Home   >   Front Page   >   Featured Articles   >   Up UPNicaragua!

Up UPNicaragua!

By Geoff McCafferty

One of the things that attracted us to retire in Granada is the vibrant culture of the city and its inhabitants. So much art, music, history, and generosity. Wonderful neighbors, interesting back-stories – good folks all around. And great food! Over the years we have enjoyed many of the local restaurants. A long-time favorite, especially for brunch, has been the Garden Café. And over time we have become acquainted with the owners Damien and Xiomara. Of course the food is consistently good, and in normal times the restaurant is a meeting place for Granadinos as well as visitors. The gift shop is diverse, and supports numerous community programs, including UPNicaragua. In fact, this altruism is a defining characteristic of the Garden Café’s ethos.

Xiomara Diaz is a guiding light for UPNicaragua, which is dedicated to promoting young Nicaraguan women through education and community. Their mission is to “empower a young generation of Granada girls with professional and personal skills, which allow them to live safer futures; beyond this [they] hope to inspire them to live meaningful adult lives through their personal and professional actions in society.” Since 2015 the students have been learning a variety of practical skills, both for professional development as well as more general life skills. UPNicaragua fellows are high school students from under-served communities, between 13 and 18 years old, who get access to 760 hours of extracurricular courses throughout an 18 month period.  The courses are offered on Saturdays and vacation days.  Content is divided between Hard skills: coding, digital skills and english; and Soft skills: gender equity, emotions and emotional intelligence, story telling & public speaking, careers, jobs, purpose, ethics & social entrepreneurship, yoga, breathing and meditation.

As Xiomi explains: “over the last two years of including coding courses in our program we have seen 95% of our students go through all the challenging curriculum (220 hours of coursework) and present final projects to a wide audience. We have seen girls go from not having ever touched a computer to learning basic HTML and CSS, and moving  forward to learning JavaScript and build complex video games. We have seen girls begin and finish a project no matter how hard it is. Some of them have now started college and they have all chosen non-traditional majors. Our goal is that they learn to think critically, are able to solve problems & most importantly believe in themselves, in their capacity to learn anything they wish to.”

Hellen is a student in the program, and she writes “in the years that I have been part of UPNicaragua I’ve had some of the best experiences, I’ve learned how to work on a team, with both smiles and frustrations. I’ve learned persistence and patience, and to empower my dreams. In these years in UPNi

caragua I believe that in addition to building a community we have also built a family” [my translation].

UPNicaragua is a non-profit social enterprise empowering young Nicaraguan girls through education and mentorship. 100% of the profits from sales are reinvested into the educational programs. There is also a new fellowship program available for those of us able to help.

From the UPNicaragua website https://www.upnicaragua.org

WHAT IS THE UNLEASH POTENTIAL FELLOWSHIP?

The UP Fellowship,  was launched in January 2020, and seeks to empower a young generation of Granada girls, providing them with professional and personal skills necessary to weave safer futures and live meaningful adult lives through their personal and professional actions in society.  The UP Fellowship is unique because it combines 21st century professional skills with emotional intelligence and humanism. 

Every 18 months, a new class of  young Nicaraguan girls is selected to engage in a series of workshops, classes and discussions–to be inspired by their instructors and fellows, to learn new professional and personal skills, to engage in discussions about some of the hard questions we face as humans and begin to dream of not simply careers, jobs and incomes, but also action, purpose and happiness.

Each class is chosen from a wide pool of Granada girls (between 13-18 years old) with demonstrated curiosity and leadership potential, who have a spark for learning and sharing and who demonstrate a special  interest or desire for helping others.  Priority is given but is not limited to applicants with socioeconomic vulnerability. 

The fellowship program is comprised of three education blocks–social education, professional skills and emotional skills, all workshops and classes are facilitated by skilled instructors.   Fellows are expected to end the 18 month program with a community-oriented project.

WHAT DOES THE UPNICARAGUA FELLOWSHIP SCHOLARSHIP FUND?

The Unleash Potential Nicaragua fellowship funds 760 fellowship hours (148 hrs content, 72 hrs yoga, 300 hrs English, 240 hrs digital skills), food during programming days as well as all the resources and equipment needed for the courses.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER FELLOWS GRADUATE?

Once a fellow covers the content and projects within the fellowship, they go on to graduate, implement their community project and receive a diploma.  After this they become part of a life-long community of Unleash Potential Fellows.  A local and tight community meant to be a source of support, accountability as well as positive actions.

3 Comments