For those of you who have been involved in the Juan Fortin computer lab or remember hearing about when we installed it with a SARF team last January (click here to read the article), we have some sad news.  This past week we had to “uninstall” it because of some political issues with the school.  The superintendent of the area asked Ivon, the school director, to have two computers.  We don’t know why he wanted them, but we know he didn’t have plans to put it into another school.  She refused because the computers and the lab were installed to serve the students, not be moved around for other purposes.  Ivon, who saw this coming, asked us a while back to draft up a contract between her and Servants in regards to the lab and its materials stating that it wasn’t a donation, but a loan from Servants to use.  We didn’t quite understand this until all of this began to transpire.

Taking the security cables off the computer equipment.

The way the laws work here in regards to ministries, is that if something is a donation, the possession turns over to whomever is in charge (in this case, the superintendent) and they can do whatever they wish with the materials.  If it is a loan and a contract is made, then it can only be used for what the contract states.  In the final weeks of November we were trying to find a way to keep the lab in the school.  For the past year, even though the school could not afford a computer teacher, our local missionary Jon had been teaching the teachers how to instruct the kids about the basics of computers and their programs.  He also installed typing programs to help the kids practice typing.  We were trying to find if we could help the superintendent by supplying 2 computers for his needs and thus keep all the computers in the school and help him with what he needed.  That is when we found out that Ivon got fired for not just giving him the computers.

As we investigated the issue more, we discovered that regardless of what we did on our end, there would be no computer lab in the school next year.  We discovered that by January 2nd, Ivon would be forced to hand over any keys to the school and what remained in the computer lab would be dispersed as the superintendent dictated.  We learned that his plan was to give the computers to the teachers of the school to take home for personal use because “they couldn’t afford a computer teacher.”  That left us with only one option: take all the stuff out and find somewhere else to put it.

Tabletops removed and ready to go!

Ivon, through her contacts as a school director, was instantly hired by another school just a few blocks away!  This school, we discovered, is not controlled by any governing body.  It was built by the municipality of Villa Nueva and just this past year they passed on all rights over to the school’s governing body (directors and teachers), so what happened in Juan Fortin cannot happen in this school.  A week after taking out the computers and disassembling the classroom, we went to the new proposed classroom for the computers.  It is the exact same size!  The custom made tables we made for Juan Fortin will fit right in the new lab.  We are thankful for God being all knowing and working everything to His great plan.

Our team coming down in January will be reinstalling the computer lab in this new school for the kids there.  Please pray for Juan Fortin school as it seems the kids will be subject to whatever happens as a result of this political power move.  Also pray for the continued protection of the equipment and the development of the computer lab in the new school (Tabloncito) as we move forward in trying to provide children with access to computer education which will help them greatly in the future.

Taking apart the table frames

We even got the security door!

The computers loaded up for transport.