Here is what the EI kids who are into our photography program and who had their photos exhibited in the Photo Exhibition at a gallery in San Juan del Sur have to say about photography. You can learn more about Joseline, one EI’s earliest students, who also participated in the exhibition here.

Elvis Alfredo Arroliga is 16 years old and this is what the 7th  grader has to say : 
“I have 2 years of photography experience thanks to the Foundation (Empowerment International.)
I like to focus on people with limited resources and children with drug problems.  I love taking pictures  because I discover things that I did not know before.  I thank the Foundation for the support and love that it have given me.”

Leslia Mendoza, another student from EI says, “I like the photography classes because I learn how to handle the camera. I also learn how to delete the photos that do not come out well! Also, I liked the time when EI took us to the park, to the Malacos in the Fortin neighborhood, to visit the schools, and other places in order to capture them through photos. I am very grateful for that opportunity.”

Marluz Deyanira Hernández says, “Well, I have been in photography for 2 years: 2007 and 2008.
I like to take many pictures because I feel that the more I take the more I learn how to select the best spot, as well as how to handle the camera. I like to take interesting pictures and use them as a theme about the people, or sights. I also like it because it facilitates my relationship with other people; I have opportunities to know new places and I can learn more about our Nicaraguan culture.”

12 years old Dalila Ruiz Flores has this to say about his experiences with camera, “I have been taking pictures for 5 months now. I enjoy taking pictures because I discover many things. I am grateful to the Foundation (Empowerment International) because it has supported me during my grammar school and the photography classes.”

Another 12 years old, Alexander Hernández, says, “ This is my first year of photography. In the photography class I learned how to handle the photo camera and how to take care of it so the lenses are not damaged.  I learned how to use the strap so as to avoid dropping the camera! I like to go out and take photos of people and sort them in a logical sequence. My experience has been good because I have learned and at the same time shared a good time with all of you, and my friends. “

Melkisedeth Obet Bonilla Martínez  is 13 years old and in 6th grade. She says, “Let me tell you how happy I am taking pictures.  I am so happy because I learn how to handle a photo camera, how to take pictures, and when walking along I enjoy taking pictures of beautiful things, but much more of people and animals for they are God’s masterpieces.  Thank you for having me in the photography classes.”

11 year old Yosara Noemi Bonilla Martínez is a 4th grader. She says, “I am so proud when taking pictures.  During those moments I feel very proud to be in the company of Kathy, Melissa, Patrick, Carla Margarita, and my friends. I learn how to use the photo camera with clean hands, how to be careful of not touching either the viewfinder or the lenses. I also enjoy taking pictures of plants, animals, and people.  Thank God for the months we spent learning photography.  Thank you so much Kathy for teaching me about photography.”

We bring to you the life stories of the 8 participants of EI whose photos were selected for the exhibition ‘Mi Camera Mi Mundo’ held in an exclusive gallery in San Juan del sur. Click here to see the photos shown in the exhibition.

One of the most dedicated students of EI is 14 years old Joseline who is also one of the first participants in EI’s program. For the past 5 years Joseline has been living in an extremely poor neighborhood close to Villa Esperanza where EI works.  In these neighborhoods the families have very limited resources, and the possibilities of a child to going to school are about 5%.  The working fathers in these families are paid barely enough to buy food for the basic daily meals. Most of the children help their fathers by working along with them.

Here Joseline describes how she learned about EI and the impact the organization had on her and her family:

“In 2004 a person came to my neighborhood looking for my father, Horacio.  This person and my father chatted for a while.  After that, my father introduced my Mom, my sister, and me to this visitor. This person came over to my house because she wanted to start a project to help the poor families of the neighborhood. Her name was Kathy Ann Adams.  Since then, Kathy has been working with my Dad.
As time went on, I got close to Kathy. She often took my pictures and showed them to me. I was very fascinated by the process and so she also taught me how to use the camera. Later on when a census of the neighborhood children was taking place in order to help them with their education, Kathy asked me if I could take pictures of the children.  I was very happy to do so! This is how I started photography. 

As I took more pictures I improved my technique and learned more about cameras.  Kathy was and is the best photography teacher I ever had.

During the project, I was taught more about cameras and the amazing things that can be done with them.  As Kathy’s work and Empowerment International expanded, I got a chance to participate in a special photography project.  In 2007 the project grew and was very successful as other people became interested in the Foundation and began to donate cameras and other things.  

