Kids on why they love photography
Here is what the 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 of EI’s earliest students, who also participated in the exhibition here.
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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.”
Expressing people’s feelings through photography – Joseline
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. Read more…
EI’s First Photo Exhibition!
Check out the photos in the exhibition here!
EI launches its Baseball program for kids
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.
Cal Ripken Jr. plays with Empowerment International!
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. Read more…
Lack of Job Training – a Barrier to achieving Universal Education.
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. Read more…
Motivation with Baseball
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. Read more…
