Empowerment: Women's Self Defense

In addition to abounding energy, we enjoy having summer interns in Nicaragua because they can add unique and varied skill sets and knowledge to our work here. Whether it is someone gifted in education that can take the time to sit down with one of our students who has been struggling in class or medical students that bring a wealth of knowledge and passion to our health programs, we are thankful for their generosity.

This session one of our interns, Dana, became a part of our efforts in women's empowerment by teaching self defense class during our Women's Exercise program. With the help of fellow interns and a few PDs, Dana led an hour-long session covering basic defense strategies from different attack scenarios. The class also included a discussion about the prevalence of violence against women and the importance of creating a public discourse for this often ignored problem. A recent WHO study reported that over 1-in-3 women will be the victim of physical/sexual assault during their lifetime, which gives us quite the perspective shift since that means approximately three of the ten women in class will experience abuse during their lifetime.

Bienvenidos Nuevos!

This past weekend we welcomed our second group of Summer Interns into the Manna house. They have already jumped into helping with programs, running summer camp, and getting to know our families here in Nica. They come with energy, passion, and so many great ideas for impacting this community in their short time of service. We are grateful for their presence and hopeful of all they will do in the next few weeks with us!

Be sure to check out the "Summer" tab (above) to hear their personal accounts of their adventures here in Nica! 

Farewell Kiely

We are sad here in Nicaragua to bid farewell to one of our year-long Program Directors, Kiely. She has added so much to our family and community over the past 11 months and we're just so thankful. She has served here with MPI teaching Level 5 English, Sexual and Reproductive Health, and Women's Exercise, as well as working in our Child Sponsorship, jewelry, and girls' sports programs. She invested herself in this organization, this house, and this community with gusto, and we will miss her! Best of luck at the Fletcher School, Ky!

Summer Camp

How is it already June?! No one around here can believe how fast time is flying both with our Manna year and with this first group of Summer Interns.

Over the past three weeks, the Summer Interns have been hosting a summer camp for all of our children in Cedro Galan. Four days a week the kids come to Farito for an hour long camp session, where they do anything from playing games to doing crafts. It has been excited to watch our interns get to know the kids so well and to spend such a focused amount of time investing in them. We're thankful for their energy and the opportunity it has given us to encourage creativity and community in our kids through Summer Camp.

Some of their projects have included drawing pictures of things they dream about, creating a collective landscape banner, making predictions/goals about who they want to be in the future, and various Mother's Day crafts. We are looking forward to the things they have planned for their last week. The kids will continue to have camp in El Farito during the week, with a large field day planned at El Salero for Thursday afternoon.