An unforgettable point I learned in the photography class  is that, “The importance of a photo is not what you see outside, but what you see inside, because a photo expresses the feelings of people.”

 In 2008, I returned to take another photography class with Kathy, and now my photos are better.  I know that by studying one can learn, and I will continue studying photography so my photos are better each day.”

To view more of Joseline’s photos, click here.

In Nicaragua 50% of the kids that start 1st grade never finish  5th grade. It is our goal to make this percentage drop significantly.

$100 is what it takes us at Empowerment International to put a child in school for a year. Imagine, for the price of a pair of Nikes you can help a child attend school for one year! If the idea interests you, please click on the link below or contact us -

Check out the photos in the exhibition here!

EI has started a baseball program for the children in the barrio to create an environment where they can learn the fundamentals of leadership, teamwork, and accountability through the sports.

What we aim to achieve is to increase the attendance rates of the students at EI while helping them develop important values through extracurricular activities.

Unfortunately most of our kids have almost no exposure to extracurricular activities in their schools. These activities, however, are very important for kids as they teach them how to interact with one another positively, how to lead as well as follow and how to trust one another. All these attributes are required by children to succeed in today’s competitive and highly interactive workforce.

The baseball program aims to bridge the gap in the children’s educational process by introducing several positive guidelines. In order to ensure that the program also serves as a motivating factor for kids, we have certain criteria for the students.

Each student that participates must be an active member of his or her school with an attendance record above 80%. Also, students will be expected to have 90% attendance to the practice sessions.

Most importantly, they will be taught to respect every player in the game and avoid inappropriate language, fighting and harassment of other team members.

We are taking the baseball program seriously and will have contract regarding the guidelines signed by the students, parents, coach and the program coordinator.   

In the Baseball Program, all kids of EI between ages 6 and 16 will be welcomed. A member of EI staff will serve as the program co-ordinator and will be responsible for the organization of the kid’s equipment, the tracking of attendance, the scheduling of games with other nonprofits, and any other aspects of the program.

The program will be coached by Hildebrando, a parent in the barrio.

Practices are to be held on Saturdays and split into two different groups; group one will practice from 1:00pm to 2:30pm, this group will consist of participants 13-16, group two will practice from 2:30pm to 4:00pm, this group will consist of participants ages 12-16. The first group will practice with their coach on fundamentals of baseball and leadership skills. After the first group is finished with practice, they will participate in the second groups’ practice by serving as coaches for the younger children. Group two will be spilt into three different teams of ten, each of which will have two members of group one serve as coaches.

The coaches of the teams will be responsible for their team’s attendance. On the first Saturday of every month, the teams will all meet at the field at the same time at 1:00pm. Group one will start the practice by putting on a hitting and fielding exhibition. This will be followed by a small tournament of the other teams, which will consist of three 4-inning games.  Additionally, all teams will play games against other area teams as scheduled by the program coordinator.

It is our hope that this program brings excitement and positivity in the lives of the kids. We are all much honored to already have had Cal Ripken Jr. coach our kids. Now that all the children have become extremely interested in the game, we plan to introduce new ideas and features regularly. Keep watching this space for updates!

In Nicaragua 50% of the kids that start 1st grade never finish  5th grade. It is our goal to make this percentage drop significantly.

$100 is what it takes us at Empowerment International to put a child in school for a year. Imagine, for the price of a pair of Nikes you can help a child attend school for one year! If the idea interests you, please click on the link below or contact us -

Today is one of the most exciting days for EI staff and kids in Granada. Cal Ripken and Dennis Martinez are here in Nicaragua and Empowerment International has been selected as one of the participants in the game of Quickball!

Cal Ripken is one of the most respected names in baseball. He has had a successful 21 year Major League Baseball career and retired in 2001. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame last year and was appointed American Public Diplomacy Envoy by the US State Department in 2007. He is currently on a five-day trip (Nov 13-18) with Dennis Martinez, a native of Nicaragua who played with Ripken for the Baltimore Orioles.

Martinez won 245 games with five big league teams over 23 seasons and is often known as “El Presidente”. Both Ripken and Martinez plan to instruct youth coaches and kids on the game while connecting with them and spreading goodwill in Nicaragua.

