SANTA ROSA FUND

NEWSLETTER
Issue 27, June 2006
Registered Charity No. 1028085

FIVE GO TO NICARAGUA
(Only three come back)
Well, no actually. All five Santa Rosa Fund trustees came back, more or less in tact, but not quite as
planned – please read on.

SRF trustee, Lorna Legg, with the plaster on her broken leg (after day 9 of the trustees’
visit to projects in Nicaragua) being signed by NSC worker Liz Light.
(Ed: any significance in the Double L, Double L?)

This January five Santa Rosa Fund trustees, Lorna Legg, Pat and Rick Blower and June and Martin
Mowforth, visited the projects and initiatives which the Santa Rosa Fund supports in Nicaragua. They
took with them the SRF support for what was then the coming year, 2006. Reports of their visits to
these projects and what they found are given on the following pages.

On day 9, whilst the group was staying in the city of León on their way to the Cosigüina Peninsula,
Lorna slipped on a highly polished floor and broke her leg. Despite receiving excellent medical
attention, Lorna had to be repatriated and needed an accompanier, so she and June returned to the UK

SRF Newsletter June 2006, p.1

earlier than planned, leaving Pat, Rick and Martin to cover the projects supported by the SRF in the
Cosigüina Peninsula of Nicaragua.

Lorna and June‟s report on our visits to the Santa Rosa School in Managua is followed by Pat and
Rick‟s report on the SRF-supported projects in the Cosigüina Peninsula.

DEVELOPMENTS AT THE SANTA ROSA SCHOOL

By Lorna Legg and June Mowforth

During our visit we delivered the Santa Rosa Fund money for the Nicaraguan school year 2006 along
with some materials. We met with Virginia Gómez Guillén (the headteacher) and René Zamora (the
Fund‟s representative in Managua) to gain from our partners at the Santa Rosa School up-to-date
information about the school, its pupils, staff and the general situation of education in Nicaragua.
Virginia explained how she administered the funds that the SRF provides to the school – she is highly
resourceful – and René presented us with his monthly accounts for the last year.

Lorna had first visited the school eight years earlier and her first impression on returning was how
crowded the school site had become. More classrooms have been built to accommodate the ever-
increasing roll that now stands at 996 students. Despite having two separate sessions each day this still
means class sizes of between 50 and 70 students. One of the new buildings is of course the Ben Dalton
Memorial Library [see SRF Newsletters 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 24] which the SRF helped to fund and
stock. 13 year old Jennifer, a pupil at the school, told us that she used the library regularly and
borrowed books from it regularly, and we were informed that pupils from other schools in the area
also use its resources. Trustees were especially keen to see the bookcases which a special appeal to all
the SRF supporters had funded. The plaque commemorating Ben Dalton, at last fixed on the outside
wall of the library, was unveiled during our visit – for what must have been the third time, we think.

Although we arrived midway through the

school‟s main holiday, there were plenty of
students and staff there to meet and chat with
us. We were also treated to an „acto‟, a
performance of traditional Nicaraguan music
and dance, starring, amongst others, Gabriela
(a former pupil at the school) and Modesto
Flores Hernández, longstanding secondary
teacher at the school and former member of
the Nicaraguan national dance troupe.

The trustees delivered a number of materials

which we had packed into extra rucksacks –
which were also left at the school – along
with some sports bibs which had been Modesto and Gabriela performing for the SRF trustees –
donated by Stella Embliss, who works for the note the spectacular Nicaraguan dress (which depicts the
Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign in London history of Nicaragua) worn by Gabriela
and whose son‟s school was throwing them
out. Herman Mullins, the P.E. teacher at the Santa Rosa School, a renowned basketball player, is
shown in the photo on the next page modelling one of the bibs for the record – a trifle small on him!

