How Your Donations Are Spent

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[spacer height=”20px”]Nicolás Fund for Education is a very lean organization. NFE spends only 6% of our income on fund-raising, and Charity Navigator’s rankings indicate that organizations that spend 10% or less on fund-raising earn their top score for their fund-raising percentage metric.  NFE has no paid USA employees. NFE does contract with grant writers and a virtual assistant who helps our Board organize meetings and communication. In Guatemala, NFE employs a Country Director, Ivan España, to administer our program.  NFE’s Guatemalan employees include our school Principal, Braulio, eight teachers for Nicolás Christian School, two teachers for the remote village of Villa Hortencia 1, a cook, and a security guard. We have contracts with three part-time school bus drivers. Through these employees, NFE now serves over 100 students from six villages in the Ixil region. Almost your entire donation goes directly to student programs and services.  [spacer height=”20px”][spacer height=”20px”] [spacer height=”20px”]To explain our pie chart, the following may be helpful: Teachers and School Staff (32%): Employee salaries, payroll expenses and contracted staff. In Country Management (19%): Ivan España’s contract and related expenses as Country Director for NFE. School Equipment and Supplies (18%): AV equipment, computers, classroom supplies, PE and art supplies, materials for student construction of new desks and chairs for school and building maintenance costs. Transportation (12%): We have contracts with 3 part-time drivers who use their own microbuses to transport students from villages to school and back. Tutoring and Other Village Costs (8%): Remote schools administered by Nicolás Christian School in Villa Hortencia 1 and San Nicolás, and village tutoring of 5th and 6th graders expanded in 2017 to five villages. Fundraising (6%): Transportation for Fulfilling a Dream fundraiser …

Innovative Nicolás Fund for Education Partnership with Seattle Pacific University

Joshua RystedtUncategorized 4 Comments

[spacer height=”20px”]Nicolás Fund for Education is partnering with Seattle Pacific University this summer in their inventive SPRINT program. SPRINT (Seattle Pacific Reach-out International) provides a variety of international immersion trips for their students designed to help participants engage in issues around community development, justice and reconciliation. Participants have an opportunity to live outside their usual comfort zones and are paired with international specialists devoted to working in their communities. The SPRINT program is facilitated by student leaders under the mentorship of John Perkins Center staff, who serve as advisors for those student leaders. The objectives of the SPRINT experience are to: Explore cross-cultural impact; what is the role for Western Christians in faith-driven global engagements? Examine and apply diverse perspectives to complex subjects. Study the history and culture of the host country. Discover Christian faith-driven leadership and community development practices. Learn principles of Christian Community Development as a framework for justice and community development. Critiques the history of Western Christian missions and factors contributing to effective, meaningful short-term mission programs. Nicolás Fund for Education and Nicolás Christian School will be hosting a team of four SPU SPRINT students beginning August 1, 2017 and students will be staying in the Ixil region for four weeks. They will be staying in both Nebaj and in the village of La Esperanza.  The SPU SPRINT team will have their orientation in Antigua.  The team will stop for a visit to Chichicastenango on their way up to Nebaj. During their stay, the SPRINT team will stay at a hotel in Nebaj so that they are close to Nicolás Christian School during the week.  The team’s main task, while they are in Nebaj, will be facilitating …

Miracles Do Happen!

Joshua RystedtUncategorized 3 Comments

[spacer height=”20px”]Enduring Relationships Develop Between Team Members & Villagers Our teams have traveled to La Esperanza for more than a dozen years, and in that time enduring relationships of love and trust have been made between team members and villagers. One such relationship emerged between an anonymous team member and Juana, a widow in the village. Juana is the adopted mother of Bernabé. Juana has been doing her best to raise Bernabé as a single mom. On each of the anonymous donor’s trips to the Ixil, he would make a point to seek out Juana to give a special word of encouragement. Bernabé’s Life Seemed Destined for Trouble In the past few years, Bernabé’s life seemed destined for trouble and this has been a source of great pain for Juana. She prayed for a solution. Bernabé was frequently truant from school and eventually dropped out altogether, had fallen in with a “bad crowd” and was both disrespectful and physically and emotionally abusive to Juana.Bernabé had been in 4th grade for 3 years prior to dropping out. Fincas are Fertile Ground for Gang Recruitment Bernabé was traveling to the fincas (plantation farms) to work for periods as long as five months, and fincas are fertile ground for gang recruitment. On Bernabé’s last trip to the fincas, he returned with no money and no explanation. This came at a particularly difficult time for Juana, as she has developed a severe eye condition that causes pain when she is exposed to bright sunlight. This eye condition was making it impossible for Juana to plant or harvest crops. NFE Recognized This Problem and Devised a Plan Our Nicolás Fund for Education National Director, Ivan España, recognized this problem and devised a plan. Nicolás Fund for Education began providing an NFE personal tutor for Bernabé to help him catch up with the school that …

