School Name: José Vicente Andrade
Location: Mollepamba
A Bill & Donna Pike Commemorative School
Because of it’s remote location, high above the Vilcabambaba Valley, the school has mostly been ignored by the government and had a great many needs when we first visited it in 2004. Before dedicating a 1 acre plot of land on the edge of the village of Mollepamba, the villagers would send their children to a local teacher who would conduct class inside his one-room home. After the student body grew to over 10, the teacher requested that they consider building a small classroom on a plot of ground which had been donated by a local resident. Since then, it has been the recipient of numerous gifts including:
- Materials to build a roof on their first classroom building
- Bags of concrete to mix with local stones to make a floor
- Door & Windows for the Classroom
- 3 Montessori-Style Round Tables with 18 chairs for the classroom
- School & Crafts supplies
- Backpacks for all of the students
- Complete Computer System with monitor, mouse, keyboard, video camera
- Digital Camera
- Video Projector
- Refrigerator
- Voltage Regulator
- 1 Laptop Computer
This Mollepamba Montessori Schools now accommodates 18 Saraguros Indian children. In 2011 they added a small computer room off of the old classroom building and just recently in 2012 a kitchen facility. The kitchen was in need of a refrigerator to keep the food safe and also allowed the student the opportunity to bring their lunches from home. The school now has two teachers and two classroom buildings. ACF was able to provide them with the new refrigerator and a voltage regulator that the school needed in their computer room to regulate the inconsistent electrical source they receive from down in the valley. ACF has been told that internet service will be provide soon by the government, but if not by our 2014 trip, we plan on providing it through a local service provider, VilcaNet.