Education improves prospects of girls in Bluefields

On the drive from the capital Managua to Bluefields on the Atlantic coast we pass through numerous villages and small towns where poverty is omnipresent. Simple, often makeshift dwellings are a reflection of the daily struggle for survival that many people face.

This impression is also conveyed by Bluefields, which has a population of around 45,000. The town on the southern Atlantic coast has made a name for itself as a paradise for windsurfers. But apart from a few modern buildings that stand out, simple houses with corrugated iron roofs dominate the cityscape.

Nevertheless, in Bluefields you also meet people who radiate optimism and hope for a better future. They work in an institution where loving care is provided to 13 teenage girls from humble and sometimes problematic backgrounds. In their home towns, several hours’ drive from Bluefields, they were only able to attend elementary school.

Thanks to CSI’s support, the institution offers these girls a secondary school education to prepare them for further studies or practical training. They live in the home where they receive meals and psychological care. At the same time, they all help with household chores.

​

Looking ahead despite an accident

Thirteen-year-old Yojeycin is from the Limón district on the southern Pacific coast, a ten-hour drive from Bluefields. To attend elementary school there, she had to travel four hours a day. There was no secondary school.

Yojeycin was happy living at home with her eight siblings. But she is grateful to have been accepted into the Bluefields institution with two of her sisters in January 2022.

“In the beginning, I missed my family. But now I feel comfortable here and am thankful to have been given this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” she explains.

A month after arriving at Bluefields, Yojeycin had a serious accident in which she lost the little finger on her right hand. “Fortunately, the doctors and therapists treated me so professionally that my right hand healed well,” she says.

Yojeycin enjoys English and Spanish classes the most. She dreams of becoming a teacher one day.

Plans to study medicine

Martha (16) has a different career goal. After graduating from school in Bluefields, she wants to study medicine. She comes from a large family and has 11 siblings. Martha was six years old when her parents separated. Martha has not seen her mother since the age of ten.

Because her father couldn’t take care of all the children, Martha was taken to live with her great-aunt in Bluefields when she was 14.

“When I found out about the girls’ school through a young woman who had graduated, I inquired about a place myself,” she recalls. Martha was admitted in early 2022.

At the beginning, she struggled with the necessary discipline. But Martha soon changed her attitude. “I am glad that I can attend secondary school here and that my performance has improved,” she says.

Reto Baliarda