In terms of improving the quality of education MINED has introduced a system of permanent training for teachers with monthly training workshops called TEPCEs as well as completely rewriting the national curriculum. The new curriculum, which was introduced in February this year, was created with reference to the conclusions of a national consultation process involving 17,500 individuals including teachers, pupils, parents and representatives of civil society organizations.

One of the fundamental aims of the new curriculum and the monthly teacher training sessions is to scrap the traditional copy and memorize method of teaching and replace it with a didactic and participatory method. In recognition of the profound reforms and palpable improvements in the public education system introduced during 2007 and 2008, MINED was awarded an Acknowledgment of Educational Excellence by the Organization of Educational Excellence for the Americas (ODAEE).

A new model of attention within the health system

In February this year Dr. Edmundo Sánchez, Director of the Health Ministry's (MINSA) Department for Public Health Monitoring, spoke to Tortilla con Sal about the implementation of a new model of health care in Nicaragua. This new doctrine, which MINSA refers to as the Community and Family Model of Health Care, requires the health authorities to provide communities with training and support with the aim of helping communities organize and inform themselves so that common health problems are understood and prevented.

As part of the this new model "doctors and nurses do not just sit behind their desks waiting for sick people to arrive, they go out into the community and talk to people about common health problems. ... There is much greater interaction [between community and health services]."

Sánchez is adamant that the ongoing implementation of this new health care doctrine has already permitted lives to be saved citing the experience surrounding an outbreak of respiratory syncytial virus in 2008. MINSA was able to communicate vital orientations about how to treat infants presenting symptoms of the virus via the different community organization networks it had already been working with.

In order to prevent potentially fatal secondary infections doctors were requested not to hospitalize infants with the virus. According to Sánchez, "an orientation as controversial as not hospitalizing a child that is having difficulty breathing would not have been accepted by the community if it had not been for the direct communication between the health authorities and the community."

Sánchez went on to cite the 65% reduction of cases of leptospirosis in October 2008 compared to October 2007 despite almost identical climatological and socio-economic conditions in the affected regions (Chinandega and Leon). According to Sánchez this dramatic reduction is proof that "the alliance between community and health services is already showing results."

In President Daniel Ortega's 2008 yearly report to the National Assembly other important figures were given which demonstrate the extent to which access to medical attention and medicines has increased. The number of medical consultations registered by MINSA in 2008 was over 50% higher than in 2006. Meanwhile, the number of prescriptions given out complete with the relevant medicines in 2008 was nearly 100% more than in 2006.   

Reversing water privatization, mitigating thirst

Ruth Selma Herrera, who is currently President of the State water company ENACAL, led the struggle against water privatization during former neo-liberal administrations from her position as Coordinator of the National Consumer Defence Network. As President of ENACAL she has overseen the process of re-nationalization of the administrative and other functions of the company which had been taken over by multinational companies.

Herrera, who spoke to Tortilla con Sal in February, describes how the former ENACAL directorate "deliberately abandoned the role the State is constitutionally obliged to play" in terms of guaranteeing access to water for the population. This institutional negligence was intended to make ENACAL so discredited among the population that full privatization would be considered the only option.

As part of this policy next to nothing was invested in the construction of new water systems or the maintenance of existing systems during the years previous to the FSLN electoral victory. As a result, over seventy different water systems around the country were out of order when Herrera was appointed in January 2007.

During 2007 ENACAL repaired all the systems which had been out of order. During 2008 ENACAL built 33 new water systems in different towns and cities around the country. The company has plans to build over 30 new systems during 2009. As a result of the different investments carried out by ENACAL since 2007 the percentage of the urban population with access to water had increased from 65% to 77% by December 2008.

For those of us whose lives involve constant personal interaction with impoverished Nicaraguan families improvements in basic services such as those mentioned above are an irrefutable part of our understanding of Nicaraguan reality. The FSLN's historically significant electoral victory in the recent municipal elections, therefore, came as no surprise.