A big hello to all of our friends, family, community and connections near and far!
We are writing to give you a little update about our Waves of Hope community projects that have been happening this year. But first, we want to thank all of you who have generously donated your time, energy and or finances to our ongoing community development initiatives in Manzano Uno. We are extremely grateful for your continued support, thank you. Here is an update on Waves of Hope happenings…
Manzano #2 Pre-School
The old pre-school was in a state of disrepair and lacked a floor. During the rainy season a current would form and flood the pre-school after each hard rain causing the frequent cancellation of classes. Here are pictures of the the old pre-school, and teachers and students in front of the new school. Thanks to the Surf for Life volunteers, GWU Alt Breaks students, our WOH team and all the generous donors, the El Manzano community now has a safe school for the children. We are excited to see such positive changes! Here is an excerpt from an interview with Silvia, the Preschool Teacher: “Before, the preschool was like a storage room. The dirt floor was horrible, especially when it rained. Now I feel better because the school is in really good condition and the children feel better too. I was so afraid that the roof was going to fall in on us. Now we are so happy! ” – Silvia Medrano, Manzano Preschool Teacher
Centennial College Service Trip
Last May, Centennial College joined Waves of Hope for an inspiring service trip. There were 14 nursing students, 3 massage students and 1 International business student led by 4 teachers and and our Waves of Hope ambassadors, Lester and Kathia. The group did an absolute stand up job of teaching and learning with our local community. They spent time with our local youth discussing sex ed, first aid and nutrition, learning about our local clinic, sourcing out future opportunities to help with business and teaching local ladies massage techniques to create jobs and further valuable skills. A huge congratulations and thank you to the students and teachers of Centennial College for being a part of this meaningful and impactful educational experience. Also an extra thank you to our Waves of Hope ambassadors Lester and Kathia for employing great leadership, organization and collaboration skills! We are already in the process of organizing our Centennial College service trip for next summer and we look forward to hosting the group and seeing the positive impact on our local community.
Providence College, George Washington & Case Western University Service Trips
Case Western University completed another awesome week of service projects which included facilitating activities with the local school kids, helping to improve community infrastructure through basic construction projects, and working on afterschool programs with our local youth group. George Washington did a great job installing a partition wall, new tile floor and paint job on the Fransisco Laguna school and the group also installed pads for hopsckotch and foursquare at our local Manzanu Uno elementary school. Providence College provided a unique experience for the kids to get creative and dream big as their week focused on activities involving the kids using their imagination and arts and crafts to create something out of recycled and natural materials. They also worked on a listening and podcast project that involved interviewing local community leaders and elders. Huge congrats and thank you to all the students and teachers involved in these University service trips. We hope the time your students experienced with Waves of Hope made a difference in their lives as it did in our community!
One Voice & The Beautiful Project collaboration with Waves of Hope
We were so excited to host the One Voice team again this summer and they returned to Coco Loco for a very inspiring week of art, music and dance! This incredible group of artists is on a mission travelling the world bringing messages of love and joy to children across every continent. Here is the list of goals that the One Voice team nailed on their collaboration with WOH – 1.) Assist the students (and skilled workers) in constructing a performance stage out of concrete, tile, and a roof of palm leaves. 2.) Assist the students in photo-documenting this particular week-in-the-life of their community by bringing digital cameras, printers, and journals, all of which will remain there. 3.) Assist the students in painting a mural on the front wall of their school and creating an inaugural music/dance/spoken word performance for the community. The One Voice team was so excited to help the kids build a physical platform for their voices and then give them the opportunity to decide what they want and need to say to their community and the world.
One Voice & The Beautiful Project collaboration with Waves of Hope cont…
Here is an awesome overview of the groups service trip with Waves of Hope: “It was such a joy to be able to return to rural northern Nicaragua this year and reunite with many of the kids we worked with last year as well as make new friends. Over the course of one week, 10 students and I created several gifts of art you see pictured here. Even though these brave new artists had never painted before, they dove in with commitment, dedication, imagination and passion. It brought me so much joy to see these kids, who were initially (and understandably) reluctant to express themselves on such a large and public scale, take risks and dare to come alive on the mural walls each day. The fruition of their willingness to leap into the unknown and their commitment to the process are the gifts of are you see pictured here that will inspire and enrich their community for years to come”. To learn more about One Voice and The Beautiful Project, visit and support their sites here, One Voice & The Beautiful Project.