Superado: To Overcome

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[spacer height=”20px”]The families that Nicolás Fund for Education serves all have one Spanish word in common: superado. This word means that they have overcome or improved their condition in life. It is easy to forget that their lives were in peril only a few decades ago. From 1960 to 1996, the Ixil people were targeted for genocide by the Guatemalan Army.  Leftist guerillas fighting the Guatemalan Army also targeted the Ixil for supposedly siding with the enemy. The Ixil were caught in between and suffered mightily. Those of you who have traveled to the Ixil with an Impact Team have probably noticed that there are almost no old men to be seen, as most of them were killed during the war years. How and why did this happen? According to the Holocaust Museum Houston, Guatemala, “…was once at the heart of the remarkable Mayan civilization, which flourished until the 10th century AD. When Spanish explorers conquered this region in the 16th century, the Mayans became slaves in their own homeland. They are still the underprivileged majority of Guatemala’s population. Civil war existed in Guatemala since the early 1960s due to inequalities existing in the economic and political life. In the 1970s, the Maya began participating in protests against the repressive government, demanding greater equality and inclusion of the Mayan language and culture. In 1980, the Guatemalan army instituted “Operation Sophia” which aimed at ending insurgent guerrilla warfare by destroying the civilian base in which they hid. This program specifically targeted the Mayan population who were believed to be supporting the guerilla movement. Over the next three years, the army destroyed 626 villages, killed or “disappeared” more than 200,000 people and displaced …

Fulfilling A Dream 2017: An Event Not To Be Missed!

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[spacer height=”20px”]Please come and join us for our Nicolás Fund for Education Fulfilling a Dream dessert event on May 6th at 7:00 pm! Our event will be held at Evergreen Covenant Church, 3200 78th Ave SE, Mercer Island, WA 98040 in the Sanctuary. [spacer height=”20px”]This year, Nicolás Christian School graduate, Ana Córdova Cedillo, will be our featured speaker. Ana Córdova’s story is one of perseverance and hard work, devotion to helping her family and exceptional achievement. In addition to being named the #1 pea farmer in the Ixil region, Ana Córdova was top of her 2017 class and had the best grades in the entire school at Nicolás Christian School. Ana Córdova is now attending the University of San Carlos in their weekend school program. Ana Córdova is from Casa 14 in La Bendición and her proud parents are Catarina Cedillo López and Juan Córdova de la Cruz. She has 4 sisters: Mat (married adult), Magdalena, Juanita (2017 NCS graduate now pursuing art studies) and Natividad (7th grader at NCS). Presentations at the event will bring you up to speed on the phenomenal progress achieved with your donations. Did you know that NFE is now serving more than 100 students in 2017! One of the delightful features of our Fulfilling a Dream event is that all our desserts are homemade and donated by a fantastic team of NFE supporters. Would you like to join their number and contribute some delicious baked goods? Contact Becci Merritt below to sign up! This event has also become an excellent opportunity to reconnect with NFE and JWAV supporters across the years. Catch up with friends from past Impact Teams! We are a community of love …

NFE Partners With San Nicolás

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San Nicolás Students from left to right, Nicolás Jacab, Jesus Eliseo and Francisco Ezequiel [spacer height=”20px”]Nicolás Fund for Education is delighted to announce that an anonymous sponsor has been found for three 7th grade students from the village of San Nicolás to attend Nicolás Christian School this year!  In the photo, the San Nicolás students are meeting with Professor Braulio Bach from Nicolás Christian School to discuss the plans.  These are the first students from San Nicolás to attend our school. NFE is now serving six villages in the region: La Bendición, La Esperanza, Villa Hortencia Uno, Belén, Los Angeles and San Nicolás. NFE Tutoring is taking place in La Esperanza (Ana Otilia is the tutor there), La Bendición (Antonio Eber is the tutor), Belén (Domingo Marvín is the tutor), VH1 (Pedro Davíd is the tutor) and in San Nicolás (Petronila Tabita is the tutor). If our school and all our programs are combined, NFE serves over 100 students now! In the photo, the San Nicolás students are meeting with Professor Braulio Bach from Nicolás Christian School to discuss the plans. These are the first students from San Nicolás to attend our school. NFE is now serving six villages in the region: La Bendición, La Esperanza, Villa Hortencia Uno, Belén, Los Angeles and San Nicolás. NFE Tutoring is taking place in La Esperanza (Ana Otilia is the tutor there), La Bendición (Antonio Eber is the tutor), Belén (Domingo Marvín is the tutor), VH1 (Pedro Davíd is the tutor) and in San Nicolás (Petronila Tabita is the tutor). If our school and all our programs are combined, NFE serves over 100 students now! NFE is now serving six villages in the …

