Rural Casa Barrancas Community Center
Community members gather in front of Casa Barrancas.
The new Casa Comunitaria Barrancas (Casa Barrancas Community Center) is the focal point of the Foundation’s programs in rural education and sustainable livelihood.
Previously an abandoned government school, the building is now owned by a Foundation board member. The Casa Barrancas Community Center is located at the foot of a narrow river valley conveniently close to the single road passing through this rural area. This newly-refurbished facility hosts a state-supported library with daily tutoring, and a small computer center. Weekly classes in dance, theatre and ceramics are offered in collaboration with the Fundación Centro Cultural San Juan, a youth center located in a nearby town. The Community Center also serves as a common meeting area, a much-used storage space for campesinos transporting goods to and from town, and the site for periodic medical campaigns and public health presentations. We sponsor cultural events, theatrical presentations, carpentry, and other training workshops.
The Community Center opened in March, 2006 with an inaugural celebration that included cultural, health, and educational activities. The State of Sucre’s Children’s Foundation (Fundación del Niño) sent two dentists who attended to 70 local children in their mobile dental trailer. Foundation gynecologist Dr. Del Valle Smith and family practitioner Dr. Silvia Quijada offered more than 100 medical consultations to adults and children. Dr. Rodolfo Carballo and his assistant performed more than 30 tuberculosis tests and respiratory evaluations. Fundación Centro Cultural San Juan offered ceramic, puppet, art, and origami workshops. Kids on huge stilts, educational theater, food, song and dance made this a festive event. For pictures, please click here.
Primary school students attend a ceramics workshop. Some of the clay is harvested from riverside deposits right in our valley.
Training workshops are offered for the teachers of the valley's remote elementary school.
The Community Center offers popular classes in dance and theatre for adolescents, with public presentations given several times a year.
These rural students have access to computers for the first time in their lives.
