On March 1st, a new school year kicked off in Panama. Typically, we would have traveled to Panama in late February for a large scholarship ceremony with our students, their families, and our Panama-based volunteers, during which we would distribute the first installment of the scholarship money for the year. Each year this ceremony grows and in recent years we’ve reached more than 100 attendees. This is my favorite moment of the year with Few for Change, where we get to meet our new students, catch up with all of our existing students (and see whether they’ve grown a foot!), and spend quality time with our Junta Directiva (Advisory Board) in Panama, either during meetings or over meals in their homes.
Few for Change students during the 2020 scholarship ceremony.
So far, 2021 has been drastically different. From our bedroom offices, we wired money for the first scholarship payment to a local bank in Panama, where our Junta Directiva members picked it up. Instead of the large ceremony, they hosted small, regional, socially-distanced scholarship ceremonies. This year, there were no new students, as Few for Change chose to focus on helping those students currently enrolled in the program succeed in this difficult environment.
Few for Change students, families and Junta Directiva members during the 2021 scholarship ceremony in Quebrada Guabo.
I think a lot of us are reflecting on this year versus last year at the moment. For Few for Change, as for a lot of the world, 2020 was a difficult year, but the challenges were punctuated with positives. For our students, volunteers and their communities, 2020 was an incredibly tough year. While portions of the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé (the indigenous region where we work) remained relatively safe from COVID, other areas were hit hard. Panama still has not re-opened schools for in-person learning, so WhatsApp (a texting app) became the primary mode of completing school work and communicating with teachers. Students who don’t have access to a cell phone, cell phone signal, or electricity struggled to complete their school work at all.
Heading into the fall, in the middle of the pandemic, the region was hit by back to back record-breaking rains from the outer bands of Hurricanes Eta and Iota, causing landslides and destruction throughout the region. Many of our students who had been attending virtual school on cell phones lost cell signal and power, making it impossible for them to complete their work. Many of our students will have to repeat a year this year, and even more had to retake at least one class during their summer vacation.
The road between two of the communities where Few for Change works after Hurricane Eta.
Despite these terrible circumstances, 2020 was also a very positive year for Few for Change in many ways. We were fortunate enough to sneak in a final trip to Panama in February 2020, just weeks before the world shut down and international travel began to feel like a faraway fantasy. During this ceremony, we welcomed our largest class of scholarship recipients ever (49!). Our only two seniors succeeded in graduating high school despite attending school largely via WhatsApp. During our 2020-2021 fiscal year, we shattered our previous fundraising records with total donations of more than $33,000 from 115 donors. We had more volunteers in both Panama and the U.S. than ever before (check out our website, the list is growing!). And for the first time ever, we had trouble keeping track of what everyone was working on because we had so many projects happening simultaneously!
More than two years ago, we embarked on a journey to create a new logo after receiving feedback from a few people that our logo could easily be mistaken for a very colorful and artistic pair of boxer shorts (at least it was colorful and artistic!). We started by asking our students to draw what they thought most represented their Ngäbe culture. After a long design process with an amazing volunteer graphic designer (shout out to Katie Lamb, a relative of Vice President Ariadne Prior-Grosch, but no relation to Board Member Amy Lamb!) we finalized our new logo based on these drawings. Katie designed many, many versions of the new logo, and our Junta Directiva made the final decision on what they thought best represented Few for Change as an organization.
Old Few for Change logo
New Few for Change logo!
COVID forced us to figure out some not-so-fun logistical elements behind the scenes, such as switching banks and figuring out a way to wire money directly to our Junta Directiva members. I may have complained about this at the time (I can tell you my fiance got pretty tired of hearing about the woes of international wire transfers), but this has left us with a more sustainable banking structure for the future.
Perhaps most importantly, we shifted our way of thinking about our collaboration with our team in Panama; we now share decision-making and voting with the Junta Directiva in Panama to ensure that all of our planning considers the needs of the communities where we work as our top priority. Check out Co-Founder Brook Winner’s blog post for more details on the process of decolonizing Few for Change. Under the direction of the Junta Directiva and working within our new structure, we created the Community Resilience Fund which will be utilized by our Junta Directiva to support our students in whichever ways they see fit.
Moving into the 2021 school year, we will continue to navigate uncertain territory. This is our first year ever with no new scholarships, which should allow us to focus support on our current students. Our students will likely have to continue to contend with virtual learning for at least the first half of 2021, and a number of our students will have to repeat a year. Vaccine distribution got off to a slow start in Panama, but has picked up rapidly in recent weeks, providing some hope that in-person school may not be that far away. Check out Few for Change intern Margaux Petruska’s recent blog post for more information on the current state of education access and vaccine distribution in Panama.
We are so impressed by our students who have continued studying throughout all of this, from virtual school to COVID restrictions to multiple hurricanes. We are hopeful for 2021, and are excited and humbled to continue on this journey with our Junta Directiva in Panama. As the President of Few for Change, I am so proud of our ever-growing Few for Change community: our students, our volunteers in Panama and the U.S., and our donors who make this all possible. We continue to prove each year that a few people, working together, really can create change in the world.
Few for Change Junta Directiva members Rogelio Montezuma, Doris Gallardo, Ramón Pineda and Vianca Gallardo in Hato Ratón for the 2021 scholarship ceremony (Not Pictured: Agripina Sandoya).