SRF Newsletter June 2006, p.2

 In the evening after we had visited the school the trustees
and several members of staff met up for a meal at a
restaurant local to the school. In this informal setting we
learnt a lot more about the state of education across
Nicaragua as a whole. We heard that although some
students expressed an interest in going onto university, in
reality there was little chance of this as opportunities are
few and costs are high. The meal was an important
occasion which improved our appreciation of the staff at
the school and of the differences and similarities in their
lives and ours.

Computers at the school

Readers of the last three newsletters will be aware of the

Santa Rosa Fund‟s application to the British Embassy in
San José (the capital of Costa Rica) which has
responsibility for British affairs in Nicaragua and the
Herman modelling the sports bibs Anglo-Central America Society (ACAS) for funding towards
the costs of a small computing system at the Santa Rosa School.
The application was submitted in October last year and the five trustees who travelled to Nicaragua
fixed a meeting with the British Ambassador (Mrs. Georgina Butler) in Costa Rica and therefore
planned to spend the last few days of their visit in Costa Rica. As a result of the broken leg [see
above], only three of the trustees were able to attend the meeting, and on the day the Ambassador also
happened to be unwell and so Pat, Rick and Martin met with Second Secretary Vicki Baxter.

After a productive meeting the embassy agreed to donate to the Santa Rosa School a computer and
printer which were due for replacement in the embassy, but at the time were unable to commit
themselves to providing the funds required for the remainder of the system as described in the
application. Nevertheless they held out the possibility that as the end of the tax year approached other
funds may become available for this project. Later, shortly before the end of the tax year, we heard
from Bruce Callow in the embassy that they would donate two computers, four monitors and a printer
and would also pay for the purchase of two other computers and one printer and several of the
necessary accessories.

Having at first thought that our application would come to nought, this
was greater than we could possibly have hoped for. And it goes without
saying, but certainly should be said, that we are extremely grateful to
the British Embassy in San José for their generosity. Of course life
could never be quite as simple as this account might suggest. At the
beginning of June there remained the problem of delivering and installing all the
equipment.

Just before leaving Central America to return home the trustees took up the offer of Gill Holmes, who
is resident in Managua, to oversee the process of purchase of the equipment from a local computer
company, Microsa, their payment from the embassy and all liaison between the school, the company
and the embassy. Gill has been mentioned in the SRF Newsletter before – in 1997 and 1998 when she
became the temporary replacement for Chris Baird as the NSC‟s representative in Nicaragua and
during which time she visited the school frequently on behalf of the SRF. So she is known at the
school and was pleased to have the chance to swap stories with the staff and Virginia of what had

SRF Newsletter June 2006, p.3

happened in their lives in the intervening years. It is even more fortunate for us that Gill has offered
this help in return only for her expenses – she will charge no fee.

The equipment purchased by the embassy from Microsa has already been delivered to the school – in
March. As Gill describes it: “When I got to the school Marcia and Modesto took delivery of the
equipment … It will be stored for the moment in the school office. They arranged it very attractively
(still in its boxes) on a table in the library between the British and Nicaraguan flags, and then took
photos of the official handover.” Microsa will install the whole system when all the equipment has
been delivered, but the embassy machines are not expected to arrive until June, partly because they
have to be cleaned of any possible UK government secrets. We assured the embassy personnel that
their secrets would be safe with us, but the cleaning operation still had to go ahead.

The system will soon be up and running. TO ALL WHO SUPPORTED AND ENCOURAGED US IN
THIS VENTURE, MANY THANKS FROM BOTH THE SANTA ROSA SCHOOL AND FROM
THE SRF TRUSTEES.

