There have been many efforts through the years to work with the local youth and specifically young girls in San Juan del Sur to prevent teenage pregnancy, cut the high school dropout rate and ensure college preparedness. Now, a better program exists and is promising to do all that and more. It is Chicas Adelante, run through Escuela Adelante with the help of Chica Brava, it is a new project for young girls in San Juan del Sur based on developing leadership skills, female empowerment and mutual support. And not to forget, bilingualism, surf and friendship! It is designed to tackle the most important issues facing women all over the world and most especially in a machista culture such as Nicaragua.
We meet monthly, and in our last session, we ran a unique workshop based on having the girls develop and implement a new business model for San Juan del Sur with the aim of uplifting local women out of poverty through education and employment. After a short lecture style presentation and brainstorm on the topic, the students split into groups and collaborated with their teammates to create their pitch for a small business idea. The girls came up with many designs such as a bakery, a nursery for plants, an animal rescue and shelter, and a lemonade stand, each with a distinct mission and set of values. Combining ideas on social justice with an altruistic theme, the businesses all worked to raise the consciousness or improve the health of people and animals in San Juan del Sur. The girls were asked to sketch out their ideas on a poster board in order to plan out the prices of their products and the services that they would provide, and of course how the profits would be used. At the end of the workshop, the students proudly presented to the entire group.
This last session of Chicas Adelante was especially poignant because it required reflection and action and asked the girls to take on a socially conscious and active role in order to consider one of the most important issues facing their community: poverty due to lack of education and employment, as mentioned above. It also asked them to play the role of young entrepreneurs and leaders. This transformative learning process also placed the students in the center of the lesson and asked them to become the creators of change. We hope that through this session and those like it, we can inspire the girls of Chicas Adelante to take a larger role in the economy and development of their town in the future and through their profits and success of their businesses, consider ways to give back and invest in their employees and community in order to have a better San Juan for all.
Jaime Hunter
Director at Escuela Adelante
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