The Peace Project is a community organization, hostel and nationally recognized NGO, working to expand educational opportunities, foster environmental stewardship, and facilitate community development in Laguna de Apoyo, Nicaragua. Our volunteers tutor in a public and private school school each week and offer English language courses, environmental / recyclable art projects and swimming lessons to our community at our hostel. Teaching aside, our “Becados” scholarship program for underprivileged youth provides the necessary school supplies, and tuition for nearly two dozen students to attend the Laura Vicuña Public School, and we are looking to grow!. The Peace Project combines the tenets of Peace Education – which is the interactive process of learning to love and respect oneself, others and the environment - with classes and tutoring in a variety of areas including English language, art, computing and environmental sustainability.
The Peace Project Hostel and the Volcano Divers Scuba Diving Activities Center are also our sustainable engines, that help cover some costs for our educational and community projects. Please learn more about our work on our website at: thepeaceprojectnicaragua.org, and check out our development first hand on our Facebook at The Peace Project Facebook.
This year, the Peace Project is planning on expanding its educational programs here at home, and at the Gilberto Siles Public School where our volunteers tutor each week. Our goals are to:
- First, construct a community center at our hostel, and home, in La Laguna de Apoyo, in order to better facilitate our weekly tutoring courses with members of our direct local community, while providing them with an open and safe space to come together and utilize our resources and internet.
- Second, acquire the neighboring property of the Gilberto Siles Public school, which currently has the funds necessary to construct two new buildings, doubling it classroom size, on that land. Including, improving their athletic field and minimizing hazards.
- Third, construct additional volunteer housing for our existing volunteers, as well as the additional volunteers to come, who will work in our current programs, our future community center, and the additional classrooms at the Gilberto Siles Public School.
- Fourth, purchase more computers for our computing courses, which is the favorite course among all of our students
The four educational development projects 2017 total $10,000: Community Center/Volunteer Dorms ($6,000), Gilberto Siles School Property/Athletic Field ($2,500), Computers ($1,500). We are currently seeking funds for these projects from people and organizations who are willing to invest, not only economically, but emotionally and physically, in our work. Please take a look at each project’s summary below, and reach out to us if you would like to contribute to any, or all, of these projects [email protected].
We are hoping to establish long lasting relationships with our donors, and we invite anyone who is interested in joining our family to visit us at our hostel and dive centre in La Laguna de Apoyo, Nicaragua!
The Peace Project Nicaragua is a registered Nicaraguan non-governmental organization (NGO). We are a sponsored project of the Keyser Rotary Club in West Virginia, who are registered as a 501(c)(3) and issuer of tax deductible receipts for eligible donations.
Group photo of our Becados and our Volunteers
(1) Peace Project Community Center and Volunteer Dorms
$6,000
Community Center:
- In and around the shores of La Laguna de Apoyo, there exists a vibrant community. From local business owners, restaurants and shops, to every day families, who commute up to the rim on a daily basis. Within our community, The Peace Project is one of the main centers for youth to visit, partake in English courses, utilize the internet, take swimming lessons, and enjoy their time making new friends from around the world who visit our hostel. Every week, we get new visitors from our community who are looking to learn more about the world, practice their English and participate in a cross-cultural exchange. With all of this in mind, we plan on building a community center on our property that will have the capacity to host enhanced classes in computing, English, art and environment. The center will be a covered and secure space with concrete walls, a roof, windows and doors that lock. Inside, we want to install tables, chairs, a chalkboard and electricity for our computing classes. The size of the center will be approximately the same size as our dormitories, and it will be constructed directly above those dorms on the hill (See Picture Below).
Panorama of the Community Center land (left), beside the blue roofs of our dorms below (right)
Layout of the Community Center land before construction (Left), and after construction (Right)
- Our first classes in this new center will involve bringing together the community for art and environment courses, where we will reinvent the Community Center’s space. We will introduce green spaces within and around the center, and also paint the walls with images and messages that are representative of our Laguna de Apoyo community. We will specifically bring in volunteers to work at this center each week, and organize classes with other volunteers in a diverse spectrum of courses. In order to bring in more volunteers for the community center, we are planning on building more volunteer dorms.
Volunteer Dorms:
- Our volunteers are the lifeblood of our organization and they come from different backgrounds and diverse parts of the world to work with the Peace Project and the Volcano Divers, as English/Computing/Art Tutors, Scuba Diving Instructors, Fundraising Coordinators, Dive Masters, Social Workers, Hotel Managers, Marine Biologists, etc. We are home to 7-8 volunteers on average throughout the year.
- Our current Volunteer House can only hold 4 occupants. As a result of the lack of volunteer housing, our remaining volunteers stay in private rooms within our Hostel, which ultimately stunts the economic potential of our hostel which is a sustainable funding engine for our NGO. Our solution is to build more volunteer housing. Luckily, the Peace Project has a plethora of beautiful and unused property that we are very eager to take advantage of.
- Specifically, the upper levels of our property is home to a pre-existing foundation (See Picture Below) that we want to turn into additional volunteer housing, and grow off of it. This project will provide us with living space for our existing volunteers, as well as, create vacant spaces for additional volunteers.
An existing foundation on our property that can be transformed into Volunteer living space
- Staying true to our promise to expand as an organization, we plan on taking on additional, and incredibly unique, volunteers in the near future, from experienced artists and botanists, to construction managers and curriculum planners. More housing means more teachers in our classrooms tutoring engaging children and more weekly community engagement projects at our hostel. We hope to provide our community with an even deeper global perspective brought from people with experiences who are willing to dedicate their time to improving La Laguna and Nicaragua at large.