OTHER PROJECTS SUPPORTED BY THE SANTA

ROSA FUND
By Pat and Rick Blower

Centro de Jovenes (Youth Centre) in Cosigüina

After a difficult 2 hour journey on pot-holed and dusty roads, we arrived in Cosigüina village,
northwest of El Viejo, with Leda, a Nicaraguan who works and is training with the nuns at the Berriz
Missionary Centre in El Viejo. Our first stop was a tour of the Youth Centre with the co-ordinator
Carlita. The Youth Centre was built in 2005 with funding from the Amigos de Holanda and the light
and airy building houses a large meeting room, kitchen, dining room, office, library area and 2
dormitories. What could not be ignored was that the building was seriously lacking in resources with
the dormitories devoid of furniture and the beautiful
locally made bookcases containing just a handful of
books. Carlita confirmed that they are working hard
to encourage the local youths to use the centre and a
primary objective is to resource the centre.

We were told that young people in the

community do not have access to information
technology or secondary education and therefore the
Centre is vital for these purposes. We were impressed
by Carlita‟s enthusiasm for the project and we had the
opportunity to speak to a couple of teenagers using Carlita with the sum total of all the books
the centre. Carlita also explained that the centre is used possessed by the Youth Centre
by younger children and visiting youths from El Viejo.
She hoped to see more young people using the centre in future.

From here, we walked to the Cosigüina Primary School and we entered the classroom of
Teresita Rios who was teaching a group of infants on a special vacation summer school for children
who were having difficulty with their reading and writing. Teresita spoke to us at some length about
the difficult conditions in the school with 50 children in a classroom and 2 distinct grades together.
SRF Newsletter June 2006, p.4
Resources at the school were almost non-existent. Teresita described the poverty in the community
which meant that many women were leaving the area to access work in neighbouring countries. There
are families of 8 or 9 children and the poverty means that children have no pencils, notebooks or
shoes, money for uniforms and in some cases even shirts. The children do not attend regularly and
some reach adulthood with a lack of literacy. Travelling the 2 hours each way to the nearest secondary
school in El Viejo is out of the question in most cases.

Teresita‟s salary is less than $100

L. to R. Teresita, Román (our driver), Rick Blower, Pat Blower
a month, considerably less than the „basic
basket of goods‟, a measure which is
commonly used in Central America as an
indicator of poverty. She spoke
passionately of education as being an
inheritance from parents to prepare an
individual to cope in the world, to be
successful and an independent thinker.
Teresita felt that a twinning arrangement
with a British school would be extremely
useful for her students, allowing them to
build relationships and understanding.

Note: Following the visit, it was proposed to the SRF trustees and agreed that we continue paying for the co-
ordinator’s salary at the Youth Centre and increase the support to $480 yearly. We also allocated $200 for
books to resource the Youth Centre library. $200 was also allocated to provide some resources for the
Cosigüina Primary School.

Villa España
The following day we met with Sister Lilliam from El Viejo to make the short journey to Villa
España to visit the pre-school where the Santa Rosa Fund has been paying
the salary for the teacher, Grethel. [Villa España is a settlement established
for the victims of Hurricane Mitch in 1998.] We were told of the problems
they experience with poor attendance - last year 26 children registered for the
term and only 10 continued after a couple of weeks. The community is very
poor and the abject poverty means the parents, the majority of whom are
single mothers, place little importance on attending the school as the basic
priorities of subsistence are paramount.

We then met Patricia, the librarian of the Primary School, Escuela

Rosario Mayorga in Villa España, and she showed us the newly established
library where resources were extremely scarce, despite which it is a facility
that is well used. SRF supporters may like to know that last autumn the Fund
suggested and then underwrote the costs of a visit by Patricia to the Ben
Grethel del Carmen Dalton Memorial Library at the Santa Rosa School in Managua. See page 8
Campos Cabrera and for further details.
Claudio Davila
Finally, Claudio Davila as Director of the Rosario Mayorga Primary
School explained that the effects of extreme poverty in the community meant that parents were
migrating to find work and send money home. Claudio was expecting a big increase in the roll of the
school for this coming school year as a result of the building of about 60 new houses in the settlement
for workers in a nearby newly established banana plantation. But attendance is poor at the school and

SRF Newsletter June 2006, p.5

only about 50% of the students go on to secondary education. There is no government funding for
resources; therefore pencils, books and paper notebooks were not available.

