Our mission is to break the cycle of poverty before it is transferred to yet another generation, by building more educated and productive communities.
As a community based educational program, Empowerment International (EI), works from the bottom up, looking for barriers to providing an education to the impoverished and helping them overcome these barriers. Some of these barriers have included :
- the material necessities for school such as uniforms, shoes, books, etc.
- lack of parent interest in their child's schooling
- children working and providing day care for the familiy
- medical issues
- needing assistance with homework
- tuition for higher education (secondary and university)
Empowerment International began as a small effort to assist 'street children' not attending school in Central America in 1998 in Costa Rica. Incorporating in 2003 in the USA Empowerment International started assisting not only Costa Rica but also Nicaragua which is the second poorest nation in the western hemisphere, second only to Haiti. Since Nicaragua has a large ratio of children to adults, and since only 51% of the children that start 1st grade finish 5th grade, EI felt that the greatest impact of education could occur in this country.
Today EI works with 2 communities, and urban and rural one to help kids enter school and more importantly stay in school regardless of the everyday challenges that arise. There are three local employees that work to faciliate the changes in the communities and the older youth are often learning new aspects of the program and assisting in running it. For example, many of the teens are volunteering 1-2 hours a day to offer their skills to younger children by tutoring and mentoring them.
By the end of the 2009 school year EI had a record retention rate of 97% and a record promotion to the next year of 95%.
How This Organization is Funded
- Private Donors - $31,000
- Events, Tours, and Earned Income - $16,000
- Grants - $27,000