The Sihua Primary School project began when community leaders approached the Alma Foundation looking for help. The community’s primary school, I.E. #50743, only had 4 of 6 grades due to the lack of teachers, forcing the fifth and sixth graders to walk kilometers to other communities in order to continue studying. Though the school has 86 students, more than enough to warrant one teacher per grade, the community’s hard to reach location and extreme poverty leave it without sufficient budget to contract more than one.
The Alma Foundation, working together with the local Municipality of Coya and the Ministry of Education, has set the two year goal of implementing full primary school in the community of Sihua. Four additional teachers were contracted this year to launch fifth grade and one more teacher will be contracted in 2013 to reach sixth grade. 
Sihua’s Parents’ Association chose the teachers best suited to work with their children, and are the principal voice in monitoring teacher/student progress.