Bridges Breaks Ground for Los Lopez School and Library in Masaya!

The children of the community of Los Lopez in Masaya are the lucky recipients of not only new school classrooms but a library stocked with brand new books and a kitchen to make them healthy lunches. Thanks to Bridges to Community donors who are committed to education through access to libraries and improved school facilities, the dream of this Nicaraguan community is coming true.

The old school for this community was destroyed in the 2000 Earthquake and its replacement was too small. Currently 119 children in the community squeeze into four tiny classrooms while others have to walk long distances crossing a busy highway to attend another school. The adults as well as the children in the community expressed a wish for a library that would provide access to books as well as a quiet, safe place to study.

The kitchen was built first to take advantage of the government food program will pay for the children’s school lunches. The new freestanding kitchen with a smoke reducing stove replaces the old system where the women in the community would cook over small open-fire stoves on the school grounds where unsanitary dust and flies would get into the food.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the two classrooms and the library (both freestanding buildings) took place on July 18. Several Bridges to Community groups have already built the library building and books have been ordered to stock it. The classroom construction is just about to start. This generation of Los Lopez niños are the fortunate ones.