La Esperanza Granada
Giving a Hand Up, Not a Hand Out
La Esperanza Granada
Giving a Hand Up, Not a Hand Out
Who We Are
La Esperanza Granada is a non-profit, non-political and non-religious educational NGO, funded by both private and public donations.
‘Born’ in 2002, we started in a small village on the outskirts of Granada, Nicaragua, and we now help educate more than 300 children and young people in poverty-stricken areas.
We are a high impact charity that supports children from primary to university by giving them a quality education in the fundamentals, as well as a broad life skills program.
Giving a Hand Up, not a Hand Out
We work directly with our students through our four learning centers, a local high school, and also we help educate the parents of our students. Our vision is that our students are well educated and successfully navigating life.
Our Work
We provide the young people we support with tutoring in Spanish, English, Math, and computers. We deliver an extensive life-skills program that includes assertive communication, decision-making, violence prevention, and much more. La Esperanza provides young people with a community that helps them to flourish, both personally and academically. We have many life-changing success stories.
Our History
One evening in the summer of 2002, a group of travellers was chatting and among the group was Bill Harper, who talking about helping poor children with school supplies in Granada.
The school, which only had two teachers for 50 children, was suddenly overrun with 100 students. At the hostel that night, Bill expressed what was to become the motto of La Esperanza Granada: These people need a hand up, not a handout. And so La Esperanza Granada was founded.
There was no grant from a foundation; there was no initial sum of money from some well-meaning philanthropist, no mission group, no long planning sessions working on theories, etc.
There were simply people who cared and were willing to contribute their time, enthusiasm, and expertise.
La Esperanza’s first projects were about helping mothers start their own businesses, increasing the water supply to the village, and taking kids for dental checkups. Our original mission was not about education, but about lifting the community from multiple angles.
Thanks to Bill’s enthusiasm and many volunteers who gave life to La Esperanza Granada we have been able to support many children.
All of these people, and the countless volunteers who started trickling in five years ago, are now a broad river of caring people – this is the history of La Esperanza Granada.
Bill said, we “give a hand up, not a hand out” because he didn’t want the community to be dependent on us forever. Bill also said we should have zero administrative costs and be 100% volunteer-driven with no participation fees. Anyone on payroll would need to be from the local community.
