ONWARD Page 2 March 2004

COLEGIO MORAVO NEWS

BLUEFIELDS, NICARAGUA

The 2003 school year for the Primary officially came to an end on Wednesday, November 26, 2003, as 136 students graduated from the sixth grade.

For the Secondary the end-of-school-year festivities began on Saturday, November 29^th with the annual alumni banquet. Ms. Sylvia Chang and Ms. Daphne Hooker, both members of the Class of 1940, were honored for their years of devoted service to our Alma Mater. The baccalaureate service was held the following day, Sunday, November 30^th. Rev. Adrian Babb delivered the sermon. On Tuesday, December 2, 2003, 67 students received their diplomas. The speaker for the graduation ceremony was Fermin Pineda, MS Class of 1982. He is the Director of Corporación Externa in the office of the vice-president (of the Republic) and also the Consejo Nicaragüense de Ciencia y Tecnoligía.

The Class of 2003 was the first class to have had in its midst a unique graduate, a fourth generation alumnus in the person of Derrick Hooker. His great grandfather was the Hon. Waldo Wyman Hooker, who attended the colegio, as well as his great grand aunts, Alva Hooker ‘27, Ora Taylor ’35, great grand uncles Gene Taylor, Class of ’44, and Derrick Taylor, Class of ’49, grandfather Ray Hooker, Class of ’56, and father Dexter Hooker, Class of ’73, are all alumni of the Colegio Moravo.

At the alumni banquet, the Director, Rev. Allan Budier, delivered his yearly report. He mentioned that three alumni, members of the Class of 2002, will continue their higher education in the U.S.A. They are: Marlon Clair who will attend the University of the Ozarks, Clarksville, Arkansas; Mark Budier and Yaribeth Pacheco, both of whom will attend John Brown University, Siloam Springs, Arkansas, all on full four year scholarships. We congratulate them for their success.

We also congratulate Prof. Faran Dometz, ’70, who on Dec. 15, 2003, in Managua, was elected vice-president of the National Council of Universities. He serves as rector of the Bluefields Indian and Caribean University. He is former director of the Colegio, and Superintendent of the Moravian Church in Nicaragua. He is the 1^st Alumnus and Costeño to achieve this post.

STAR MOUNTAIN VISIT

This year’s working visit to the rehabilitation center on Star Mountain near Ramallah involved myself, Br. F. Walch, Sr. D. Weller, and Br. M. Stöckermann. Sr. Weller was mainly involved in matters relating to public relations and fundraising, and Br. Stöckermann in the preparation of a visit of the Moravian Youth group, which is planned from March 2^nd to 16^th, 2004.

The situation in the country: In comparison to our last visit in October 2002, there were no signs of improvement or easing of tension. On December 1^st a new alternative peace plan was signed. This plan is intended to create an independent Palestinian state consisting of the Gaza Strip and 98% of the West Bank. At the same time, the Palestinians gave up the areas that have been part of the national territory of Israel since 1948. However, neither the Israeli nor the Palestinian side believe that these new attempts to create peace will work. On the same day of the signing of this plan, the city of Ramallah was blocked off by the Israeli Army, and five Palestinian people were killed during a raid. In addition to that, two buildings that were supposed to be occupied by supporters of the Fatah movement, were blown up. There is still a tight net of military checkpoints in the entire West Bank, which limits the freedom of movement of the residents. Despite the protests of the general public, a construction of the so-called security wall continues. We were eyewitnesses of this behind the Mount of Olives, nearby the biblical Bethany. The wall is ten meters high and is not erected near the border between the Israeli territory and the West Bank, as one might assume, but rather passes through occupied territories and blocks off the Palestinian residential areas from the Israeli settlements, which were erected illegally. In the future, this wall will cut off thousands of residents from their relatives, their workplaces, their schools or their land. People still try to move to the other side before the wall is closed. However they succeed only very rarely. In the north of the country the construction is almost complete. In the discussions we had with the staff of the center at Star Mountain, we could notice that the resignation and hopelessness regarding a possible improvement of the situation in the near future had even increased in comparison to last year.

Current work situation on Star Mountain: Despite the difficult overall situation, the work with disabled children and youth on Star Mountain goes on wherever possible. There are three main departments: School, Vocational Training and Community Based Rehabilitation program. Behan Kimary, who was heading the first two departments, left the center last summer for further studies in England; her position has been taken over by two other staff members: Suha Nazal for the School, and Abeer Sami for the Vocational Training. Leilah Toma Siade is in charge of Community Based Rehabilitation. The Director is Rawda Marouf-Khouriya with Volker Bach from Frankfurt being the assistant director. In the past few months a new playground has been constructed; the second phase is to fix rubber mats to protect the kids when falling down. Bread for the World and the World Day of Prayer supplied funds to extend the existing vocational training center. Very soon a class of disabled young women will be started. They will obtain training in embroidery and handicraft. (Br. Frieder Vollprecht)