Program
ATRAVES programs are organized around four interconnected themes: Education, Health, Community Development and the International Volunteer Program. We regard these areas as mutually overlapping; our approach to health, for example, involves elements of development, education and volunteerism. The common thread is that ATRAVES makes itself a powerful tool in the success of Nicaraguan community efforts to empower themselves and improve their lives. We achieve this outcome through establishing international, domestic, and community solidarity, and using it to bring concrete resources to bear on problems. "Work across borders" means that ATRAVES programs build links among people working together from many different places, languages and backgrounds in a way that we have shown to be effective.
Education
Nicaragua's economic situation has produced extreme problems in access to education on a national level. More than 500,000 Nicaraguan children do not attend school, according to the Ministry of Education. Twenty out of every 100 children leave school in the first grade. The national average for school attendance is 5.6 years, and 3.6 in rural areas. Six out of 10 children do not enroll in high school, and 60% of those who do, do not graduate. (Source for all figures: Envio, 2008 via Witness For Peace). Until 2007, there was no free public education in the country - now, despite the national removal of tuition and other payment requirements, enormous barriers to educational access remain for many children and adults. Meanwhile, dedicated teachers and administrators in many schools achieve remarkable results through innovation and perseverance despite scare resources.
ATRAVES was founded and is led by educators. Our experience, and access to networks of people in Nicaragua with vast knowledge of educational systems and methods positioned us as an organization to offer a great deal of support to schools and teachers across the country.
An early and constant focus of our program work has been the Managua community of Camilo Ortega. When we first established ties with the neighborhood in 2004, the majority of children in the Anexo section had no access to education, because the only school within walking distance was a private school their families could not afford. ATRAVES helped to found Escuela H.D. in early 2005, originally as an outdoor preschool and first grade for 25 children who had no other educational options. ATRAVES has maintained a special relationship with Escuela H.D. as it has grown to a preschool through sixth grade institution with 250 students and a staff of 12. We have helped to facilitate this growth through funding, administrative support and dozens of international volunteers. The school was twice recognized as a model school in its class by the Ministry of Education. Escuela H.D. uses unique approaches to meeting the needs of Camilo Ortega children, and ATRAVES is proud to accompany the school in its work.
Nationally, we maintain contact with nearly 30 schools, providing professional development opportunities from Nicaraguan educators and education officials. We have sent international volunteers to schools in Catarina, Jinotega, Juigalpa, León, San Carlos, San Juan de la Concha, San Juan de Oriente, and San Juan del Sur. Access to native English speakers is a priority for many schools we work with, and many of our volunteers have focused on this area. Volunteers also work in a variety of capacities at schools, according to their talents and the needs of the institution. Projects have ranged from light construction, to teaching origami to student teachers.
The priority of the ATRAVES Education Program is to powerfully support schools and teachers who work to provide access to humanizing, high-quality education for poor communities in Nicaragua. We are working to increase the volume and impact of international volunteers in these schools, to increase access to domestic professional development opportunities, to build and expand an effective knowledge-sharing network among schools in the association, and to ensure the success and sustainability of Escuela H.D.
Health
Access to health care in Nicaragua varies widely by geography and economic situation. Many rural people live in areas with no hospitals, or even no doctors, and need to travel many hours if they are to receive care. Poor urban people often live within close range of health centers, but face other barriers to care. Consultations may be free at public centers, but prescriptions, diagnostic tests and surgery are ordinarily not. Free care facilities are crowded, and sick people may wait for hours or days and still not be seen, or receive substandard care. 55% of Nicaraguans do not have access to basic medicines (Envio, 2005; Witness For Peace), and the number of doctors per 10,000 people has gone from 6 in 1996 to 3.8 - compared to 26.6 per 10,000 in the US (Witness For Peace; MINSA, 2004).
ATRAVES views health care as a right, and believes that models that understand people's health as holistic and linked with development and education are the most effective in the communities we partner with.
