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Empowerment International is growing up!
Successful year after successful year, Empowerment International has been giving kids new hope for their future through education. Many of our children are now going well past the ages when most kids in their communities drop out of school. For the first time ever, in the community of Villa de Esperanza, we have a large group of teenagers *in* school!
As anyone who has parented or worked with teenagers knows, one of the most important things for them is that they have positive ways to focus their energy. We help provide some positive things such as privileges that are the reward of doing first things first - being successful in school. Empowerment International has long developed retention programs to keep the older kids engaged, such as the photography and tutoring programs.
Now, the newest addition is the cycling club, which could not have happened without the generous bike donations from the riders on our Empowerment Challenge who left us their bikes! Not only are we keeping kids healthy, but teaching them to work as a team and work toward goals. We'll write more about the club in the next newsletter, including the experiences of the girls learning to cycle and maintain the bikes for the first time. For now, we'll focus on something new for these kids - the chance to learn key life skills and build confidence and a positive attitude as student-athletes.
Some of the more advanced cyclists, kids in the Empowerment International program, are now training and competing in races under the coaching of local volunteer Luis Antonio Campos Cubillo. Not only do the kids know that they need to stay successful in school to have the privilege of bike racing but when exams are happening they choose to study over training. They have their priorities in the proper order!. Over the years, these kids have gone from being at-risk for dropout to becoming proud student-athletes! Luis himself is a champion Nicaraguan cyclist and enjoys working with the kids (and he works them hard!).
Here, coach Luis leads a group of some of EI's competitive cyclists:
And the kids also share their knowledge. Here, Melki is teaching some of the girls how to maintain the bikes and do simple repairs. This is a very big deal for them, as these girls have not ever had such an experience of learning to care for and fix mechanical things.
These kids continue to work hard in school and have positive experiences that promote teamwork and responsibility. They are growing up well. In the next newsletter, we'll write more about the bike club - from girls who are learning to ride a bike for the first time (including Margarita, our soon to be first University graduate), to the new sense of teamwork,ownership, and pride that the kids have.
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