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 to donate through Razoo. For donations made through Razoo 100% of your donation will go to Empowerment International, with no transaction fee deducted. (And good news for those who didn't like having to make a login for Razoo - We passed on this feedback and they have now changed this.) SPONSOR 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! Receive daily updates from the staff by becoming a fan of our page. COMMENTS/QUESTIONS? Please email us.  These photos were taken by Kathy Adams. You can view more of her photos here. This newsletter was created by volunteers Jamie McCaughey and Emma Hill.  |
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September 2009 Newsletter
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Empowered and Empowering:
The EI staff in Nicaragua
The goal of EI has always been to transfer "ownership" of
the program to the local community, and the first step towards this goal has
been to develop a professional, educated, empowered, passionate, hard-working
and respected team of local Nicaraguan staff. Building this team is a goal that we feel has been well and
truly achieved: The EI program has been going from strength to strength
recently, and this is in large part due to the incredible local staff.
The full-time program staff members in Nicaragua are Anielka (Program Director) and Carla (Program Assistant). They're assisted by Margarita (Program Graduate and
University Intern) and Hildebrando (Enrichment Activities Coach). This talented
group runs all the home visits with the families, supervises the teen
tutoring sessions, works with the families to resolve problems, runs enrichment
activities, and a host of other duties.
Take a walk through the barrio with any of them and it is clear they're
extremely well-liked and respected in the community.
The team is also extraordinarily resourceful, adaptable, and
determined. Regardless of what the
weather (and mud) throws at them, the team keeps smiling (and believe us, these
are BIG, beautiful smiles).
Despite the overall success of the program, some days can be tough -
parents decide they want to put a child who is doing well in school to work on
the streets, people get sick, the poverty gets overwhelming at times - but
despite this the team remains determined, passionate, and willing to do
"whatever it takes" to make things work. As an example ...
Santa Ana is the
isolated rural community that EI serves.
It lies ~10 km from the EI office, served only by an unmaintained and
often impassable dirt "road." EI
had a 4wd truck to get there, but it recently broke down and limited funds
meant that it couldn't be fixed.
When the truck broke we were worried that EI wouldn't be able to
continue their home visits to the families there, which are vital to keeping
the kids in school. However, never fear - the staff decided that rather than let the children suffer, they'd get there on bikes! It's a 3-hour
round trip over very rough terrain, and Anielka specially learned to ride a
bike to get there, such is her level of commitment to the success of this program! We hope you enjoy the movie!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1dp7o6KSvQ
Here are some photos of the staff:
Anielka
Carla
Margarita
Hildebrando
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Daily updates from the barrio
We are so grateful for the support and encouragement
provided by our family of donors, supporters, volunteers, and fans. Thank you for being a part of this
incredible community - it really does help keep us going when times are
tough!
If you'd like to be involved in our community on a more daily basis, one way
is to become a fan of our Facebook page (and you can also view the page from
this link even if you don't have a Facebook account). Almost daily, the Nicaragua program staff are posting
updates there about how things are going; whether they're feeling happy,
frustrated, or sad; funny things that have happened; big successes, small
successes. Most of all, we'd love
for you to comment on the staff posts, or leave them a little thumbs up - it
really does make a difference to the team knowing that so many people are on
their side.
In case you're missed them, here are a few samples from the page:
Anielka: Finally! After four
long years in first grade, Jose Marcial learned to read in our tutoring
program. This makes me feel so happy and proud of the program, especially
because now he has a smile from ear to ear when he reads a paragraph and we
applaud or congratulate him. It is very touching when he tells me, "I'm so
happy that I finally learned to read." It inspires us all to keep
striving!!!!!
Kathy: I am so excited. One of
the girls that is 8 years old who dropped out of school (thanks to her mother)
came to the tutoring on her own today and sat through 1 hour of math! Seems
there is a chance she will return to school. I love the affects of positive
peer pressure!
Margarita: Not all is
rose-colored in life. Last week everything was happy and fun at EI, with
piņatas, Andrew filming, and games with the children. But this week was very
sad for EI. The father of one of our students died and he is very sad. A
teenage girl in our program is sick, and her mother still does not know the
value of education and wants to take her out of school.
Kathy: Just got a call that
Carla and Hildebrando broke down (in the truck) in Santa Ana. The bikes
definitely are more reliable. Argh.
Anielka: Starting the week with
all the kids that come to tutoring in the office!!!!
Carla: I went to Santa Ana this
afternoon with Margarita and we came back in heavy rain - we were a little
afraid because the 4WD is not working well on the truck and there was very
little visibility on the road. But we were happy that it was rain and not heat!
Kathy: The parent meeting was
fantastic this afternoon! It is amazing how many show up! And we get them all
to participate now. There is wisdom in our barrio. No doubt about it.
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Matched donation campaign
Have you heard about our matched donation campaign? A generous donor has offered to double all donations made to EI before October 1st ... there's still time to have double the impact with your donation!! To make donations, please visit our campaign page on Razoo. And a big THANK YOU to everyone who has already donated - it makes such a difference!
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