Our health program currently focuses on two communities: Juigalpa, Chontales, and Barrio Camilo Ortega, Managua. Juigalpa is an urban center, where we work with a farming cooperative outside of town that faces a variety of health problems associated with poverty, agricultural work and lack of access to care. Camilo Ortega is a poor urban neighborhood that faces severe health problems related to extreme poverty and environmental factors. ATRAVES commissioned a health needs assessment of Camilo Ortega in 2007 to help us design our program activities in the community. Read researchers' report »
To respond to health needs in Juigalpa, ATRAVES helped to establish a women's clinic at Cooperativa Eddy Alonso in 2006, offering free medical service to community members twice a month, and training members of the cooperative in medical administration and first aid. The project was conceived as both a health and economic development initiative. It is staffed by a local gynecologist, and offers naturopathic and allopathic clinical options.
ATRAVES initiated our health programming work intensively in Camilo Ortega in May, 2008, when we organized a "Health Month." This project included free medical service to nearly 600 patients, a health workshop series for community members, and a vegetable gardening initiative. Read the full report »
We are working with Engineers Without Borders Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and community partners to open a community clinic in Camilo Ortega in mid-2009. In the interim, we are seeking funding for periodic medical service in the community to continue the work the Health Program's work.
If you have medical background and are interested in supporting the Medical Program with planning or direct service, click here.
Community Development
Country-wide economic strife and injustice is the context structuring all ATRAVES program work, and informing its mission of active solidarity. We believe that creating a solution to these devastating problems in Nicaragua requires deep changes in international policy and economic relations, national-level reforms and development, and community-centered, locally autonomous development initiatives. As an organization, our focus is on supporting small-scale, creative community-level projects. We are demonstrating that our model of using national and international connections to support and strengthen these local projects is effective at helping them to succeed.
The Community Development Program is currently focused on San Juan de Oriente, Masaya, where we support UNIARTE, a cooperative of local ceramicists. San Juan is a village of 10,000 inhabitants where the principal economic activity is pottery-making that encompasses a broad array of traditional and experimental styles. San Juan de Oriente pottery is recognized as the finest in Nicaragua, but the vast majority of people in the village live in poverty or extreme poverty. In 2006 ATRAVES worked with community members to help to found Artesanos Unidos de San Juan de Oriente (UNIARTE), an independent potters' cooperative.
Through the cooperative program, ATRAVES has linked the cooperative to business and technical advice, legal assistance in the incorporation process, and international volunteers who have provided educational opportunities to the community. With ATRAVES assistance, the cooperative has opened a mutual storefront to sell the cooperative's pottery. The project is strengthening democratically-controlled economic development in San Juan de Oriente.
The Community Development Program will continue to support the development and growth of UNIARTE, hoping to support its entrance into international fair trade markets, among other strategies. We are analyzing our capacity to support development project work in Camilo Ortega and Juigalpa.
International Volunteers Program
Our International Volunteer Program provides citizens of other countries with opportunities to live, work and learn in Nicaraguan communities, and provides Nicaraguan organizations with individuals willing to share their labor, creativity, expertise and enthusiasm.
There are many people who want to volunteer abroad in developing countries for a variety of reasons. ATRAVES finds that our volunteers want guidance and high impact in their work, as well as the flexibility to apply their interests, skills and creativity. They need knowledge and know-how, and they need connections to people and places they can partner with. They want their work to be ethical, and to bolster and accompany, rather than interfere with local autonomy. Many communities in Nicaragua want volunteers to join in their development, health and educational efforts, but need support in training, orienting and working with international people. Volunteers and communities want the means to stay connected after the volunteer returns to his or her home country.
ATRAVES has developed a volunteer and delegation program that provides for all of these needs, and produces strong program outcomes through a process of dialogue, education and mutual design. Basing volunteer work in a dialogue between the skills and interests of the volunteer, and the priorities of the community lets volunteers produce better work, with a greater sense of ownership.
The Volunteer Program creates an active, locally-rooted kind of international solidarity that produces excellent and lasting results for host communities. The solidarity ATRAVES creates sews the seeds of ways of thinking that can cause people to advocate for just and compassionate policy and economic changes.
Our volunteers often report that the experience is profoundly educational, and even life-changing. We provide a unique experience for each volunteer that draws on the individual's strengths and is largely self-designed. We have demonstrated that this model is not only engaging for the volunteer, but highly effective for the community that he or she serves.
Our volunteer program prioritizes accessibility. Low-income people and people of color are particularly encouraged to work with ATRAVES.
In the future, we will continue to expand our Volunteer Program, creating effective partnerships based in solidarity among people and communities.
Read more about opportunities to volunteer in Nicaragua »