The kids have been overjoyed to have these two baseball greats among them.

Since most of the kids chosen  for the event are too young and small to play baseball, they are learning to play Quickball – a game developed by Cal Ripken, it is  especially suited for all kids, especially little ones. The balls are bigger and lighter (made of sponge) and bats wider and easy to swing. The bases are closer together and rules are simpler as well.  If that was not enough fun and excitement for the youngsters, they  were interviewed by various TV stations!

It really is a dream come true for so many people here. Baseball is the Nicaragua’s national sport and  the kids have met not only the local but international hero of the game!

In Nicaragua 50% of the kids that start 1st grade never finish  5th grade. It is our goal to make this percentage drop significantly.

$100 is what it takes us at Empowerment International to put a child in school for a year. Imagine, for the price of a pair of Nikes you can help a child attend school for one year! If the idea interests you, please click on the link below or contact us -

On December 10th 1948, United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and proclaimed the access to education as a right.

Immense progress has been made since then and majority of the governments across the world have passed laws to make universal education compulsory. However today, about six decades later, UNICEF estimates that 862 million people are still illiterate.

93 million primary school-age children are out of school and, the numbers are higher for older children with only 60% of secondary school-aged children in school.

Children enrolled in schools have some distinct advantages. Apart from providing education, schools  offer children a safe environment, with support, supervision and socialization. Many schools may provide life-saving vaccines, fresh water and nutrient supplementation to the children.

With all these and many other advantages, universal education might seem a relatively straightforward goal, but it has proven as difficult as any to achieve.

Lack of job training as a part of the curriculum is one of the core issues that contribute to these high illiteracy levels. Most children who are out of school have uneducated parents who do not understand the importance of education “What will he learn at school? I can teach him important skills if he joins me at work”. This is what the average uneducated parent would say about his child’s education. This attitude leads to most kids accompanying their parents to work instead of going to school. For them time spent at school can be used to contribute to family income or to learn skills that would make them financially productive in future.

Many pundits concede that education is only a partial cure to poverty. The fact is that children graduating from high school do not have any specific skills to earn a living and since, most of the poor cannot afford college education, they do not see the purpose of completing high school or going to school in general. Julie Strawn of the Center for Law and Social Policy agrees. After reviewing an extensive sample of basic education and training programs, Strawn concluded that education alone is much less successful in raising employment and earnings prospects than education combined with a strategy of focused job training with an eye on local demand.

To attract the poor, school curriculum should be made more practical. Job training relevant to the local population should be introduced. Rural kids for example, should be taught about the latest farming techniques while the poor urban kids could benefit from learning about machinery or carpentry. One Portland, Oregon, program resulted in a 25 percent increase in earnings, a 21 percent increase in employment, and a 22 percent reduction of time spent on welfare when the curriculum included job training.
 
A child who is educated is empowered to escape from poverty but helping poor receive education is only a part of the answer. Ultimately, children need to learn skills which will reward them in future. Thus, it important for the governments across the world to work with the local agencies and decide on specific curriculum for each region. Although, this may seem difficult in the beginning, it will attract more kids to school and provide skilled labor for the future. This could be an important step towards achieving the UN millennium development goal of universal education by 2015.

-Shamala Pulugurtha

In Nicaragua 50% of the kids that start 1st grade never make it to 5th grade. It is our goal to make this percentage drop significantly.

$100 is what it takes us at Empowerment International to put a child in school for a year. Imagine, for the price of a pair of Nikes you can help a child attend school for one year! If the idea interests you, please click on the link below or contact us -

Kids need to look beyond their school work to learn more. This is even more true in the impoverished slums where EI works. 

Here, schools often do not provide any extra curricular activity for students who are thus forced to find other distractions. Unfortunately, these distractions may take the form of drugs, gangs and violence, all of which are common in the slums.

To keep themselves away from poor choices and to temporarily escape their harsh realities, these children need positive motivations.

EI focuses primarily on helping the children get educated an works on  keeping them  motivated with other  interesting pursuits. Photography classes, started a couple of years back, have been a huge success with EI kids.

However, a more active pursuit seems to suit more then a  few of the students here! So, volunteers Patrick and Melissa Chiappetta started a baseball program that will be run by a volunteer father in our community once they leave in November.

