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Those Lions Can Really Roar!
by Lisa Fernandez
SRW has taken on a new project in Mulukuku, a remote area in the mountains of northeast Nicaragua, where state schools are almost nonexistent and few children have access to education. Working with Sister Sandy Price and her parish in Mulukuku, SRW has a unique opportunity to make a real difference in this community of subsistence farmers and their families. Sister Sandy has lived and worked in Mulukuku for twenty-two years, and has established forty one-room and two-room schoolhouses. Her parish provides teacher training and serves children regardless of religion, race or culture. These schools are in desperate need of supplies and basic furnishings. There are currently over 1000 students who do not have desks to sit at in school! Learning this, SRW heard a call to help.
But how does an organization in Wisconsin fill such a great need in a faraway country? SRW contacted Dwayne Habrat, the State Secretary of the Lion’s Clubs of Wisconsin. Dwayne got the word out to district clubs, and the calls started coming in; from Kiel and Cornell and Kadott, and all over Wisconsin, Lion’s Club members responded to the call for school desks. Quietly waiting in barns and storage rooms and hay carts all over Wisconsin, were discarded school desks which Lion’s club members had rescued, knowing that someday they would find a new home. School desks, chairs, teacher’s desks—all awaited the call for help. During the last five months, SRW and the Lion’s Clubs have collected over 500 desks, and hundreds more are awaiting pickup. Everywhere we’ve gone to pick up desks, we’ve been received by enthusiastic, organized helpers. In Cornell, a whole class of middle school students hand-carried over 100 desks from a third-fl oor storage room in the school and loaded them on our truck. We then had the opportunity to talk with the students about SRW and the project in Mulukuku.
A heartfelt thank you to the Lion’s Clubs of Wisconsin, and to all who have helped us toward our goal of seating all the students in Mulukuku at desks of their own.
If you really want to make things happen, ask a Lion to help you!
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