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Over 175 families live in the Managua city dump, known as La Chureca. They have come here for the cheap land and the guaranteed income scavenging through the trash right outside their front doors, in a country where there are severely limited job opportunities. They stay because there is little opportunity to make a life for themselves else where. An estimated 1,500 men, women, and children come daily to comb through the piles of trash to find plastic and metal to sell, in addition to collecting food and other life necessities. Individual workers earn on average $20 a week and the reality is that families can earn more if the children are also helping. Both working and living in the dump exposes the community to a variety of health and safety risks. There are severe respiratory and other health problems from breathing in the fumes from the smoking and burning piles of trash. Lead poisoning is common among the youth who have grown up in the dump. Malnutrition is widespread and evident in the children’s swelled bellies and blond hair that lacks nutrients to maintain its natural dark color. STDs and prostitution are also a problem, and girls of all ages sell their bodies for money or other commodities. Many children and adults are addicted to sniffing shoe-glue, which helps suppress hunger and allows them to escape the reality of the life they are confined to in the dump. There are limited opportunities for these families for employment outside the dump. They also often lack the motivation to take advantage of the opportunities that do exist, having become complacent with now dependent on their existence in the dump.

Among the community that lives in the trash dump, over 30% are illiterate. Almost half the children that work in the trash dump do not attend school, while those that do show high absenteeism. Students often drop out before the year is over, because they can't afford school supplies, school uniforms or shoes. Many leave school to help with the household responsibilities, whether cleaning, caring for younger children, or working in the trash. The result is a severely under-educated generation of youth that will face the same constraints as their parents, trapped in a cycle of dependence on work in the dump.

The Nica HOPE Project of Fabretto Children's Foundation opened its doors to the community of the Managua City trash dump in February of 2008, receiving a flood of students seeking to expand their minds, skills, and opportunities for the future. With children working in the trash to make little more than $2 a day, Nica HOPE programs aim to provide education and job opportunities apart from the trash for these youth. To learn more about our programs, visit www.nicahope.org.