The Project
Volunteer on Childcare Projects in Nicaragua

Please note our education projects in Nicaragua are unique to Global Vision International. All funding of these projects comes directly from Global Vision International and volunteer contributions, included in the programme fee. We receive no other outside source of income, apart from that raised through GVI and volunteer contributions. Suffice to say, without this funding from GVI and the volunteer contributions, the projects simply would not exist.

Working with rural communities around Estelí

In rural Nicaragua, education and literacy levels are depressingly low, despite the ‘Year of Literacy’ in 1980 when the FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional) government concentrated on tackling the country’s high levels of illiteracy. In the rural communities we aim to help around Estelí, the present day problems with education are economic and affected by a lack of teaching materials and teachers themselves. The large majority of families rely on agriculture and working in the tobacco fields, though due to changeable climate and erratic harvests, poverty levels are extremely high. There is a huge need for help within these communities where the local understaffed schools are sometimes an hour’s walk from the children homes. Many lack regular basic medical care and education. Some of the communities have schools but only for children up to the third (of six) primary level; others have secondary schools but no teachers, so many children end up leaving school all together. The general problem facing the rural communities of Estelí is that the level and availability of education is very low.

This education project involves working within a small rural school built by GVI in a community called La Thompson. GVI gives classes from preschool up to grade five with ages ranging from three to fourteen years old. In the afternoon, GVI aims to offer adult literacy classes as well. The goal is to provide a more efficient and helpful learning environment and increase the number of children attending the school within the community. Living conditions in La Thompson are extremely poor, with approximately 160 families living in houses made out of scrap metal, wood, and plastic sheets with no electricity. One of the main sources of income is the nearby tobacco fields were many of the parents and the children themselves end up working for less than four dollars a day.