shaffer pulls quickly, lifting the lid to a treasure trove of books and school supplies.

The children cheer and jostle forward. Their eyes brighten as they take hold of books on such thrilling subjects as the alphabet and Spanish grammar.

One little girl scampers outside to view her new yellow pencil in the sunlight.

The two bulging suitcases unveiled at the Balgue village community center are the latest dose of support injected by the Bainbridge Island church to help cure the Nicaraguan island’s low literacy rates.

For over five years, the church has funded two teachers’ salaries and sent needed supplies supporting an after-school reading project that regularly assists 40 children.

“I support this, of course, because I believe in literacy, but also because people like me have gone to graduation here and seen the children reading,” said Shaffer, as her voice wavered and her eyes welled. “And that’s an amazing thing to see.”

A desire to read and write often takes a back seat to the family farm on rural Ometepe.

Children regularly stay home from school to help harvest crops, gather firewood, clear weeds and assist their mothers with daily chores.

Attending public school also comes with costs that many farm families cannot afford, including monthly fees, school uniforms and books.

These and other pressures have kept about 40 percent of Nicaragua’s adult population from learning to read.

Many educators estimate a significantly higher illiteracy rate in rural places like Ometepe.

“I know that many of my students must help their family in the rice and corn fields,” said Ometepe teacher Karla Saenz, who founded the Balgue literacy project. “They often could not finish their homework and could not find help at home because their parents also cannot read. But children need this opportunity.

“Even if they don’t become a professional, they must know basic math and reading to run a the plantation, get loans and keep track of production.”

Saenz decided to start the literacy program in her spare time and secured the Balgue community center for afternoon tutoring sessions.

She turned to the Bainbridge-Ometepe Sister Islands Association, which had built the first wing of the center in 1995, to help fund the project. BOSIA agreed to help and found a partner in Grace church, which quickly assumed all financial support for the project. The church pays about $1,000 each year to support Saenz and another teacher’s part-time salaries.

Other Bainbridge churches have joined BOSIA in support of Ometepe social and educational projects.

Bethany Lutheran Church helped build a preschool in the late 1990s and provided financial assistance for a variety of school improvements in 2000.

Eagle Harbor Congregational Church has funded scholarships and provided a meeting space for BOSIA. St. Cecilia Catholic Church regularly sends supplies for a school in one small Ometepe village.

A variety of help has come from Seabold United Methodist Church, including hurricane relief, sports supplies, university scholarships and various construction improvements for schools.

“In my church, the literacy program has to compete every year with other worthy programs for funding,” said Shaffer, who is also a BOSIA board member. “And every year the literacy project gets support because it’s a well-run, well-managed, cost-effective program.”

BOSIA founder Kim Esterberg said much of the Grace church-funded program’s success comes from Saenz’s dogged commitment to her hometown.

“As a teacher, Karla already works hard, but she decided to work harder by providing a literacy program for the community,” Esterberg said.

Saenz, an eight-year veteran of the Ometepe school system, begins her day with a twilight walk to teach at an elementary school in a nearby village.

The mother of two returns home for a few quick chores before running over to the center at 3 p.m. for a two-hour literacy session with dozens of young children. At 5 p.m., she returns home to cook dinner, clean up and hunker down for four hours of planning for her two teaching jobs.

“It is a lot, I know, and I don’t get a lot of rest or even get to watch soap operas,” she said with a laugh. “Sometimes the amount of work makes me sad. Sometimes there’s not much time to talk with friends. But I know many other people are working hard to help our community and so I do not feel alone.

“I know that people thousands of kilometers away in Bainbridge are helping us, and so I think that there is no reason that I cannot be supportive as well.”