Join us for a tour of the neighborhood and the school
•Since the 1980s, the Nicaraguan government has built hundreds of public rural schools for primary and secondary education. Doing so has helped to raise the literacy rate from less than 50 percent to its current level of 67.5 percent. Because of the large number of children and chores at home, students typically attend either a morning or afternoon session and the majority of the schools operate in two half day sessions. Public schools are free but over crowded and are often located far from the neighborhoods they serve. Many children are lucky to complete the 6th grade.
•The Las Torres Neighborhood holds some of the worst conditions in which any adult or child could exist. Located in the outskirts of Managua it is a makeshift squatters neighborhood built under high voltage powerlines (Las Torres = The Towers). The streets and storm drains are filled with exposed sewage and trash; gang activity is ever present with rampant thieving, glue sniffing, shootings, drug and alcohol abuse. Prostitution, teen and unwed mothers, high unemployment and abject poverty are daily reminders of the lack of opportunities for the children living here.
•For those lucky enough to have housing here the standard structure is no more than a shack with rusty and sharp scrap metal walls, a single hose water line, a concrete sink for the kitchen and haphazard bedding barely raised off the packed mud floors.
•Some safer block houses have been built by many missionary groups and this work continues to this day. There are good churches ministering to broken spirits and offering hope for the after life, but a practical way out of the earthly despair has come from the education provided to the children. While some individual stories have changed by the efforts of the churches, the children of Las Torres need a school to secure their future stories. CALT can help and we need you!!!
Christian Academy of Las Torres P.O. Box 813-782 Smyrna, GA 30081 (770) 235-5849 info_calt.us
