I knew that after college I wanted to spend some time giving back to a world that has given me so much. I was lucky enough to be accepted for a Princeton in Latin America fellowship, which provides recent graduates the opportunity to work with an organization abroad, in an attempt to provide non-profit organizations with fellows who have valuable work experience, and to give fellows the chance to broaden their horizons.

I chose to work at Nica HOPE for a number of reasons. To begin, Nica HOPE, a project of the Fabretto Children's Foundation, works in Managua's trash dump La Chureca and the surrounding communities where many of the families make their living off of collecting plastic and other recyclable items from the city trash, earning on average $2-$3 a day. Malnutrition, skin infections, respiratory disease, stomach illnesses and other sicknesses are common. They live in homes made out of tin, plywood, and cardboard with limited electricity and water, if any. Many children from the community help their families in La Chureca and have a high risk of dropping out of school before completing the sixth grade. This community is very vulnerable and faces a number of risks, which perpetuate and exacerbate poverty.

Nica HOPE, as a project of Fabretto, works with these communities in a truly meaningful way by equipping the youth and families with sustainable ways to change the future of their children, family, community, and country. Fabretto's Nica HOPE project has helped combat these issues and have put many of these child workers back in school. They provide school lunches to keep them healthy, uniforms and school supplies so they can attend school, tutoring to keep them in school, and computer and jewelry classes to equip them with useful job skills. Nica HOPE has grown tremendously since it was founded, and now works to impact about 1,500 children through all their programs. Fabretto, which works throughout Nicaragua, serves 6,000 children annually.

Join me in Nica HOPE and Fabretto's efforts to provide this community with the supplies necessary to attend school and the skills necessary to move out of the dump and surrounding communities and grab a hold of a brighter future!

None of the funds raised will go to me, but will be going to support the program and the children in it. For more information on their programs and work visit NicaHOPE.org. For more information on my stay here, check out mynagua.blogspot.com. Thanks for your support!