Photographs courtesy of North Country Mission of Hope.
By BGR Staff
Nicaragua is one of the Western Hemisphere’s poorest countries. In the rural areas outside Managua, in western Nicaragua, 30 percent of the population lives in poverty and 11.5 percent in extreme poverty. In the region served by a BGR project here, only a quarter of families have access to safe drinking water and sanitary facilities, and nearly half the children suffer from chronic malnutrition.
While education here is free, and mandated until age 12, only 66 percent of Nicaraguan children complete lower secondary school (equivalent to U.S. grade 9). It is estimated that half the children ages 10 to 14 work to help support their families.
A BGR project since 2016, the North Country Mission of Hope’s Educational Sponsorship of Girls in Nicaragua has given hundreds of girls and young women in need the opportunity to attend school. Each student in the program receives tuition and/or registration fees, a food stipend, schoolbooks, and the government-mandated school uniform and insignia, along with shoes, socks, menstrual supplies, and other necessities.
These girls and young women face grave challenges in attending school and managing family responsibilities under an increasingly repressive regime. During the 2022 school year, four students fled the country with their families to escape persecution under Nicaragua’s totalitarian government, which has imprisoned or deported critics of the regime, Catholic clergy and monastics, journalists, Indigenous rights’ activists, and others. By April 2018, some 3,500 NGOs had been forced to close their doors—approximately half the number of organizations working in Nicaragua in April 2018, according to Human Rights Watch. Those individuals and families who relied on these organizations for their basic needs have been left to fend for themselves.
Between 2016 and 2022, BGR sponsored the education of hundreds of elementary and secondary school students, many of whom remained in the program through their graduation. In 2022, in addition to supporting 120 of these younger students, the program sponsored two students who were completing post–high school technical degrees, a stepping stone to careers in a growing field. While earning her technical degree, one of these students, Juliana, also enrolled in an English immersion program at the NCMH campus. Upon graduation, she was hired by an international technical-support firm in Managua, where she now works full-time in a bilingual position.
In a letter to BGR, Juliana wrote, in part:
Before, I did not have many vocabulary words and I didn’t have the confidence of speaking in English like I do now. About four months ago, I was hired by a bilingual company, and I was able to fulfill my goal of speaking English fluently and with confidence, and I was able to help my family economically. All of this was a difficult process for me; nonetheless, the classes I took through this project helped me and motivated me to continue toward this goal.
In the following year, BGR expanded its partnership with NCMH with a second project providing educational support specifically for young women seeking to continue their education after high school at technical schools or universities.
For the 2024 school year, nine students are enrolled in technical school, studying subjects including accounting, nursing, English, computers, cosmetology, and culinary arts. Thirteen students are enrolled at the university level, pursuing degrees in psychology, medicine, advertising, international relations and foreign trade, pedagogy, industrial engineering, education, gastronomy, and customs studies.
One student, Martha, who earned an accounting degree through this program, wrote the following to thank the BGR supporters whose generosity helped her to complete her education.
Dear Buddhist Global Relief:
I am writing to thank you and to tell you how you helped me throughout this process to become a professional and to be able to continue growing as a person every day. …
Without a doubt, this is a great achievement and step in my life, all thanks to the support I received. I feel very blessed and happy. …
I thank you from the very bottom of my heart for trusting me.
