Youth Home

Backpack Project

Nearly 75% of Nicaragua's population lives in poverty. When tied to the level of education, a correlation between economic well-being and education access emerges.

• Three out of ten children do not have access to education, a number which nearly doubles in extremely poor, rural areas.
• Less than one-third of children aged three to six years attend pre-school, and nearly one in four children aged seven to twelve years do not attend school.
• The average number of school years completed is 4.9 in urban areas and two in rural areas. Thirty-six percent of adolescents do not graduate from high school.
• Children in Nicaragua cannot attend school without a required uniform, something that many Nicaraguan families are unable to afford.
• School supplies are not provided. Many students stop attending school because they cannot afford a notebook or a pen.

 

How You Can Help

The Backpack Project is designed to provide children in Nicaragua with school supplies that will support their education. Several groups of Wisconsin students have adopted class projects in which they collect backpacks and supplies. Not only does this help Nicaraguan students, but it promotes cultural awareness at all age levels.

 

You can help improve the education of a student in Nicaragua simply by filling a backpack with school supplies and bringing it to the office or dropping it off at the warehouse. Suggested backpack supplies include notebooks, pens, pencils and sharpeners, erasers, scissors, folders, filler paper, binders, stickers, glue and gluesticks, crayons, markers and highlighters, watercolors, rulers, compasses, protractors, paper clips and rubber bands, and construction paper. Personalized cards can be inserted with your special gift.

 

To download a Personalized Card please CLICK HERE.

 

 

 

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Youth Scholarships

Making a Difference

Education is a real premium in Nicaragua. Only 28% of first graders eventually finish 6th grade, and they are considered literate. The median age of the country is 22 years. There are many youth especially the rural youth who would love to continue their education, but are financially unable. Giving a child an education is the one gift that cannot be taken away.

For the past 10 years Wisconsin/Nicaragua Partners has had an active scholarship program. There are many requests from the Nicaraguan youth for financial assistance, but the funds are difficult to obtain. One of the more successful programs is administered to the youth in Las Lagunas, Department of Boaco. This program has been active since 2002. Funds have been provided to youth for secondary, INATEC, and university education. Along with the funds the recipients must do approved Community Service activities to maintain their beca.

 

I am Ismara Diaz. I have been able to go to university with the help of W/NP. This program has been very important in my life because without the education that I have it wouldn’t be possible to help my country to progress.

 

Ana Yolexis Rizo- Without your help I would not be able to better myself. My economic situation has not been easy because I have not had parental support. My mother left me with my grandmother when I was small. Now I am taking advantage of the secondary opportunity and the monthly financial help to study.

 

My name is Yerling Diaz. I am grateful to W/NP for having helped me in my studies and today I am able to help my community with what I know. I am giving classes to adults who don’t know how to read. I do it for free thinking that my community is moving forward.

 

 

 

The attached forms ( in English and Spanish) have been designed for initial application as a result of the Las Lagunas Scholarship Program. These forms are available to those wishing to seek approved funding through W/NP.

 

Form A - Scholarships Initiated In Wisconsin

Form B - Las Becasiniciadasen WI

Form C - Beca Secundaria

Form D - Informedelmes

Form E - WNP Grant - English

Form F - WNP Grant - Spanish

Form G - Scholarship - Post Secondary

Form H - Soliditude Beca Continuando

Form I - Beca Secundaria Las Lagunas

Partner City Scholarship Program

 

 

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Sports Project

 

Sport Initiative Update (Click to download PDF) - by Moises Guillen, W/NP Sports Coordinator, Managua, Nicaragua

 

Baseball

Prior to working with sports as a model for youth leadership and community development, the Wisconsin Nicaragua Partners chapter (W/NP) worked throughout Wisconsin and Nicaragua in various programs focusing mainly on supporting adults. Including sports programs in W/NP’s repertoire has allowed youth to discover a unique outlet for developing leadership skills, and has allowed our organization to collaborate with other programs and people with similar interests.

