Watch our new video in San Bartolo, Nicaragua

From 2002 to 2009, TSF has been training 20 beneficiaries by session. Since 2009, TSF has trained 40 people each year.

The village was connected to drinking water and electricity only in 2008. Thus, the first challenge for TSF was to provide the energy needed to run these trainings. TSF donated a generator to the village to supply electricity to the local school and make a success of the training sessions.

This project started in 2002 in this location hard to access at the foot of the mountain chain that separates Nicaragua from Honduras. The presence of flatlands and mountains attracted a large number of farmers during the Sandinista Revolution, of which one of the advantages was a better allotment of arable lands.

This little town of 5,000 inhabitants mainly lives upon agricultural production: corn, bean, coffee and cattle breeding. A family of seven members (parents and 5 children) lives with less than $2 a day once the production fees are paid. This situation has obliged much of the population to migrate towards surrounding regions or even to Honduras for getting a job out of the harvesting season.

Beyond the transmission of computer skills, the objective is to enable students, in particular 16 year-old people who are in their last year of high school, to benefit from computer resources in order to have more chances to enter university. Their remoteness is no longer a source of discrimination.

In 2003, the computer training course was included in the school program. Each TSF training lasts 10 days. The students learn how to use a mouth and a keyboard and discover Windows universe. At the end of the training, the beneficiaries are able to use Word and Excel. The last days are dedicated to the Internet and the email sending.

Emphasis is also placed on bookkeeping. To enable the trainees to practice their computer skills to the benefit of their future life, TSF organises job search classes that provide online resources and assistance to job seekers and to students who want to enter university and/or apply for scholarships, as well as advice on how to speed their job search. This is particularly relevant because the beneficiaries of the previous year are today employers and publish job offers on the local website which the students can apply to.

capacitacionfotos camara 094 SanBartolo2010

TSF offers a real chance to students from remote areas to enter a big city university, thanks to their knowledge in computer sciences and Internet.

Following a high number of requests, the training course is now open to adults who are now able to apply for jobs that were before out of reach (city halls, companies, co-ops). Among the adults, some can run a business. This training helps them to better manage their activities.

We would like to thanks Mr. Martel and the local association Fleur de Lys for their precious support and their involvement in this project over the last years.