High School Students Participate in Public Health Campaigns

Volunteers work on health education posters to promote breastfeeding and nutrition in a small clinic in Granada.

Intern Article

Two of our summer interns, Erin and Luke, have been featured in an article! Check it out:

www.iwu.edu/CurrentNews/newsreleases11/fea_BradleyandBroholm_00811.shtml

Video: Haverty - Mobile Library

Haverty - Mobile Library from Viva Nicaragua! on Vimeo.

Jessica's Internship

We just got some photos from our spring intern Jessica of her time here! Jessica worked in educational health at a clinic in a town south of Granada.

Jessica helping out at a health fair.

Jessica did a series of educational talks in a public school.

Educational bulletin boards.

Jessica in the field with her coworkers.

Mobile Library

Our Mobile Library project is off to a great start. New intern Haverty is visiting five communities every week, bringing a selection of books to read with the kids each day. So far the response has been great and it's been amazing to see how the kids respond so quickly to all the stories. We never thought Nicaraguan children could be so quiet! Here are some photos from the communities of Solidaridad and the Sabaneta.

Community Group Bonding

We like to have our community groups give themselves a name so they feel a stronger sense of solidarity. Alina worked with the group in Villa Esperanza to create a banner to commemorate what they had learned and everyone who had participated. Adults, kids and dogs all participated. We can't wait for this summer's interns to continue working with them!

Intern Spotlight: Alina

We have more pictures of Alina's project in Villa Esperanza! Alina conducted a number of workshops on themes of communication, violence, drugs, and other relevant topics. Here she's having the group do an activity on one of these important topics.

Intern Spotlight: Alina

Intern Alina helped us start a series of projects in Villa Esperanza, one of our focus communities this year. Her adolescent group touched on issues of health, violence, and drugs but they also took time to have fun and let loose. Here, the group gets together for a soccer game.

Intern Spotlight: Alina

Alina and Mónica, a local psychologist, brainstorm discussion topics for workshops in the coming weeks.

The workshops are held in the home of Saul, a community leader in Villa Esperanza who has helped create the group.

We hope to work with groups of adolescents to make souvenirs out of bottle caps, maybe even turning it into a micro-loan project.

German psychology student Alina is here for six weeks studying Spanish and working with high-risk youth in and around Granada. In addition to working with FUNPRODE, a local organization that focuses on youth in the penitentiary system, Alina will be conducting workshops in the community of Villa Esperanza. Located in the northern outskirts of Granada, Villa Esperanza is known for having to deal with numerous social and environmental issues. We look forward to placing more interns in this community working with education, our mobile library project, and possibly starting a micro-finance project.

Contact us if you're interested in working on a project in this or one of the many other communities in and around Granada!

p.s.
More information on our newly-opened Viva Nicaragua Spanish School, where you can find the highest quality Spanish classes in Granada.

Read more about our internship and group programs on our homepage.

Intern Spotlight: Jessica

Jessica helps some of the clinic workers find medical files for two local women.

Getting to know some of the kids while waiting for the rest of the group to arrive.

Waiting in line for a turn at the health post.

Jessica, an intern focusing on reproductive health, has been working with a clinic in a small town outside of Granada. She regularly accompanies the clinic staff to smaller rural health posts where she is putting together a series of workshops for adolescents. She will be talking with them about topics the kids suggest while also discussing universally important issues such as family violence. Each workshop includes an educational talk and an activity per the adolescents' requests.

Contact us for more information if you are interested in continuing some of the amazing work Jessica is doing with health education!

better late than never...

We should have posted this ages ago!


Morea, an intern from two summers ago, worked with a group in Solidaridad on a project where participants were asked to answer questions about their life by taking photos of their community. She submitted a photo essay to the group Photo Philanthropy and you can see the whole slideshow online! 


In her own words...
"The goal of this project was to analyze the impact of photojournalism as a research method to understand how photojournalism can be an effective means of empowerment, self-expression, and form of communication. The project was sponsored by Viva Nicaragua!. Twenty-five community members (mostly women) of the barrio community named Solidaridad in Granada, Nicaragua participated in a 6-week photo workshop."


Click here to see the rest of her gorgeous photos.

Health Internships

Intern and pre-med student Christopher Valasquez spent six weeks interning at a rural health clinic near Granada. He had the opportunity to shadow the doctor, assist with patients, provide basic primary care procedures, and fully immerse himself in the culture and community. Through his experience he learned about health and health care in Nicaragua, and the challenges of meeting the healthcare needs of many Nicaraguans given structural barriers including limited access to services, poverty, and limited educational opportunities. Christopher is planning to return to Nicaragua next summer to continue his work.

THANKS TO OUR INTERNS!

THIS SUMMER WE HAD AN INCREDIBLE GROUP OF INTERNS WHO DID SOME AMAZING PROJECTS.

ASHLEY WORKED IN COMMUNITY ORGANIZING - RAJ WORKED AT PUBLIC AND PRIVATE HEALTH CLINICS - EMILY WORKED AT A WOMEN'S HEALTH CENTER - ALLISON ORGANIZED A YOUTH GROUP - SARAH AND SHAUN STARTED A MICRO-BUSINESS FOR WOMEN ...JUST TO NAME A FEW.

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR ANOTHER GREAT SUMMER AND FOR ALL OF YOUR WORK!!!!! OUR INTERNS MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE! THANK YOU!

Tree Planting Project

Interns work with community members from the Pantanal squatter's community to plant trees.

NOTES FROM THE FIELD

INTERN SARAH DOCKERY WORKED FOR TWO MONTHS HELPING TO START UP A SMALL BUSINESS FOR A GROUP OF WOMEN. READ HER BLOG ABOUT HER INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE:
sarahdockery.blogspot.com

Micro Lending Project

Two interns help a small group of women start up their own pinata business as part of a new Viva Nicaragua! micro-lending project.

Just a Trim

Viva Nicaragua! volunteer Micayla Clough teaches a group of women from the community Valle de Granada to cut hair as part of a project to increase economic opportunities. We will continue the training and provide the women with basic accounting and small business management workshops to help them learn to run their own home businesses.

Migrant Project

Intern Monina Febria completed a three month study on Nicaraguan migration in order to better address the needs of migrants and their families. Taking into consideration her recommendations, we are recruiting interns for the following projects:

Child Psychology and Development - work with educators and caregivers to meet the needs of children separated from their parents because of migration.

Micro credit programs - help start micro-credit programs for small business projects in order to reduce the need to migrate

Migrant and Human Rights - Educate migrants about their rights while in the receiving country

Comparative Program

Chelcy and Molly, two pre-med students who just finished the Nicaragua portion of the Comparative Healthcare Program, ended their work at a rural health clinic by having a two day women's health brigade. After spending a month working in the clinic and talking with women about women's health issues including cervical cancer, they held a two day women's health fair. During the event, they gave over 30 pap smear exams to women from rural areas with limited access to health services. For women who rarely are able to see a doctor, making the exams available was such an important service.

In addition, the interns helped build a house, organized a pregancy club, and attended to patients daily both in the clinic and out and the field. Thanks Molly and Chelcy for all of your hard work!

Gender Studies

Marion Pope interviews a lawyer about the services available for female victims of domestic violence.