RSFLA Projects

The Peter Oakley Trust

Peter Oakley was a great friend of the Reading-San Francisco Libre Association who provided invaluable advice. Sadly Peter died in 2001, and in his memory, the Peter Oakley Trust was formed.

The Trust helps children in San Francisco Libre to attend school by paying their mothers a monthly allowance to cover a range of things including school fees, uniforms and transport costs. Alina Briceño acting on behalf of the Reading San Francisco Libre Association has recently picked four more students to be recipients of support under the Peter Oakley Trust – this brings the total number of young Nicaraguans within the scheme to twelve.

Jeyserd Torrez Martinez's Carpentry Workshop

Jeyserd arrived in Reading a in July 2002, to take up a generous offer by Reading College of a scholarship to study Carpentry. Further assistance was provided by the local Parish of St James and St William of York, who raised funds for him, and arranged Jeyserd’s accommodation while he was here.

Jeyserd and his guitar were regularly seen at RSFLA events during his year in Reading - he also entertained festival-goers at WOMAD 2002 with his Nicaraguan songs.

He returned to Nicaragua last July, and the RSFLA is now helping him establish a small Carpentry Workshop in some units of San Francisco Libre’s old market. He will start by producing simple furniture to meet the needs of his community, then offer door and window frames for new houses that NGOs are building in the area.