Our Story
Who We Support
Pulseras
School Sales
Photo/Video
Student Trips
This list is always evolving! Check out some of the project's we've supported in the past.
The Pulsera Project supports a growing list of projects, many of which are now based around our artisans cooperative of 26 former street kids. The projects that we really believe in are ones that don't just supply aid, but ones that empower former street kids with the skills they need to buld a bright future for themselves.
Our Projects
(Mouse over each one to learn more!)
The Pulsera Project's artisan cooperative is made up of 21 former street kids who all graduated from the Los Quinchos children's shelter. The co-op members (who are like one giant family!) share their art and stories with students in the US while earning salaries, scholarships, microloans, and most importantly opportunities to create bright futures for themselves and the youths that many of them help in their communities.
The home of the Pulsera Project in Nicaragua is "Casa Pulsera." Essentially a community center where the artisans cooperative is based, Casa Pulsera is a second home for many of the co-op members, who meet twice a month to cook together, joke around, talk about their futures, and share their newest pulsera artwork. Casa Pulsera is also filled with computers where many of the members practice their computing skills as well as interact with US volunteers through Facebook.
Si A La Vida is a shelter for former street kids located on the volcano island of Ometepe. The Pulsera Project provides financial support for nearly all aspects of life at the shelter, including food, clothing, medicine, staff salaries, and scholarships for many of the boys to attend trade schools that will empower them to make a living when they mature.
The Si A La Vida boys make some of the Pulsera Project's most incredible pulseras--check out the pulsera pictures page for a look at their artwork.
Education is the ultimate form of empowerment, and so we place a lot of value on providing opportunities for the co-op members to pursue an education in a field of their choice--whether it be learning English or a trade skill.
University in Nicaragua costs only $70 a month, but in a country where 50% of the population is below the poverty line, this is an out-of-reach cost for most.
With the help of student volunteers we are able to pay for all of the co-op members to attend school and begin the road to a brighter future.
Mario Rioux is the elementary school that many of the co-op members attended when they were still in the Los Quinchos shelter. We recently paid for all of the electric work in the school to be re-done, and we support several projects run by co-op members that teach some of the students to weave hammocks and pulseras.
Mario Rioux also partners every year with Chadds Ford Elementary school in PA to exchange artwork between the US and Nicaragua. Students at Mario Rioux have art on their walls made by the Chadds Ford students, and Chadds Ford has an enormous display of the Nica kids' artwork as well.
Since the beginning, one of our most important goals has been to give US students a rich cross-cultural education when they travel to Nicaragua. While we don't discount the enormous resources we can offer to people in the Western Hemiphere's second poorest country, we don't focus on that while we are in Nicaragua. Instead we move beyond traditional conceptions of poverty and focus on learning from one another as we share experiences with our Nica friends--all of whom have profound things to teach us about the importance of living simple lives with love and dignity.
While most of our projects focus on development projects that empower others to help themselves, we also recognize the importance of traditional economic aid. Over the last couple of years we've supplied impoverished youths with clothing, shoes, toiletries, food, medicine, and many other basic necessities.
We provide thousands of dollars in micro-loans to members of the pulsera artisans cooperative. Micro-loans are a great way to provide temporary economic aid to the young men and women of the co-op as they earn money through making pulseras and earning money in other ways.
In Casa Pulsera we have several laptops that the co-op members use to practice computer skills that may be essential for a job in the future. They also use the laptops to communicate through Facebook with the student volunteers who they've made friends with on each student trip.
Together with the co-op and with the shelters we support, we've been on plenty of adventures all over Nicaragua! We've been to a sustainble coffe plantation, a solar energy cooperative in the mountains of Nicaragua, gone surfing in San Juan del Sur, and traveled to Ometepe for the first ever pulsera competition!
Mercedes is 22 years old and part of the Pulsera Project co-op family. She runs a project for girls in her community to teach them how to make pulseras--a perfect example of how the young women and men that we support are paying forward the help that was given to them when they were young and living on the streets.
Alfredo, another member of the co-op family, leads a soccer team of young kids from his impoverished community (the same one where Mercedes lives). Many of them never had a real soccer ball, uniforms, or enough money to join the local soccer league until Fredo stepped up and rallied the kids into a first-class team! Thanks to Philadelphia Area Girls Soccer for the uniforms!!
We just held the first ever pulsera competition on our Summer 2011 trip, but we plan to make it a tradition for years to come. The competition brings together members of the Pulsera Co-Op with the kids of Si A La Vida for a day-long fiesta of food, dancing, pulseras, games on the beach, and an award ceremony to crown the King of Pulseras.