Note: As a result of our visit, the SRF trustees agreed to allocate $480 extra this year for the nuns to disburse
as appropriate to the pre-school teacher’s salary (to bring it into line with other teachers’ salaries in
Nicaragua) and for resources for the pre-school.
$200 was also allocated to resource the library in the Rosario Mayorga Primary School and $200 was donated
for general educational resources there.

Finally in this report of the trustees‟ visit to Nicaragua, we had the opportunity to meet and talk with
some of the beneficiaries of the Santa Rosa Fund‟s support.

MEET THE STUDENTS

The following profiles are necessarily very brief, but we hope they give our supporters at least a
cursory snapshot of some of the more mature students attending the Santa Rosa School.

Left: Yahoska de los Angeles Díaz Orochena

16 years old
Likes Chemistry

Right: Jaqueline del Socorro Gutiérrez Flores

17 years old
Likes Chemistry

Left: Nancy Valeska Correa Incer

16 years old
Likes Physics

Right: Eveling Raquel Vargas Palma

19 years old
Likes Chemistry

Left: Fernanda Baéz

16 years old
Likes English and Culture

Rignt: Angela Miranda González

15 years old
Likes History and English

SRF Newsletter June 2006, p.6

 Carlos is 14 years old and likes Maths and football – naturally,
he‟s a striker.

OTHER NEWS OF SRF PARTNERS

Biscuits and cereals improve school attendance

At the end of February the Santa Rosa School in Managua, along with other schools in the capital,
received food donations from the Government of Japan and from Banco Uno (one of the Nicaraguan
banks). Banco Uno provided biscuits and the
Government of Japan paid for the delivery of cereals (to
be mixed with water), and the school was charged with
ensuring that they were used before the expiry date of
the end of March.

It is most likely that the Nicaraguan government and the

local office of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
had been stung into action by growing evidence of
school absenteeism and rising malnutrition in
Nicaraguan children which many sources attribute to
the IMF refusal to allow the government to take the
necessary measures to counter this phenomenon. To
distract attention from their failures and the general
failure of the neoliberal economic model, they arranged
for these donations from appropriate sources.

In November last year, the Interest Group of Food and

Nutritional Sovereignty and Security (GISSAN)
described what it considers to be an “alarming
nutritional situation” in Nicaragua. According to
GISSAN over 30% of Nicaraguan families suffer from
malnutrition putting the country among the list of
Virginia with the boxes of cereals donated by nations with the highest levels of malnutrition in the
the Government of Japan world. GISSAN‟s data came from a census of primary
schoolchildren‟s height and from international data
about levels of malnutrition across the globe. The recent census, conducted by the Ministry of
Education, found that 29% of all Nicaraguan primary school pupils are shorter than normal – being
below normal height is one of the key indicators of malnutrition in children. This figure rose to 32% in

SRF Newsletter June 2006, p.7

the countryside. It is worth noting that, as 45% of Nicaraguan children do not attend school because of
economic difficulties, children from the poorest families were not included in the census.

In April, members of the Civil Coordinator (a civil society organisation) and the international
development agency Oxfam announced a six month campaign against the conditions imposed by the
IMF on Nicaragua. Adolfo Acedevo, a member of Civil Coordinator‟s economic committee, said that
the IMF conditions imposed on the Nicaraguan government have grave effects on the population, 80%
of whom live on less than US$2 per day. Only 30% of pre-school age children and 30% of secondary
school age teenagers are able to attend school because their parents cannot pay for basic school
materials. Despite this, government spending on education has been reduced in recent years as a result
of IMF conditions. (Source: Nicaragua Network Hotline, 25.5.06)

Los Pozitos
The tiny and remote village of Los Pozitos in the Cosigüina Peninsula, about 35 km. to the north of the
town of El Viejo, was the only location which had to be dropped from the itinerary of the SRF trustees
during January on account of the broken leg – see earlier. We had taken with us some exercise books
and various items of educational stationery for the village school and had to leave these with the nuns
in the Berriz Missionary Centre in El Viejo to be delivered to the village. We added US$60 remaining
from the SRF funds we had taken with us, and before we left the country we heard that the goods had
been delivered and a receipt was on its way to us. Perhaps the next Santa Rosa Fund visitor to
Nicaragua will be able to call in on Los Pozitos?