Baby Turtle Project
An ongoing project to save baby turtle eggs from poachers. Egg laying season is typically around end of August to end of October and guests get to enjoy watching the hatching season from around Nov until the start of Jan. Last year we hatched 6800 and nested 8700 which were olive, ridley and green sea turtles. This brings us to 20,000 over 5 years and a huge thanks to the Surf with Amigas for supporting this project!!
Share the Stoke local surf comp & Firewire surfboard donations
Share the Stoke came back to Northern Nicaragua this past summer to help us put on an awesome surf comp for the local rippers and gifted new surfboards as prizing for many of the competitors. We feel incredibly fortunate to have had STSF support out local community of surfers for the past two years and if you love rad travel adventure stories based on doing good then click here for the full experience.
The Clean Water Community Initiative
In August we hosted a team of volunteers from Surf For Life and began digging trenches alongside our team of community volunteers from El Manzano #1. A very generous new neighbor from Spain donated a back hoe as well to help speed along the trench work. Trenches were dug from the site of the well to the water tank and pressure tubes were laid. This covered a distance of about 700 meters. We have also installed the community water tank of a concrete platform on a hill at the heighest point of the property. Water will be pumped up to this tank and will run by gravity to each community home. We recently also completed trenching and piping along the main community roads covering over 2000 meters of distance. There has been a tremendous amount of work completed over the past few months and we are extremely proud of the hard work and commitment to this project shown by the members of El Manzano #1. Over the next couple of months we will also be installing connections from the main pipes to each home in the community and also installing the water pump and filtration systems. We plan to have the clean filtered water running before our goal of December 31st, 2015. Also a huge thank you to local business neighbours, Rise Up Surf Tours who organized a local triathlon where all proceeds were donated to this community project, awesome work guys – thanks again!
Final touches to Francisco Laguna Elementary School
Francisco Laguna Elementary School is one of our favourite projects and the building was finished last year but it still needed some final touches. Tile floors were laid in every classroom, a new partition wall was built to separate classes and a little landscaping project out front was created to beautify the school and hopefully make the kids proud of their school building!
UPCOMING PROJECTS
Manzano #1 pre school – To get new shelves, chairs, desks, writing materials and door frames as termites have imposed themselves on old supplies and materials. Need to replace the original roof.
Manzano #1 elementary school – To get new flushing toilet and septic with the new water line and new playground set to be purchased and installed.
Art Bound Grant – Launching an art program at the high school 2017, art, visual art, dance and music.
Clean Water Community Initiative – Connecting the main pipes to each home in the community and also installing the water pump and filtration systems. We plan to have the clean filtered water running by goal December 31st, 2015.
Centennial College – return trip this Summer. We are in discussions with the team at Centennial to help establish a local market place for local good, local food, artisanal goods, crafts and art. The previous sexual education was so impactful that the Centennial nurses will be developing further sex ed health workshops focusing on preventing teenage pregnancy.
Permaculture Design Education – We have applied for a scholarship for our local worker and Waves of Hope ambassador to join for a 90 hour Permaculture Design Course in Ometepe Island at Project Bonafide but there will still be additional costs to have them join for this course, learn more here. There are many ways to describe Permaculture but essentially is it ecological design for enviornmental regeneration with the production of yields for human consumption. We strongly believe in the ethics and principles of Permaculture Design and would love for our community to have the education and knowledge of this land care to be passed on for future generations. There will be further blog posts dedicated entirely to this conversation, look out for more soon!
We feel like we have been able to make such incredible progress down here over the past few years and our reach continues to grow. Educational opportunities are greater than they have ever been here and we still feel like there is so much more that can be done. We have been able to accomplish all of this because of the amazing support we have recieved from all of you and from many other great organizations as well. For that we are very grateful and if you are still determined to support this incredible community then please consider donating today, thank you so much for taking the time to read our update and we hope you find the time to come and see the progress in person.
Lastly, we have more regular updates on social media, our instagram account is @wavesofhope1 and you can see a few extra pics and shares on our WOH facebook page.
Cydney & The Waves team.