School Name: Gonzalo Abad Grijalva
Location: Along the Rio Piscobamba (River) in Malacatos Valley
Tumianuma is a very small but robust village along the river. Only three family names make up the some 150 inhabitants, so most everyone is related in one way or other. The school has 43 students and 3 teachers and 1 administrator. This school
is in much need of assistance. Even though it is in the Vilcabamba school district, it is on the other side of the Mandango Mountain, some 40 Kilometers from Vilcabamba. Therefore it is, as one local resident calls it, The Forgotten School.
When we were there in April of 2011, roof repair was the most immediate need. Children would have to each have an umbrella they can use in the classroom when it rains. There are no permanent walls in this school house which has three dividers
separating the three classrooms. They have never had internet service. They are constructing a computer room in anticipation of getting some more computers in the future and internet service. Recently, ACF was informed that the school received
funding from the government to repair the roof and place dividers in the long open room that is their school, after much pleading with government officials and ACF affiliates in Vilcabamba area.
Our February 2013 Mission Trip brought us back to this school which has soon some vast improvements due to the great administrator who has been able to get both the government and the local residents to improve the facilities at the school by
adding new bathroom, a new kitchen facility which had been lost to a fire and new walls between classroom. Their reward from ACF for such great improvements was a new video projector. We were treated to a demonstration of the new equipment as
well as the singing of all the verses to the Ecuadoran National Anthem and a cute dance routine by several of the girl students.
Equipment and Supplies Provided by the ACF:
- 1 Computer with Monitor, keyboard & mouse
- 1 Repaired ACF Computer from another school receiving a new computer.
- A Digital Video Projector
- 2 Laptop Computers