We are thrilled to introduce this exciting new program for the kids.

And as expected, the children are loving it! The main criteria for participating in the baseball program is that the kids must be in our program and have excellent school attendance.  While it is co-ed, most of the interested students are male.

We will soon be telling you a lot more about our new program. The whole EI team is incredibly excited about it!

- Neha Singh

In Nicaragua 50% of the kids that start 1st grade never make it to 5th grade. It is our goal to make this percentage drop significantly.

$100 is what it takes us at Empowerment International to put a child in school for a year. Imagine, for the price of a pair of Nikes you can help a child attend school for one year! If the idea interests you, please click on the link below or contact us -

12 year old Alexander is a very special boy to many of us at EI.

He works very hard, and has done so since he was extremely young. He and his brothers sell fruits and bananas in order to add to their family’s income. His mother, who he considers his “hero”, is the main breadwinner. She washes clothes in other people’s homes to earn a living.

Needless to say, the family is very poor.

Alexander has been in EI program for 3 years now and loves helping out at EI office and playing baseball. If he were in US, he would have been diagnosed with ADD a long time ago. Despite his near-constant eating, he is a very skinny kid -possibly because he is always moving, talking, running, playing, or working! He is rarely seen sitting still for more than about 10 minutes at a time.

Despite his somewhat precocious nature, Alexander has the biggest heart.
He has to work selling things on the streets every hour that he is not in school, yet he is so willing to share whatever he has. The first day of class, he brought chicklets for every person in the class as well as all the helpers. The second day of class, he showed up at EI office two hours early to help everyone get the cameras (for the photography class) ready, clean the office, and walk the dog (all of which he continued to do for the rest of the week). The third day of class, he bought a bunch of mamones (a Nicaraguan fruit) to share with everyone. Whatever people need, Alexander is always there and eager to help with a smile.

Alexander often complains of poor eyesight because of which the school’s blackboard looks blurry to him. He likes watching movies but rarely gets time to watch any – he has to go to school in the morning; then go to work in the afternoon; and finally return home only at night, when he must finish his school homework.

In spite of such pressure on his time and health, Alexander plans to keep on studying and be a firefighter. He has been one of the most eager participants in EI’s photography program and has won many hearts.

We, at EI, know that with his helping nature and steely determination, Alexander, will achieve his dreams. All he needs is our and your support and understanding.

Here are a few of the lovely photos taken by Alexander.

In Nicaragua 50% of the kids that start 1st grade never make it to 5th grade. It is our goal to make this percentage drop significantly.

$100 is what it takes us at Empowerment International to put a child in school for a year. Imagine, for the price of a pair of Nikes you can help a child attend school for one year! If the idea interests you, please click on the link below or contact us -

UNICEF estimates that in today’s world, one in five adults are illiterate and 72 million children are not going to school.

Rural areas account for 82% of all the out-of-school children and based on household surveys in 80 developing countries conducted by UNICEF, 30 percent of rural children of primary school age do not attend school, compared to 18 per cent in urban areas.

No country is immune to this problem.

The story is the same for children living in remote rural areas of Angola, Zambia, Bangladesh, Brazil and even United States. In fact, according to three Cornell researchers only about 26 percent of low-income kids in rural areas of United States were served by state-regulated early education programs compared with almost 44 percent of poor urban/suburban kids.

Educating rural children presents a significant challenge in more than one ways. Most of the world’s poor and hungry live in rural areas.  For these children attending school competes with a whole host of demands on their time and energy like collecting water, herding animals and looking after their younger brothers and sisters. There are infrastructure problems too and most of the rural areas lack proper schools.

Then there is the problem of urban bias in teaching methods. Much of what is taught in rural schools is prepared for urban schools by urban specialists and is not in the local language. Also a large number of teachers refuse to teach in rural areas and those who do are usually under qualified. In addition, parents may not send children to school in some areas due to lack of safety and some children may quit school because they don’t find it interesting.

UNICEF believes that poverty reduction begins with children and that investing in children’s education offers the best guarantee for achieving equitable and sustainable human development. Hence, educating rural kids is of utmost importance. But to achieve this rural kids need more schools, with improved teaching methods, techniques and materials that focus on their real needs. It is also important to offer incentives that encourage children to attend school and their parents to send them to school - a midday meal or midmorning snack for example.