An exchange between two SRF-supported projects

In 2005, the SRF donated a small amount for the purchase
of resources for the new library in the Rosario Mayorga
Primary School in Villa España. Patricia, the librarian,
who is paid by the nuns in El Viejo for her services, was
new to the job; and so the Fund sent the huge total of
US$40 to the nuns with the suggestion that it could be
used to send Patricia to Managua for a day to discover
how Mayra Calderón, the librarian in the Ben Dalton
Memorial Library at the Santa Rosa School, organises and
runs the school‟s library.

Sister Lilliam (L.) and Patricia (R.) in the new The trustees were very pleased to receive the news that the
Villa España library with more or less the sum exchange had indeed taken place and that the experience
total of the resources held by the library. had been enjoyable and worthwhile for both Patricia and
Mayra.

Note to SRF supporters

There is of course no shortage of other educational projects and initiatives that we could support in
Nicaragua, but you may be pleased to hear that the trustees only consider taking on other projects
when they are sure that the funds needed to support those projects to which we are already committed
are assured.

SRF Newsletter June 2006, p.8

 FUND RAISING NEWS
Katie and Sarah Miles
In the last issue of the SRF Newsletter, we briefly mentioned that Katie and Sarah Miles from
Birmingham had been working with our partner organisation, the Berriz Missionary Centre, in the El
Viejo area of Nicaragua. They were there as a result of contacting the Santa Rosa Fund, and their
primary purpose was to conduct research into disaster preparedness and response. During their time
there they faced a tornado, were stranded in a national bus strike, and witnessed first-hand disaster
response to severe flooding caused by Hurricane Stan.

Although they spent only a month there, they witnessed poverty enough to come back determined to
raise money for the Santa Rosa Fund and the work of the nuns in El Viejo. Through friends, family
and talks and reports – like the one shown here which appeared in The Wilmslow Express in January –
they managed to raise over £1,000, all of which they donated to the Fund. The Miles family took the
decision to go without Christmas presents in 2005 and to donate all the money that they would have
spent on them to Katie and Sarah‟s chosen
cause, the Santa Rosa Fund, fully aware that
much of the Fund‟s financial resources would
go to support the projects run by the nuns of the
Berriz Missionary Centre in El Viejo.

Sarah said: “Our time in Nicaragua has made us

aware of how important political pressure and
campaigns such as Vote for Trade Justice are to
raise awareness of the international rules and
regulations that keep countries such as this in
poverty in order to serve the needs of the rich.
The scale of the issue is so huge that we cannot
resolve it single-handedly, but we can play a
small part by raising awareness and raising money to continue the good work we saw in operation
whilst we were out there.”

It goes without saying that the Fund is immensely grateful to Katie and Sarah.

To support the evidence of Katie and Sarah‟s eyes, the following figures relate to the department of
Chinandega (in which is located the town of El Viejo and the Cosigüina Peninsula), and they highlight
the need for further support for educational initiatives in the region. Rick and Pat‟s report on pages 3-5
of this newsletter gives some details of the support the Fund has given this year. Perhaps the Santa
Rosa Fund can improve on this next year – certainly the need is great.

The figures were presented in a Forum organised by Save The Children and held in Chinandega in
March this year. The total population of the department of Chinandega is 441,300.

