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Hello world!

By on April 13, 2011 in 2011, Brown, El Salvador, Miami

Everyone on the Nourish Team from Brown and Miami is very excited to make our way to El Salvador! We have been working very hard to plan this trip and we are anxious to implement everything we have worked on! We will be flying out on May 21st which is quickly approaching. We have thirty days in El Salvador which I feel is going to fly by! We are staying in Guacamaya which is in the department of Morazan. I am excited to experience a new culture and get to know our host families! We are all also ready to begin construction on the school building in the town which is much needed. It’s a new challenge and I believe all of us are looking forward to it. I know we are especially thrilled about working with the children in the community! Before we go we are hoping to collect some school supplies to take with us. My hope is that our time in Guacamaya will leave a lasting impact on the community. There will hopefully be a lot of posts and even more pictures to keep everyone updated about our time in El Salvador!

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Community Development in Nicaragua

By on April 13, 2011 in 2011, Nicaragua, UNM

Update from the Project Director:

I must admit, beyond our solid commitment to Nicaragua, the planning for our first project has been complicated. I took over the project planning half-way through the game, just about the time of our big push with Global Giving. At that point, none of us had much information on the actual logistics, but we managed to pull through on the ideas of sustainability and improvement.

None of us could have anticipated the huge success of our fund raising, but as a happy consequence, our group will now be able to increase the span of our impact on the local communities around Granada, Nicaragua.

So far, we have five project participants who will be staying with local families employed by Casa Xalteva (see links) for five weeks. The flights are booked, the insurance is in progress, but all of us are just now starting our immunizations. For each project, we will be working with the local communities, and also expect to receive 5 more volunteers for part of the project.

We will be repairing roofs (goal: 75-100) in 2-3 different communities, two with Casa de la Mujer (see links) in a housing project in Granada, and a shanty town. The rest of our projects will be with Viva Nicaragua! (see links).

The non-roofing part of our project branches out to two other communities: Los Cocos and Santa Ana- each about 20 km from Granada. In Los Cocos, there is a need for improvements on the local school – one of the roofs was installed improperly, so the wooden frame has rotted. We will be repairing this and also plan to add privacy to their latrine, so the kids will not have to use the neighbors’.

(Roof preview)

Finally, in Santa Ana we will be raising the walls of the community well (which is too low and floods with sediment during the rainy season).

(Well preview)

Tentative Project Schedule:
1st – 3rd Week — Roof repairs in Solidaridad Housing Project (Granada),
El Pantanal
4th Week — Los Cocos
5th Week — Santa Ana

Since we will be visiting during the rainy season, our outdoor work hours are limited to the morning and early afternoon. Therefore, to make the best use of our time, we plan on spending the rest of the day working with the children at Casa Xalteva.

If we are not working on the weekends, we plan to spend a day on an excursion; ex: Granada tour, Canopy Tour, visit Pueblos Blancos, visit Las Isletas de Granada, and a San Juan del Sur (a beach)!

We are all very excited and thankful for this great opportunity.
Our departure date is July 5. In that time, expect weekly updates from any one of the project participants until we return on August 9. It should be a grand time of trial and error. :)

Until then!
-Ash

( Participants —> Sam H, Kyanne, Ash, Brie, Sam W )

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Hello world!

By on April 13, 2011 in 2011, Mozambique, UPenn

We are all so excited and in the middle of our preparations to go to Mozambique, to help with the Young Africa organization in Beira. Every year, hundreds of young people in Mozambique have the desire and passion to work, sadly, they are not offered the education or technical skills to have an income of their own. Young Africa is a wonderful organization that donates lots that are great for agriculture and gives the communities a school that teaches the art of agriculture. Not only are they giving these young people the ability to have personal earnings but they are also giving work to the community, healthier eating options and a place for community programs. With the University of Pennsylvania Nourish chapter we are going to go create a curriculum for the school to use in the long term as well as create community gatherings and hopefully teach them as much as we will learn ourselves. We are currently preparing for our project by learning more about the people and the country and should be shipping out the 25th of July!

We have been preparing for months now but it will be a true adventure and we have no idea what blessings and issues we will encounter, if you wish to follow our project’s process stay in touch with our blog and join us in our experience.

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