Seven hundred and fifty schools from the “Mailing” line of the Sembrador Program for rural schools all over the country have so far received the donation of school kits for pre-school and primary levels. This includes sports equipment and toys which the Bunge y Born Foundation and the Perez Companc send out together every year.
This year saw the welcome addition of an “encyclopedic dictionary” and two encyclopedias, one on the human body and another one on the universe. New board games were also included for classroom activities. “Bleff” is about learning new words, while the jigsaw puzzles will help children to improve their perceptive reasoning and visual analysis capabilities, as well as stimulate their motor abilities, all of which enable children to develop in a balanced fashion. Furthermore, skipping ropes and rubber bands were sent to replace those sent last year, as well as footballs, volleyballs and nets, an air-pump and the ever-popular first aid kit.

As has become traditional, a new contest was announced with a view to further improving relations between teachers, pupils and parents through collective creativity. In this edition, the contest is about a “Responsible Community: a Manual of Environmental Practices” which aims to get pupils guided by their teachers and assisted by their parents to make a best practices manual to safeguard the environment, in particular in their locality.

In order to take part, each school may send one or more unpublished contributions to the headquarters of Bunge y Born until August 26, 2011. The first prize is a fun day out designed by Temaiken for all the pupils from the winning school.

The successful level of involvement during 2010 in the distance training courses for rural teachers means that this year new courses will be on offer in the areas of management, natural sciences, languages, math and nutrition. These are free and offered in supervisory areas to all teachers whether or not they are taking part in the Program. The courses are given through the Virtual Classroom from the Bunge y Born Foundation web and include one presential course day.

There is a toll-free number for schools to call the Bunge y Born Foundation on 0800-444-0437 which answers queries about the program from Monday to Friday from 9 am to 6 pm.

We want to continue to make ever more effective contributions to improve the educational quality of rural teaching. We ensure that with all these proposals we can generate a greater link with schools and a growing involvement of all of them in the program.