Help send Tatiana to high school!

Hands Across the Hemisphere: High Bluff Academy  & Escuela Vera Angelita 

 

Students at High Bluff Academy (HBA) , a small, private college prep high school in Rancho Santa Fe, California, have founded the Hands Across the Hemisphere Club to support girls’ education in Nicaragua, with a focus on promoting sustainable development.

 

The club has been raising funds for the $5000 annual tuition for Tatiana Leonor, an 8th grader who aspires to be a teacher and a singer, to attend Escuela Vera Angelita (EVA) in Nicaragua.

We are so grateful to the generous donors who have contributed a total of $2500 so far -- we're halfway there! 

 

For a donation of $50 or more towards Tatiana's tuition, receive a t-shirt (see photos below)! For donations between $10-$50, receive a sticker!

 

 

EVA, an initiative of the U.S.-based nonprofit organization Visions Global Empowerment in partnership with philanthropist Robert D. Friedman, is an environmentally sustainable boarding school for girls in grades 5-12 who come from underserved and vulnerable communities. EVA opened its doors in January 2022 with an inaugural class of 82. The campus lies on 437 acres in the community of La Grecia in San Ramón, Matagalpa, Nicaragua.

 

Educating women lifts households, communities, and countries out of poverty. It is also the key to protecting the environment.

According to UNICEF, “girls who receive an education are less likely to marry young and more likely to lead healthy, productive lives. They earn higher incomes, participate in the decisions that most affect them, and build better futures for themselves and their families.” Nicaragua is the poorest country in Central America and the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with a population of 6.6 million people. UNWomen estimates that in Nicaragua 35 percent of women are married or in a union before age 18, and nearly 10 percent before age 15.

 

A focal point of EVA’s curriculum is eco-education and environmentally sustainable development. Not only will EVA educate girls on environmental sustainability, they will actually live it.

 

Nestled between the Caribbean and the Pacific, Honduras and Costa Rica, Nicaragua is considered the “second lung of the Americas.” Home to 24 volcanos, 70 unique ecosystems, and rain and cloud forests, preservation of Nicaragua’s environment is essential not only to the nation but to the Americas, and ultimately the world. EVA’s unique campus has the capability to harvest its own water, energy, and food, and to process much of its waste onsite. Ongoing efforts to restore the watershed and primary forest have had an impact already on the resurgence of plant and animal life. Great attention was given during the design process of the campus to protecting the natural environment and minimizing its long-term ecological footprint. EVA is also on track to become the first LEED-certified school project in Nicaragua.