Pre-school children absent from school 28,091

Primary aged children absent from school 19,004
Secondary aged children absent from school 27,465
Children working 1,717
Disabled children not attending school 2,311

SRF Newsletter June 2006, p.9

 Illiterate children under the age of 14 17,854
Illiterate children over the age of 14 11,287

The presentation also listed reasons for school absence, including:

 Child labour (including domestic work)

 Unemployment and poverty
 Migration
 Distance from school
 Lack of access to suitable facilities for special needs children
 Parental attitudes
 Agricultural production cycles
 Parental illiteracy
 Climate
 Lack of food and illness
 Lack of understanding from teachers
 Family disintegration

Another supporter of the Santa Rosa Fund, Sara Roberts, is currently researching the issue of child
labour and child slavery for a BBC programme which is expected to be produced in 2007. The
programme may use some examples from the area surrounding the town of El Viejo in the Cosigüina
Peninsula.

A note from our treasurer

It‟s thanks to all of you that our income each year steadily rises. Last year it increased by 20 per cent.
Santa Rosa‟s revenue depends largely on donations from our supporters, but also on fund raising -
both rose in 2005. The coffee morning, Acoustic Café and the Great West Run raised a total of £763, a
significant contribution to our total income. We are always looking for new ideas for fund raising; so
if you happen to have a fantastic idea, please let us know, providing it‟s not a jumble sale!

Our increasing income has meant that over the years we have been able to increase our support for the
Santa Rosa School and also help sustain other projects outside of Managua such as the projects in
Villa España. Last year just US$900 paid for both the salary of the pre-school teacher and for much
needed materials for the school in Villa España - a relatively small amount of money goes a long way
in Nicaragua, a fact which never ceases to amaze me.

Last year we raised £530 through Gift Aid, (thank you, Mr Brown). This money almost exactly
equates to our donations to projects in the Villa España, demonstrating the important contribution that
Gift Aid makes to our funds. If you are a UK tax payer, by signing our Gift Aid form, the value of
your donation is increased by about 22 per cent.

We are also grateful to supporters who are able to make a regular commitment of whatever size or
interval (monthly, every three months, yearly) because this helps us with our forward planning.
We regularly receive requests for additional or new support and when deciding how far
our funds will stretch it is very useful to know that a proportion of our income for the
coming year is guaranteed through regular standing orders.

This year we‟ve already held two very successful events - another coffee morning and our
SRF Newsletter June 2006, p.10
popular quiz night, and we are now receiving another steady income thanks to one of our supporters
who recycles obsolete mobile phones. So I think I can safely anticipate another successful financial
year.
Pat Mayston

ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL BUT PUZZLING QUIZ NIGHT

On Friday 10th March this year, the SRF held its now annual Quiz Night, except that this was a few
months later than intended – delayed by snow last November. The event becomes more popular every
year, and this year we had difficulty squeezing all the teams into the Tavistock Parish Rooms, which
brought out the cheats in all of us. Takings for the Santa Rosa Fund came to £280, more than previous
Quiz Nights.

As in previous years, the names invented by the teams were both amusing and enigmatic – The 4
Candles; Half There; Max Headroom; Tamar Organic Turnips; Tessa Jowell’s Mortgage; Zapatistas;
Daughters of Drac; and so on. Also as in previous years, the greatest interest was shown for who
could gain the least points, and for this there was no shortage of competition. At the upper end of the
scale, there was little competition, but Tessa Jowell’s Mortgage eventually gained the highest score,
reflecting the current sorry state of British politics.

From everybody who attended and scratched their heads, a tremendous vote of thanks must go to
Malcolm and Judith Medhurst and Elaine Bentley for the incredible amount of work they put into
devising the quiz – unquestionably the most interesting and demanding quiz of the year. In each round
of the quiz, the quiz leaders included a question which was either directly or obliquely related to
Nicaragua. We reproduce these questions below, and the answers are given on the next page.

