Every year Nordic Barista Cup collects money for a charitable cause. This year it will be the Santa Maria in Nicaragua. Nicaragua is also the country in focus for Nordic Barista Cup 2007.
The Santa Maria School Center is located in the northern Jinotega region, in the Pueblo Nuevo. The Jinotega region has the biggest production of coffee in Nicaragua. Two coops with links to the Santa Maria are very professional and have a great track record of producing quality coffee which includes: Fair Trade Coffee, Organic Coffee, Cup of Excellence Coffee and Specialty Coffee (at least 80 points in cupping).
The Santa Maria school in Pueblo Nuevo is basically two buildings with three rooms each – a total of six rooms. In spite of the limited space the school serves about 1,200 children.
The teaching is divided into five different times (morning service, afternoon service, Saturday service, Sunday service and distance service). All this is done only by 8 teachers total.
The new building is for High School, 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. Before the children were taught in the wooden roof without walls that is in the picture below.
The new building at Santa Maria school
The old building at Santa Maria high school
Even though the school has new buildings, there is need for a lot of things. At the moment there is no single computer – not even for the school director. And library material (books for consultation) and computers that could be used for multimedia research as well.