Educate a child;
Give hope to the world.
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DONATE To support the great work of Empowerment International, please consider making a donation (click here) or, to learn more about the organization and how to sponsor a child, click here. FORWARD TO A FRIEND Know someone who may be interested? Click here to forward to a friend. SUBSCRIBE Were you forwarded this email? If you would like to subscribe to the mailing list, please click here. FACEBOOK Find us on Facebook! Please consider becoming a fan of our page, or joining our cause. VIDEO Timothy Ryan, a recent visitor to the barrio, has made a video with some of the stunning photos he took on his trip. Timothy commented "Villa Esperanza made a big impact on me ... it is still with me." You can view Timothy's video by clicking this link. COMMENTS/QUESTIONS? Please email us.  These photos were taken by Kathy Adams. You can view more of her photos here. 
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"A little nervous, but then proud"
Mi Camera, Mi Mundo exhibit in San Juan del Sur
In late December, eight students from the EI photography program took part in an exclusive gallery exhibit, Mi Camera, Mi Mundo (My Camera, My World), at the Galeria del Sur in San Juan del Sur, an art gallery in a popular tourist town located on the pacific coast of Nicaragua. In the grand opening event, the children showed their photos to adults and art lovers, explaining what they saw in the photos as well as all they had learned about the art of photography. EI's photography program is a supplemental enrichment program, designed to motivate children to persist in their education by rewarding students who have excellent attendance and effort. It offers them opportunities to learn a new skill, interact with peers and adults in a new way, and travel to places they have never been before. For example, all but one child had never seen the ocean before and they marveled at its beauty and vastness.
Their experiences from the exhibition:
"I was a little nervous before the exhibition, but once it started and I was just talking to people about my photos, it was great."
"This was the first time I had ever created something and then showed it to lots of other people, I felt very proud."
"People were talking with me about my photos and what I had learned about light, angles, and so on. And for the first time I realized that I have potential to succeed."
The parents that accompanied their children shared their children's feelings:
"I too was a little nervous before the exhibition, but once I saw my son showing his photos to other people, I just felt so proud."
"I felt so proud for my daughter; I am so thankful to Empowerment International for providing her this incredible opportunity."
Many photos were sold at the exhibition, raising funds to support Empowerment International's work. You can view photos from the exhibition and purchase your favorites here. Five percent of the proceeds go to the young artist in a savings account in their name to fund their further education. The remainder is invested back into the photography program.
Over the coming months we'll be bringing you more perspectives on the exhibition and on the photography program... stay tuned!
The photos in this article are courtesy of Dan Polley. You can view more of his photos from the exhibition here.
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First Impressions of Villa Esperanza
After many months of hard work and dedication, Neha Singh is handing over the reins of the newsletter so that she can focus more on studying for her MBA. She will continue her excellent work on the website and hopes to visit Nicaragua soon. We (Jamie and Emma) are taking over the newsletter and are happy to do so.
We visited Granada last month and were moved by touring the barrio and meeting the children and their families. The city changes slowly, bit by bit, as you walk out from the center toward the edge. On the surface, colonial buildings give way to more modern but good concrete homes; then solid wood and metal homes; then salvaged wood and scrap metal homes; and finally homes made of the most basic materials. By the time we reached the edge of town, we watched a beautiful sunset in a field behind a house made of sticks and plastic sheets.
Despite the decreasing material wealth the farther we went, our feelings were not of sorrow or despair but of hope and promise. The spirit of the people and the sense of community were moving and powerful. We spoke with a young boy who, with raw sewage flowing down the street alongside his bare feet, told us that his favorite class was math and that he wanted to be an engineer. We met a father of a child in the program who, as he was telling us his very insightful ideas for keeping teenagers engaged in school, carefully tied the shoelaces of his young daughter's Mickey Mouse doll to her delight. We met teenaged girls who were engaged in school and had grown from that commitment who hoped to help others stay engaged as well.
And as we crossed the transition into houses made mostly of salvaged scrap materials, three sentinels appeared:
The parents care deeply for the children and the community cares deeply that the children attend and succeed in school. It was clear to us that the community-based approach of Empowerment International was building success with success; as more children went to school, more people placed more value on schooling. We met people who were empowered, who had a sense of hope grounded in confidence in their own self-worth and in their own abilities to improve their situation, and who worked in the present while looking to the future. All of this has been achieved not with a top-down injection of masses of money but by a bottom-up approach that helps people find in themselves the ability to make things better. We left the barrio feeling young.
Jamie McCaughey and Emma Hill
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