The catch phrase on the tip of everyone's tongue is quite simply, "It's for the kids."

As in Guatemala, the idea of Quetzaltrekkers in Nicaragua is to support low income and at-risk youth. When we arrived in León we decided not to set up a project ourselves but to look for an existing one for which to raise money. We found many organisations helping children, and after talking to some of the women at Las Tias we decided that this would be a good place to direct the profits.

As time moved on and profits increased, we realised that we could take on other projects. In 2009, we worked with a day care centre on the outskirts of León called Los Ositos to build them a new set of classrooms. More recently, in 2011 and 2012 we have increased our funding to include two new projects in Leon: Los Bariletes and Las Chavaladas. Please read more about Las Tias and our new projects below.

Las Tias

Association Las Tias (The Aunties) is an independent non profit organisation set up by a group of merchant women in León. The organisation started in 1989, focusing on children with drug problems, such as glue sniffing. But, seeing the needs of children who were at a high risk of getting into drug taking, they extended their focus to younger ages to prevent others falling into the same habits. To give the children better attention, Las Tias was divided into two programs for different age groups.

The first is a Preventative Program for children from 6 to 14 years that directly helps 100 child workers from a local market and indirectly helps 500 children, offering them support and opportunities in school, art and dance.

The second is a Vocational Program for 14 to 18 years, focusing on a group of 30 youths. These youths receive psychological and recreational therapy and are also incorporated into workshops for carpentry, photography and leatherwork, as well as primary and secondary schools.

Objectives

• Reduce child labour
• Provide education to children and adolescents
• To integrate youths into technical schools and workshops
• Offer a comprehensive focus that includes the children and adolescents as well as their parents.
• To provide attention, rehabilitation and vocational training to youths with drug problems or who are at a high risk of developing drug problems and who face problems of domestic violence.

Results

Preventative Program (6-14 years)
A 90% increase in school attendance and a 77% improvement in school performance. 98% of the children continue on to higher grades at school. 60% have left work, the number of hours that the children work has reduced and others work only on the weekends.

Vocational Program (14-18 years)
After 2 or 3 years the youths are qualified with a trade (carpentry, bricklaying, leatherwork etc.). In many cases they have overcome their drug problems and have improved their family relations and reduced domestic violence.

Want to volunteer with Asociación Las Tias?

There is also the possibility to work for Las Tias ("The Aunties"), who are always looking for professional teachers, psychologists, social workers, healthcare workers or simply anyone who can teach the kids something valuable and wants to work as a volunteer with them. They are an independent organisation though and take care of their own volunteers. Please call their office (+505 2311 2493), Doña Justa (+505 8918 7707) or Doña Corina (+505 8447 5209) for more information. Doña Corina can also be contacted online: leonzocorina@yahoo.com . What we already can tell you is that you should speak intermediate Spanish, be flexible, adaptable, take initiative and like to work with children.

The work mainly involves helping the kids with their homework, teaching writing, mathematics, English etc., doing artclasses, organizing activities and participating on sportsday.

Los Ositos

The day care centre of Los Ositos (The Little Bears) is located on the outskirts of León in the Fundesi neighbourhood.

Originally set up by the local community, it has been here for almost a decade and has developed a good reputation during that time. Los Ositos currently provides day care to about 50 children, ranging in age between 1 month and 6 years. The team consists of two teachers and a director.

The good thing about Los Ositos is that it provides women with the possibility to gain more independence. Women who live on the outskirts of León can drop their children off on their way to work in the centre of town and vice versa. And, as we all know, work generates income and income allows more independence. This is especially important for women because most mothers in Nicaragua have to raise their children without the support of a husband.

Los Ositos provides a much-needed service to the women of the community. In fact, they’re so successful now that the demand has greatly exceeded the number of spaces available for children. Furthermore, the current building is old and dark, and it partially floods during the rainy season.

And that’s where Quetzaltrekkers comes in: we’re going to build three additional classrooms which will approximately double the total number of spaces currently available for children.

For more information on the evolution of this project and for all recent news, please see the news section of our website.

Aguas Frias

In 2008, QuetzalTrekkers funded the construction of a school in Aguas Frias, a small commnuity near the volcano Telica. Well, we completed the construction. Formerly the school was just a roof on stilts, we added walls, a concrete floor, and a fresh coat of orange paint. Thanks to a donation by Laurent S.C., a former volunteer, QT was able pay for a second classroom which was added on to original building.

The construction of the additional classroom was spread out over a 2 month period, starting in September, because the community must supply horses necessary to transport construction materials. During the construction, Quetzaltrekkers was in weekly contact with the school in Aguas Frias through the director of the Union España, a network of schools including Aguas Frias, who gave us frequent updates.

We also supply books and other educational materials to Aguas Frias. In July of 2009 Hannah & Jess went to Hispanamer, a large book store in Managua, and bought over $400 dollars of books and other materials. This included 28 Nicaraguan text books, 40 dictionaries, and 30 picture books. After explaining what we were doing, Hispanamer was very generous and donated a 30 dollar world globe.

For more information, contact us.