 

When approached by POA with the opportunity for our chapter to participate in the Baseball Program, it was met with some question because we had minimal youth sports programs in existence. Recently the topic was brought up, “How does your chapter decide which projects to pursue?” The Baseball Program proved to be a classic example of knowing when to move forward when the vital components are present: funding, interested professionals/volunteers willing to invest time and effort, and of course a reciprocal need & desire with the partnering chapter.

 

 

When identifying participants for the initial Baseball program, our committee knew we wanted to bring individuals who would support boy’s baseball and girl’s softball in their community. The participants selected for the Baseball Program exchange observed boys and girls programs at the youth, adult, minor league, and major league levels. Incorporating youth sports into their community was fairly new for some of those in Nicaragua for various reasons, mainly economic, but one participant in particular utilized the learning opportunity to the ultimate extreme and has turned her community, once lacking any girls softball, into a strong, supportive, softball town. This is one of many examples of how the W/NP Sports Initiatives program was able to bring about important changes in communities for youth and adults.

 

WNP has had a unique collaboration between multiple programs, including the Youth Ambassador Program, the Baseball Sports initiatives and the internal organizational growth and development component of our chapter. Several of our Youth Ambassadors have coordinated and provided home-stays, translation at exchange workshops, organization of teams, distribution of equipment, and much more. Two of our most valuable volunteers who recently engineered the Sherin Rose Memorial Building renovation project, were the direct result of involvement in the Baseball Exchange workshops. In addition, several other individuals from the Nicaraguan Baseball workshops now volunteer their time to other W/NP projects in Nicaragua. Attending the Baseball workshops provided these individuals with their first taste of WNP, and now they have provided many hours of volunteer labor toward other projects as well.

 

 

Through donations from our members, old and new, we have secured a position online (www.globalgiving.com) where anyone around the world can learn about our programs and support them financially. We have already had a number of youth travel to Wisconsin to educate high school age students about the organization and it’s opportunities for both cultures. Especially appealing to this age group, has been the realization they share a love and respect for sports with their counterparts in Nicaragua. Although, a geographical distance is between them, the sports appeal has become their common denominator. Through programs of this kind, we will continue to support cultural exchanges for coaches and seek additional opportunities for girls to participate in sports.

 

 

Without a doubt, the initial POA Baseball program was the catalyst for a flurry of continuous youth sports activity that is continuously improving the infrastructure of youth sports like we never could have imagined. Thank you for this opportunity that is changing not only individuals, but whole communities.

 

 

Contact W/NP if you are interested in doing a "sports equipment" drive in your school or community - or if you have sports equipment you would like to see go to Nicaragua. Several sports related projects are in the works, one of them pictured below: Jordan (UWSP Baseball Team) met up with Pedro in Nicaragua and noticed his "Stevens Point" hat - imagine that! Now Jordan has joined W/NP efforts and will be organizing a sports drive at UWSP. Welcome Jordan!

 

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Youth Ambassadors

 

CLICK HERE to see directly how Youth can be involved from another one of the remarkable Youth Ambassadors, Madeley Arriola.

 

 

2nd World Youth Summit on Volunteerism – Barranquilla, Colombia - November 2011

Why do we need a network of correspondents for the event?

The World Summit is for youth from all over the world. In order to reach everyone most efficiently with greatest impact, it’s important to involve youth.  This event is a good opportunity for people who want to know a little more about the world around them and about other youth volunteers like them.

 

CLICK HERE for details and why in Spanish and English.

 

At the age of 15, Lilliam Perez came to Wisconsin with the Partners of the Americas Youth Ambassador program in 2008.  Since that time, she has been remarkable in taking what she learned to the next level.   Recently, Lilliam developed a project to improve the educational opportunities for underserved children near Chinandega, Nicaragua.   Working with schools and students in both Wisconsin and in Nicaragua, she has organized fund raising events, coordinated raffles, and now with her peers, is offering English classes – all methods to raise awareness and resources needed for the projects.

 

CLICK HERE for an impressive power point presentation about volunteerism, created by Lilliam and shared with the local Lion Club in Managua.