Project Nicaragua’s March 2010 trip was full of firsts. In addition to continuing our usual activities delivering seminars, going on business consulting visits, and checking up on our lending program, we added a few new activities to our week in Nicaragua:
1. We expanded our business seminars to a new location in Nicaragua—the city of Catarina. While one group of students stayed in Managua to teach beginning and advanced seminars, a smaller group of students traveled an hour away to Catarina to deliver our beginner seminar to 20 new participants. The business owners loved the content and made us promise to come back. We see a lot of great, new business relationships coming out of this in the future. 
2. Project Nicaragua is expanding its outreach efforts with Nica Hope. During our visits to Nicaragua, we often visit a nonprofit called Nica Hope, which provides education and job training to children who live in the local dump, La Chureca. In the past, we have gone to spend time with the kids, play games, make crafts, etc. Nica Hope suggested a different activity for this visit, which we really enjoyed. The teens who participate in Nica Hope’s jewelry program paired up with each of us to teach us how to make bracelets, necklaces and earrings. We had fun interacting with the kids, and they got to see how talented they are compared to us!
While we were there, we also delivered about 50 pairs of shoes and $100 in cash to buy children’s sized shoes, which were donated by faculty, staff and students at Wake Forest.
A few of us from the first-year MBA class will also work on a pricing and marketing channels project for Nica Hope’s jewelry program during Mini 4, and Project Nicaragua is also considering creating a business seminar for the teens and kids in the future.
3. One of the most exciting new aspects of our March trip was getting a briefing from the U.S. Embassy. One of the lead economists from the embassy visited our group to discuss the elections that took place that week and how the political aspirations of the country’s president may affect Nicaraguan businesses in the future. This helped provide greater context for the type of environment the business owners we work with are operating within.
This was another successful Project Nicaragua trip, and we are looking forward to growing the program and continuing to improve our seminars, deliverables and lending process for future trips.
