Education & food for 200 children in Nicaragua

The Phoenix project in Nicaragua set a goal in late 2010 to support secondary education in the communities in which we work, La Thompson and Chiriza. This goal has become a realization as we recently handed out six secondary scholarships; to two students in La Thompson and four students in Chiriza.

The scholarships offset the cost of public school uniforms, shoes, transport to school and the cost of school materials which proves prohibitive to many students in rural Nicaraguan communities preventing them from accessing education. Secondary education retention is alarmingly low in Nicaragua and we hope this initiative will help to improve the situation for students in these communities.

The scholarships will be awarded each semester if the students show consistent attendance, passing marks and bring report cards to be verified by project staff.

So far the scholarships have been viewed as a success given the feedback from the student’s parents as many of the children bought their school materials immediately after receiving the support.

Good luck to Karelia, Enma, Wendy, Joseph, Magdalena and Doribel in the upcoming semester!

Elsewhere on the project donations to the GVI Charitable Trust help to pay for the salaries of local teachers, transport to adult education classes, educational materials for the students, birthday celebrations, our teeth cleaning initiative and the all important feeding program.

Thank you to everyone who has supported our projects you really are making an incredible impact.

On September 30^th 2011 the sports program in Nicaragua was officially launched as 17 girls from our school in the community of Chiriza were transported to the football pitch in the community of Chiriza, where our other school is located.

12 girls were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the opposing team and soon after the whistle blew to signal the beginning of intra-school competitions between the two schools. The girls played their hearts out despite a lot of pushing and running through loads of mud. The teams played to a fitting 0-0 tie and the girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

The next match will take place at the end of October between the boys of each community and will become a regular part of the school year. The kids can enjoy this opportunity even more given they have earned a spot on the team through their attendance and behaviour in classes; another incentive program we have introduced.

We look forward to future matches between the schools.