Most of the children who are illiterate are also hungry and with full stomachs children can concentrate and learn better. The curriculum should also be relevant to their lives. They might not care about an amusement park or a supermarket but they may need to learn how to harvest a crop or how to handle pesticides.

The school calendar should take their working lives into account by cutting down classes during harvesting season and having evening classes if the children are working during the day. It is also important to use the local language for teaching. Intellectual development of children is very much linked to the language they speak and if they are taught in a tongue which they don’t understand, their development is constrained.  But often countries have many languages and find it is easier to use the official one to develop curriculum. Also, government funds should be allocated and used efficiently to improve the conditions of the destitute rural schools.

 Education is the foundation of success for any society and educating rural kids is the only way to uplift those areas. Thus, a strong collaboration is needed between various governments, non governmental agencies and other international organizations to achieve the goal of universal education by 2015.
 
-Shamala Pulugurtha

In Nicaragua 50% of the kids that start 1st grade never make it to 5th grade. It is our goal to make this percentage drop significantly.

$100 is what it takes us at Empowerment International to put a child in school for a year. Imagine, for the price of a pair of Nikes you can help a child attend school for one year! If the idea interests you, please click on the link below or contact us -

The Fiesta held at Colorado and in Nicaragua (virtually) was a tremendously moving experience for all participants. Anielka, the Program Director of EI, who you have read about here, is normally quite strong and stoic, but even she was overwhelmed by the beauty of the moments on September 6th.

Here, she describes her feelings at length:

“At the beginning of the party, I, who have always been quite good in speaking in the presence of others, felt like my heart was pounding a thousand beats per second, because of my stress. We ate pizza and other goodies; some of us ate too much due to our excitement while others did not want to eat anything because they lost their appetite out of nervousness!

Melissa (EI volunteer) and her family were there offering their support, encouraging us and, above all, the children who were told “you can.” That affirmation made them feel good. Except Alexander(EI student) who was shy, all children wanted to be in front of the camera so the others could watch them in Skype. I think Alexander is reserved when there are too many people around. Those children who were taking a lot of photos were impressed with the technology. Darcy(EI volunteer) was also there to support us with the presentation and encourage the children.

It was wonderful to see Elvis’(EI student) eyes expressing so much happiness when he saw Kristi(EI event coordinator). I felt the same emotion when I saw Dara, Kathy, Jody, Kelly, Kevin, and Brett, and all the people over there (in US). Suddenly pleasant memories came up about the good times we had during Fiesta de Esperanza back in 2006 when I had the opportunity to participate personally and the satisfaction that one feels after a party is over and realize everything was an entire success.

I thought a lot about the entire EI team and in particular about Kristy since she was the coordinator of the event in Colorado and put so much effort for everything to be perfect. I imagined how proud she must have felt.

Here, in the office in Nicaragua, we all also celebrated at the same time. It felt like we were there at the Fiesta having food, drinking Coca-Colas. Seeing Marluz walking into the office was a very delightful moment because she knew she was going to meet her sponsor. She kept talking into the camera. She wanted to keep talking with Glennis; this was very emotional. I am sure our faces demonstrated the intense feelings of happiness.

Thanks to all for giving us the opportunity to be “present” in Colorado and be part of the party. Thanks for allowing the children enjoy emotions that perhaps they have never experienced in their lives. Thanks for making them feel special. Thanks for giving them the opportunity of becoming more aware about who we are and how hard we work for them. Such opportunity allows them to know about our labor and efforts in this Foundation just to give them the prospect to have a better quality of life, and a better future that can remove them from the extreme poverty in which they live.

Also, thank you EI for giving me, personally, the opportunity to learn new things every day, of giving me the encouragement I need in order to put forward my best efforts on every occasion I can. Of giving me the chance of becoming aware on a more personal basis of the needs and great difficulties that some people in my country go through; to learn  on how I can give much of myself to this cause in favor of those families  to bring about positive, lasting changes to as many of them as possible. “

- Translated by Leonardo Vila

In Nicaragua 50% of the kids that start 1st grade never make it to 5th grade. It is our goal to make this percentage drop significantly.

$100 is what it takes us at Empowerment International to put a child in school for a year. Imagine, for the price of a pair of Nikes you can help a child attend school for one year! If the idea interests you, please click on the link below or contact us -