Visiting San Francisco de Asis, March 2013. We've recently begun a scholarship program here to enable students to carry on to high school.

 Building a Preschool for Miravalle!

The Nicaragua Children’s Foundation is pleased to announce that on May 10, construction will begin on a preschool in the small town of Miravalle, Nicaragua! Chad and Cassie Phillips, with the help of others in their hometown of Camrose, Alberta, have raised over ten thousand dollars, which will be enough to build Miravalle’s first preschool. Chad and Cassie have been on several trips to San Juan del Sur, and spent some of their time there helping to repair the Ojochal preschool’s roof. Chad and Cassie will be travelling to Nicaragua to help with the preschool’s construction on May 10. Miravalle is a small rural town outside of San Juan del Sur. Currently, Miravalle has one (very small) elementary school and no preschool—the people of Miravalle are very much looking forward to this new addition to their community. Thank you, Chad, Cassie, and the residents of Camrose, Alberta! The Nicaragua Children’s Foundation will continue to provide updates as this project goes forward (please look in the “Projects” tab for the latest news on Miravalle’s preschool).

 Kindness in Action comes to Nicaragua

KIA is a group of dedicated and caring dentists and dental hygienists from Alberta, Canada, led by Amil Shapka. A total of more than 40 people showed up to help out the people of our projects in March 2013. They worked very hard, under adverse conditions, doing fillings, cleanings and extractions for both adults and children. We are very grateful that they were able to find the time to come to Nicaragua and to work with our foundation and hope they'll consider coming back one day! 

 Pictured here are some of the women from our Ojochal microloan project at the Turning on the Lights celebration.

Celebration of the electricity project, October 26, 2012

It took a very long time, but with the help of the Mayor of SJDS, we finally managed to get electricity into Ojochal. We've put a few photos of the event on the page marked "Ojochal" under the Events tab.

We recently had two volunteers from Seattle who spent some time working out in Ojochal and Miravalle. Here's what they had to say about their experience there: 

Our experience with the Nicaraguan Children’s Foundation was exceptional. Four words came to mind afterwards: Do Good. Feel Good. The work you’ve done in that area is astounding. Although we didn’t have an opportunity to see the school in the town, we met a man at Pali who worked with the Special Needs school and felt like we were a part of the organization. Oliver, Martin, Percy, the driver, and especially Veronica were the height of professionalism with a huge helping of compassion. Once we connected with Veronica we knew our dream was going to come true. Not only did she direct our mission and guide us in what to buy for these two families, but she gave us Spanish lessons all along the way! The whole experience was amazing and I highly recommend that anyone who is remotely considering either a trip to Nicaragua or doing some good in the world, hook up with the Nicaraguan Children’s Foundation for direction on how their benevolence can be put to the best use.

Eliza and I are committed to doing this again but with a group of people next time. Thank you for letting our dream merge with your dream.

By Kim Hornsby, Seattle WA