(2) Gilberto Siles School - Property/Classrooms/Athletic Field
$2,500
Property/Classrooms:
- Peace Project volunteers were invited to a recent PTA meeting at the Gilberto Siles School, where our tutors volunteer each week. The PTA meeting was held by parents and leaders of the community, home to over 100 families. The objective of this meeting was to organize fundraisers in order to acquire the neighboring land that would be used to double their classroom size (from 4 classrooms to 8). The community has already fundraised the money necessary to build the actual classrooms in their entirety, but they simply lack the funds necessary to purchase the land (Land picture below).
- As a result, the Parents eagerly meet every other week (picture below) to find new ways to fundraise for this property, which will also act as an extension of the safe and educational community space that currently exists in there.
Panorama of the Two Building (4 classrooms) of the Gilberto Siles Public School in Galanes. (Left) Parent Teacher Conference
(Right) Gilberto Siles School, (Left) The Land that the school is looking to acquire
(Left) Parent Teacher Conference, including leaders in the community and parents of students at Gilberto Siles School. (Right) Primary School Students Learning Where to Put their Trash “En La Basura!”
Athletic Field:
- The Gilberto Siles athletic field is only a short 5 minute walk from where its classrooms are located. Students can be found playing soccer and kick ball each day after class or during the weekend. It consists of a concrete floor, with concrete steps (benches) along its lengths. Two metal frames are used as goals which are located at each end.
- Immediate safety hazards: The concrete field is elevated on a small hill, and it lacks a wall to protect children from falling off and injuring themselves (see picture below). Witout a wall, children are also required to fetch the ball down the hill as there is nothing to help stop the ball from rolling off the field (Picture below). Metal bars are sticking out of the stairs which are used as benches, and sometimes they can be hidden beneath leaves that need to be removed. There are also certain parts of the pitch that have dangerous holes and cracks that we would like to fill in and smooth over.
A wall needs to be built in order to protect children, and their balls, from falling off the field
- Equipment: The Soccer frames are both without nets, so children spend most of their time chasing balls each day. The students also continually use deflated and popped soccer balls, and do not have a secure location to stow them or hide them away at the end of each day. Balls also tend to pop easily as the field has no walls or nets that keep the balls from ending up coming in contact with bushes and brush below.
- Garbage Cans: Environmental sustainability is something that each student practices and preaches in class each week. In our efforts to change the mentality of handling garbage in Nicaragua, we would like to install garbage cans by the Athletic Field as well as near the school.
- Paint and Art: As part of a new art class that our volunteers will be hosting and getting our students involved, we would love create a large mural on the wall and benches of the pitch (Picture of all below). We also would like to repaint the goal posts.
(3) Computers for Computing Class
$1,500
Computers:
- Computing classes are one of the integral components of our weekly educational programs at both the Laura Vicuna Private School and Gilberto Siles Public School. We currently have only 4 operational computers that we use each week, and we would love to double, if not triple, this number, in order to accommodate our growing classroom sizes. Computing is among the top classes that students enjoy the most at both schools!
- For now, we would like to purchase a least 6 more, more than doubling our capacity, which would provide at least 10 of our students with the opportunity to participate each computing class.
A computing class taking place on our deck at the Peace Project
Students excited to start computing at the Laura Vicuna School
| More Info: The Peace Project Hostel | |
 | Overview: Our hostel offers comfortable, safe, inexpensive lodging, authentic Nicaraguan cuisine, a very friendly atmosphere, right on the edge of a breathtaking crater lake. Enjoy the sounds of our neighboring howler monkeys, Laguna waves and over a dozen species of birds. The Peace Project Hostel is the sustainable engine that helps drive our entire organization and all of our integral education and environmental programs. |
| For every guest who stays at our hostel, a portion of their proceeds go into our community development programs. The rest goes into reinvestment with the intent of expanding our capacity and quality as an innovative Laguna de Apoyo Hostel. One of our main goals as an NGO is to support local employment opportunities. With this in mind, our entire hostel staff is managed and run by local Nicaraguans who have received professional job training by our own volunteers and Peace Project staff. Together each day, alongside all of our volunteers, we host a collective family lunch and dinner (provided by us and our own kitchen staff). Our hostel is known as the most tranquil and socio-economically, culturally and environmentally conscious hostel circling the Laguna. Our hostel is a great place to stay, a great cause to support! | |
| More Info - Volcano Divers Nicaragua | |
 | Overview: Scuba diving in Laguna de Apoyo is a unique experience that you cannot find anywhere else in Nicaragua. Here, you can dive along the volcanic slopes, hold your hands into thermal vents and get up close and personal with endemic fish that you will not find anywhere else in the world. Visibility is always great and the temperature is so perfect that you don’t even need a wetsuit. It is also important to note that our prices are the cheapest in all of Central America. |
| Located in our very own hostel, Volcano Divers Nicaragua offers diving opportunities for those of all varying levels by certified and highly experienced dive masters and instructors. Underwater Photos of the Laguna de Apoyo Ecosystem If you have never gone diving before, we can take you out for a Discover Dive or help you get PADI Open Water certified. If you are an Advanced Diver, we can take you down to 30 meters into the heart of the Volcano. Volcano Divers Nicaragua works together with the Peace Project Hostel in that all profits of the dive shop go towards NGO initiatives that seek to improve the quality of life and economic well-being of the impoverished communities at the shores of Laguna de Apoyo. By diving with us you also support a great cause! | |
| Contact Information: | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