QUESTIONS
1. The Patron Saint of Nicaragua – St. James (the Greater, son of Zebedee) – is also the Patron Saint of other
countries. Which of these countries is St. James the Greater not the Patron Saint of?
Chile, Guatemala, Spain, Uruguay
2. Which is the most populous country in Central America? Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua.
3. What is the Nicaraguan connection between the answers to these three questions?
a) Which Indian hero, an incarnation of Vishnu, married Sita and killed the demon king Ravana?
b) What was the only one of the original four ITV franchise holders to survive into this century?
c) Which Luc Besson film starred Jean Reno as a professional assassin taking care of a 12 year old girl?
4. What part of Nicaragua connects the writer Paul Theroux and the film star Harrison Ford?
5. Which country has the most Nicaraguans living outside Nicaragua?
6. Who is or was Herty Lewites? Was he a poet, sportsman, politician or singer?
7. Which endangered inhabitant of Nicaragua is called mono congo in Spanish but gets its English name from the
noise it makes?
8. The guardabarranco is the national what of Nicaragua?
9. For the feast of St. Lazarus who or what do Nicaraguans put into fancy dress? Cats, Dogs, Grandparents or
Politicians?
10. Which hurricane resulted in Nicaragua‟s worst ever disaster in 1998? Bret, Cesar, Joan or Mitch?

COFFEE MORNING
In April this year, the SRF Coffee Morning was converted into a Coffee And Cake, Soup And Stalls
Morning and was extended to 2 pm. Total takings for the day came to £246. Many thanks to all who
donated cakes, bric-a-brac, effort and money.

SRF Newsletter June 2006, p.11

ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ QUESTIONS – see page 11

1. Uruguay (Patron Saint is St. James the Lesser)

2. Guatemala
3. a) Rama; b) Granada; c) León CONNECTION ANSWER: Towns and cities in Nicaragua
4. Mosquito Coast (written by Paul Theroux; film starred Harrison Ford)
5. B Costa Rica
6. Politician (ex-Mayor of Managua)
7. Howler monkey
8. Bird
9. Dogs
10. Mitch

SPONSORED BIKE RIDE

The Sponsored Bike Ride across Nicaragua which was mentioned in our last two
newsletters has been postponed until next year. Mike Peart, organiser and
participant of the event, explained that the ride had to be held in the dry season as
many of the roads (especially in the north-east of the country) were simply impassable during the
rainy season which starts in May. Mike (who lives in Managua) reluctantly decided that the
preparation and training for this gruelling event had not been adequate before the start date in March,
which meant that they could not complete the event before the onset of the rains.

Mike hopes to hold the ride in 2007 instead.

ENCLOSED WITH THIS NEWSLETTER:

1. A copy of the Santa Rosa Fund accounts for 2005, prepared by our treasurer Pat Mayston and audited by
another of the SRF trustees, Rick Blower, acting in his role of financial consultant. We thank both of them for
their efforts, and now that we have almost 200 households or individuals on our mailing list, the job of
managing the accounts is no mean feat.

2. A publicity flyer for an environmental study tour of Honduras, Nicaragua‟s neighbour. Highly recommended
– of course.

SANTA ROSA FUND CONTACTS

Chair: Pete Mayston, Rose Cottage, Tuckermarsh, Bere Alston, Yelverton, Devon PL20 7HB
Tel. 01822 840297 Email: pmayston@fish.co.uk
Secretary: June Mowforth, 51 West Street, Tavistock, Devon PL19 8JZ
Tel. 01822 617504 Email: mmowforth@plymouth.ac.uk
Treasurer: Pat Mayston – as for Pete (above)
Twinning links representative: Rick Blower, Cloberry Cottage, Brentor, Tavistock, Devon PL19 0NG
Tel. 01822 810600 Email: r.blower@btinternet.com
Membership secretary: Martin Mowforth – as for June (above)

PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER

STOP PRESS – RENE, THE SRF REP. IN MANAGUA HAS JUST INFORMED US THAT THE COMPUTERS
FROM THE BRITISH EMBASSY IN COSTA RICA HAVE NOW ARRIVED AT THE SANTA ROSA SCHOOL.
SRF Newsletter June 2006, p.12