Ngobe-Bugle Schools

Ngobe-Bugle Area, Chiriqui Province, Panama

Building Schools in the Mountainous Jungles

Most of the indigenous families of the Ngobe-Bugle tribes of Panama live in the mountainous jungles, far from any services and isolated from the rest of Panamanian society. The majority of them subsist as farmers and are extremely poor. But such circumstances have not stopped these noble people from seeking educational opportunities and moral and spiritual development for their children. To construct schools, they carried cement on their backs to their mountaintop villages. For years, Ngobe volunteers taught in these remote village schools until they were consolidated into the larger one at Molejon.

Mona Foundation continues to support the children at Molejon and helped them build a new kindergarten in the town of Soloy. The Ngobe people plan to add one class each year, until there is a complete school through high school there.

A visitor who accompanied one of Mona Foundation’s trips to this area was struck by the truly grassroots nature of the project. She marveled at how much has been accomplished; all initiated and carried out by the Ngobe themselves. “It shows the nobility and capacity of the people,” she said. “When we spoke with the chief, he was collected, calm and dignified. The Ngobe know what they want. They’re decisive and have a vision for their future. What we provide is support for that vision. People are smart everywhere. If they’re poor or illiterate, that doesn’t mean that they don’t have capacity or don’t know what to do.”

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