Showing the Love of Jesus to our Nicolás Fund for Education Students

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[spacer height=”20px”]It is well established that students succeed in their education when caring adults in the school are involved. Certainly, the teachers employed by Nicolás Christian School are of the highest caliber and genuinely do care for our NFE scholars. Students who feel connected to their school also perform better and are less susceptible to risky behaviors such as drug use, early sex or crime.  We want our students to feel that they “belong to” and have pride in Nicolás Christian School. What can NFE supporters personally do to create a culture of connectedness to Nicolás Christian School and help our students feel cared for? Participate in Impact Team trips to personally meet and encourage the students. Attend monthly prayer meetings to pray for each student by name and for staff at Nicolás Christian School. Develop a personal relationship with a particular student and family through sponsorship.  Obviously, this is best accomplished through Impact Team trips but other means of communication is under development with NFE. For example, Zoom video conferencing is available so that you can have a personal conversation with a student. Sponsor to student written communication can be carried by the three teams traveling to the school.  NFE does not permit the giving of gifts to individual students, however. Your provision of education is the most important gift that you could ever give a student. We want ALL students to feel cared for.  Work with other friends in a project to prepare greeting cards with encouraging messages or scripture bookmarks for all of our students. These cards or bookmarks would be carried to the school by Impact Teams.  This is a great project for a small group or …

Impact Trips: Don’t Miss the Adventure of a Lifetime!

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[spacer height=”20px”]Spend a week with God and the rich community of the Ixil region of Guatemala to lift students up from poverty through education. [spacer height=”20px”]Impact Teams visit the new school spending time with our Nicolás Christian School students and families. Teams make day trips to the local villages of La Bendición and La Esperanza or other NFE villages. Rewards of Going on an Impact Team Trip Make Real Friends Be Filled with a Deeper Experience with God Transform Lives through Love Be a part of God’s Justice Mission in the World Adventure: Caves, Waterfalls and Mountains You May Be Showered with Flowers! Join us on an Impact Trip With just five simple steps, you can begin a life-changing adventure. This is what you need to do to join us on an Impact Trip to beautiful Guatemala. Read the Nicolás Fund for Education Handbook for important information about the area and people that we will be traveling to, as well as information about the work of the Nicolás Fund for Education. Complete the Impact Trip Application. Complete the Background Check Form. Email your Application and Background Check form. Mail your $100 deposit. 2018 Impact Trips July 20-30 November Graduation 2019 Impact Trips February 15-25 Want to Know More?

Winter School: An Innovative Approach to Prepare 7th Grade Students

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  [spacer height=”20px”]Facing Challenges Many of us remember feeling quite insecure and overwhelmed when we entered 7th grade.  Nicolás Fund for Education scholars are no different! Our NFE scholars also have an added challenge of coming from primary schools with far fewer resources than more urban schools. We even found out a few years ago that the villages of La Bendición and La Esperanza did not even have textbooks! (Thanks to a generous NFE supporter, we were able to supply those two village primary schools with their first set of primary school textbooks.) Innovation at Work In our first few years of operation, we noticed that our NFE scholars really struggled to keep up academically in the first few months of 7th grade. With extensive after school tutoring provided through NFE and lots of hard work on the part of the students, the students eventually caught up. Our Country Director, Ivan España, searched for a better plan that would be less stressful for students and would be more cost-effective for NFE. Thanks to the work of Ivan España, Nicolás Fund for Education subsequently developed a program three years ago called Winter School to help prepare our 7th-gradestudents for academic success. While Winter School camps are more common in urban Guatemala, this concept is new in the Ixil region. Winter School is four weeks long and takes place in November after the academic year ends at the end of October. Making the Grade This year, Winter School took place on our Nicolás Christian School campus and involved students from five villages! Eighteen 6th grade students attended winter school. Computer, English, and language skills are the focus of Winter School. We have definitely …

Thank you to our #GivingTuesday Donors and Volunteers!

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Thank you to all our volunteer social media ambassadors that participated in #GivingTuesday! And a really BIG thank you to the donors who responded! We raised $6,250 (some matching funding still pending may increase that number) that day because of your generosity. Those donations will help to provide quality education for Ixil youth that will enable them to compete economically, politically and to better provide for their future families. It is not too late to donate! Donations are very welcome. You can donate at Nicolás Fund for Education.