Unleashing Potential: Empowering Nicaraguan Girls Through Collaboration
Location(s): Nicaragua
Key(s): Education, Maternal and Reproductive Health
This new collective project between Rockflower, Casa Congo, the Sirenitas Surf Club and CHAVA aims to engage Sirenitas Surf Club participants and neighboring youth by implementing a workshop curriculum to impact 50+ young Nicaraguan girls during 2023-2024 by helping them to set goals and promote agency.
Casa Congo is a sustainability hub in El Astillero, Nicaragua, where local communities and international experts come together to create projects that address climate change, social inequality, and economic development challenges. It is also home to two women collectives, Las Tejedoras & Las Flores, who will be involved in the implementation of this project.
Sirenitas Surf Club is a non-profit based in Limón 2, Nicaragua. It was established as a youth club in 2017 and developed into a youth development program for Nicaraguan girls in Limón 2 and neighboring communities with a mission to empower young Nicaraguan girls through surfing, swimming, and education.
CHAVA is an organization that develops digital solutions that enable young Latinas to become informed and confident advocates for their own sexuality, health, pleasure, education, and power to transform the state of sexual and reproductive health in Latin America. They build upon the growing adoption and preference for digital communication and commerce among Gen-Z and Millennial Latinas to offer access to essential sex education and products.
Together, these three organizations will combine their strengths to empower underserved adolescent girls in Nicaragua through a series of workshops over the course of two years. These workshops will help to develop 30 students ages 10-18 who are members of Las Sirenitas and surrounding surf clubs.
Each year will focus on a specific theme. The first being “Puedo hacer cualquier cosa que me proponga./ I can do anything I set my mind to.” and the second, “Mi futuro es brillante./My future is bright.”
The goals of the project are:
To create an increased sense of agency among participants including:
Developing an understanding of the definition of empowerment
Developing an understanding of what empowerment means to the participant and what it means to feel empowered
Enhancing perceived level of personal empowerment and self-esteem
Acquiring knowledge and skills related to bettering participants’ perceived level of personal empowerment and self-esteem.
2. To provide self-empowerment tools for participants to apply in their own lives including:
Developing a sense of financial independence
Strengthening menstrual and reproductive knowledge to overcome menstrual and reproductive health barriers
Developing life planning agency through sexual and reproductive knowledge
Overall, this project will provide a space for adolescent girls who are often preoccupied with meeting their basic needs, to focus on themselves and envision their potential and goals for the future. Helping these young people to find confidence in their own strength along with knowledge about their reproductive and sexual health will help them to have greater agency over their lives as they grow into adulthood.
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