Our Work in Madriz
AMIGOS directly supports our partner agency's effort to raise awareness about the rights of children and promote youth action in communities. AMIGOS Project Staff and Volunteers work to with local youth and community members to carry out the following activities:
I. Community Service
- Community-Based Initiative Process (CBIP): Volunteers collaborate with their host community in the implementation of a community-specific project.
- Extracurricular Activities: Together with local youth, Volunteers will plan and lead games and envinronmentally themed activities for children ages anywhwere from 5-12. AMIGOS and local youth volunteers learn to use arts to address topics related to the basic rights of children. AMIGOS and local youth make art projects like collages, theatre productions, and murals and hold community presentations, showings of the work. Previous weekly themes include: creative expression, healthy bodies, cultural idenity and healthy relationships.
II. Intercultural Exchange
- Living with a host family: Volunteers will have the opportunity to be immersed in Nicaraguan culture by living with a host family. AMIGOS prefers that each Volunteer is assigned to their own host family, however, occasionally two Volunteers are placed with the same host family. Volunteers are expected to act as part of the family, helping out with chores and taking part in day to day activities. Volunteers will learn about the local culture, while also providing host families with insight into their own habits, ways of being in the world, and lives back home.
- Eating local food: Although eating arrangements vary from one community to another, a common strategy is for Volunteers to have a rotating meal plan, in which they eat with different families in the community.
III. Youth Engagement
- Nicaraguan Youth: This project will likely have National Volunteers from other departments in Nicaragua serving as AMIGOS volunteers alongside US-based Volunteers.
- Local Volunteers: Prior to Volunteer arrival, local youth will be trained by AMIGOS project staff on the basic program structure and planning and facilitation skills.
- Forming youth groups: Volunteers are encouraged to be creative and form youth groups in their communities (i.e. afterschool girls group, reading club, sports club, ect.) when possible. This will provide local youth with a structure within which to continue activities started throughout the summer and ensure sustainability of summer initiatives.
About our Partners
Plan has worked in Nicaragua since 1994, helping poor children to access their rights to health, education, protection and economic security. 70% of Nicaragua's population lives in poverty.
We promote children's rights and work to ensure that children, families and communities actively participate in their own development - from identifying problems to implementing solutions.
Today, more than 30,000 children in 6 of the 15 departments of Nicaragua participate in our programmes.
FURTHER ACTIONS
Involving youth from across the Americas
Read about our Partner Agencies
