Projects Making a Difference
ViviendasLeón assesses and responds to needs, creates new development models and implements projects through our Rural Development Program.
Since 2003, ViviendasLeón has been working in the rural community of Goyena, located in the indigenous region of León known as Sutiaba. This region extends west from the city to the Pacific Ocean. There are more than 250 families living in Goyena, many of these are households occupied solely by mothers and their children.
During this period, ViviendasLeón has constructed, with the participation of the community and students traveling to Nicaragua through our Global Education Travel program, a preschool serving 30 children and a primary school offering grades K-6 in the mornings, and grades 7-8 in the afternoons. In addition, we have constructed a house, owned by the community, for one of the teachers and her family.
As a result of our work and the work of other NGO’s, there has been a 400% increase in school attendance, with between 75 and 80 percent of the children of Goyena now attending school through the sixth grade. In the last two years, ViviendasLeón has provided financial assistance to secondary school students to continue through the 11th grade. Over time more students will continue their education through the secondary level and some will even choose to pursue their studies at the university.
Our current project is a community center, with support from the USF School of Architecture, that will provide space for adult education classes, a public library, a kitchen, an auditorium, a health clinic and offices.
Concurrently, ViviendasLeón is also providing financial and/or technical support for students pursuing their high school education, the Madre Tierra arts center, latrine construction for the schools and our first micro-enterprise, a women’s sewing cooperative, with a grant from IWC and major institutional support from the USF School of Business.
The strategy of the Rural Development Program encompasses the following program areas:
Construction:
- Construction projects are designed and implemented in partnership with the USF School of Architecture and Community Development.
- Projects include Preschools, K-11 schools, Community centers, sanitation and potable water
- Community centers serve as the locus for community organizing, adult education and social or cultural events;
- Latrines are built to improve access to sanitation,
- Public potable water systems are implemented to serve the entire community
- Click here to see a complete list of our projects
- Click here to see photos of our projects
Micro-enterprise:
- Enterprises are developed and implemented in partnership with the USF School of Business
- Women’s Sewing Cooperative. Funding from IWC with support from the USF School of Business
- Future proposed enterprises: Furniture cooperative, Bakery cooperative, Honey cooperative, Egg and poultry cooperative and Firewood cooperative among others.
Agro forestry:
- Education and program support supplied in partnership with Trees for the Future.
- Reforestation combined with soil restoration, food crop and firewood crop implementation
- Small food garden training, seed support and implementation
- Organic composting
- Trash collection and community composting
Education support:
- Secondary school tuition fund: supports students choosing to continue through the 11th grade.
- Provided to secondary students in partnership with the New Haven/León Sister City Project
- Education resource fund: supplies classroom materials
- After school education fund: pays for teachers to stay in the afternoon, providing additional support to students
- Madre Tierra Arts Center: currently houses the Youth Arts Program, which focuses on building the self-esteem, creativity, and expressive skills of adolescents in the
- rural community through arts-based projects such as collage, painting, puppetry, and theater.
Human capacity development:
- Human capacity development is the effort to bring skills—e.g. basic math and accounting, and abilities—e.g. leadership and organization, to the families of rural communities.
- This critical component of ongoing and sustainable development enables the community to envision and create its own future through individual and collective contributions.
- ViviendasLeón staff works directly with leaders in the community while students and partner organizations bring specific training and expertise to the community.