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HJH FOUNDATION COVID-19 UPDATE Hola Everyone,
We hope that you and your loved ones are sheltered, safe and healthy during this incredibly difficult time in all of our lives. We have hesitated to add to the influx of information we have all been getting during the past weeks of remote work, sheltering at home with school aged children and the dire situations many of us find ourselves facing. However, we have received emails, calls and texts from many of you worrying about us and the people you all care about in Nicaragua. So it seemed like it was time to share time to share we do know and to reach out to all of you again.
Our last group (Union Church in Waban MA) left Nicaragua on Feb 21st after a delightfully successful mission trip! They were able to renovate and repair a school and playground in the town of Ojochal near San Jaun del Sur. The Rotary Clubs of Rockwall, Texas and San Juan del Sur had recently completed a Global Grant hygiene project there which allowed us to install a water tower and two bathrooms fitted with toilets and even sinks in the classrooms! This collaboration completed projects that brought much needed electricity from the road for light, fresh paint and a renewed lunch and play area. |
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 | | Union Church members working on the comedor area of the Ojochal school. |
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| I left shortly after the group on Feb 24th, planning to return April 15th to host a Young Life – Vida Joven group. I was going to return to the US with my business partner Mike Iacoboni to attend to his annual medical issues, attend a wedding as well as a graduation. Well, the April group event was cancelled in Nicaragua and the celebratory events were cancelled in the US. While the Sandino International Airport in Managua remains open, the government continues to push tourism and promote open borders for safe travel. Despite the Nicaraguan Government, by April 6th, all international airlines had discontinued flights to and from Nicaragua until at least late May or early June. While I might plan a trip when airlines reopen to assure all is well throughout our programs, we have cancelled all planned and tentatively planned groups, church mission teams and service learning groups until November at the earliest. The coronavirus pandemic hit just as our church and service groups had begun to trickle back and our board had high hopes for a better year with much needed visits from our service and mission groups. |
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 | | Managua airport. |
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The San Juan del Sur Biblioteca and the Mobile Project, as well as the Hotel Villa Isabella have been closed since mid-March. Heidi Herrera, our library coordinator, and Edwin Vasquez, our administrator, have been in nearly constant communication with us from their homes. Heidi has been using the SJDS Biblioteca Facebook page to offer the best information on health and safety that are available in Spanish. There are no resources coming from the Government in this regard, but the local Ministries of Education and Health are both attempting to educate and stay closed. We have continued to pay our staff their normal payroll and have pledged to continue to do so just as we did the last time Nicaragua faced crisis. We are assisting, as always, with the health needs of our staff and we are happy to report they have had no health issues related to COVID-19 to date.
The people of San Juan are aware and participating in Stay at Home and distancing measures to the best of their ability. It is much more difficult in Managua and other areas where there is no support and the only thing to do is to try to make a living. The Rotary district in Nicaragua is supporting issues as best they can and as most of us are Rotarians, Heidi and Edwin have been assisting in fundraising and providing the supplies they can through our Rotary Club (San Juan del Sur and District 4240). |
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 | | Cleaning the library while social distancing. |
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Similar to the impatience we see around us in the US, our biblioteca staff is anxious to move forward and begin services again. This past week, our staff met again in the library to clean and put things in order after a month of being closed. Our night watchman has been the only person working since March 20th. The staff are asking to respond to patrons who want to borrow books again. We are looking at ways to safely allow lending but we are not going to offer computer services in the next few weeks. Few people have access to internet, zoom and other diversions we all have in our homes so books would make a huge difference. So, if there are suggestions on how to safely loan books while maintaining social distancing measures, let us know!
We had plans to train with the US Embassy library staff in Managua on 3-D printers, begin projects with our printers and to provide space for the 2nd Embassy supported Advantage English and computer class program. These programs were to start in June for local teens and are now on hold. The Satelite Mini Library Project, providing books in classrooms, is also on hold although we continue to purchase books to bring in the Fall and other inventory and cataloging with our automated system will begin as soon as possible as well. Like everyone, everywhere we are experiencing this pause and working hard to know what should be happen next and when.
Given the lack of information about current numbers of COVID patients and the general situation of being a Third World Country we are hesitant to allow anything more to begin yet. There is a good possibility things have not surfaced yet that will affect San Juan in the future.
The most useful news source out of Nicaragua continues to be the newspaper La Prensa. They courageously continue to print “real news.” Here is a link to the latest in regard to President Daniel Ortega and the 25 minute interview he gave after having not been seen or heard from for over a month and an article about the most current concerns of the medical community.
Also see our website post about the Nicaraguan COVID-19 response.
While people we know and love are well and doing their best to stay healthy and safe, much of Nicaragua continues to struggle. We have shared a report we recently received from a wonderful Mission in Managua called New Song on our website. They are a library partner and we have plans to provide a lending library for them in the future. They describe sadly what the current situation is in greater Nicaragua and the possible consequences. |
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| “As the USA begins to slowly re-open, the virus is beginning to hit Nicaragua hard. With the weak infrastructure, the compromised health of the general population and the lack of social distancing, we are gearing up to help during the potential upcoming crisis.” — New Song |
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YES – you read that correctly above – we have a new website! We thought it was time for an update and we have combined both the HJH Foundation website and the San Juan del Sur Biblioteca website! Our good friend and HJH advisory board member, Alex Brown, created the amazing new website! The new website is where you can find everything you could possibly need to know about us, and we will be posting articles, resources, and other fun stuff on there for everyone to find! The website is up and running now although we are still making a few changes and working out some of the kinks! Please take a look!
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Many of you know about Amazon Smile and we appreciate it if you would consider making us the non-profit you support! Amazon Smile will make a donation to our foundation for every purchase on Amazon. Since we are all ordering online much more frequently, we thought it would be a good time remind you that this is an easy way to support us! Please click here to find instructions on how to designate us as your non-profit. |
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A final note from Jane:
In regard to the above article, we are concerned there will be more to be dealt with in Nicaragua and we are doing all we can to be ready to help with all we can.
Thank you for your concern for us as we are also concerned for all of you and for all that has and will change in the way we view the world coming out of this pandemic that affects us all. If there are ways we can reach out to any of you and help in any small way, please contact us. Please know we remain dedicated to our programs and the people of Nicaragua and their well-being. We are standing strong together.
We are asking our Nica staff and ourselves to be sure once this crisis has concluded that we can each look back and say we did not waste this pause, this time to reflect and perhaps do the things we always promise ourselves we will do when we “find time” well, time has found all of us.
We promise to keep you updated, please do the same for us.
Stay safe, stay well and take good care,
Jane
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Tomorrow, May 5th is Giving Tuesday Now. Most of us are used to giving Tuesday happening in November but this year it is happening in May too. Please consider contributing to our COVID-19 relief efforts by making a donation to the HJH Foundation through our Facebook page or the links below! |
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We are registered as Hester J. Hodgdon Libraries for All.
Please donate today with the PayPal or JustGiving buttons above
OR by check made payable to:
HJH Programs
1716 Del Norte Ave.
Loveland, CO 80538 |
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