Nicaragua

La Bastilla Technical Agricultural School, Nicaragua

Key facts:

• This school is based on a coffee estate, in an area where only 20% of young people currently attend secondary school
• Along with providing an academic education, the school also runs several businesses
• The businesses include an Ecolodge & restaurant where it is possible to hike and birdwatch, chicken and egg production, as well as dairy, pigs, and a vegetable garden

La Bastilla, Nicaragua: 30-Second Video Highlights

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Background

La Bastilla Technical High School is based on a coffee estate, in the village of Las Colinas within the district of Cuá-Bocay – one of eight districts in the Jinotega Department, about 180km north of the capital Managua. In the Jinotega Department approximately 25% of the population is between 15 and 19 years old (73,000 individuals) but the high school attendance rate is only 20.1% . 

For the close to 8,000 young people aged between 15 and 18 living in Cuá-Bocay District, options for a high school education are severely limited. There are three high schools in Jinotega and one technical high school which is located in the urban area, offering three year academic courses in carpentry, electricity, cooking and sewing. Other private centres offer, typing, accounting, secreterial and computer skills. 

We worked with Fundación de Educación y Emprendedurismo Rural (FEER) to establish La Bastilla Technical High School, an agricultural, technical based high school, to meet the needs of the students in the area and aiming to be self-sufficient by 2013.

Plan in Action

Production at the school began in March 2009 after we worked with FEER to establish a business plan. The school is now in its third year of operatons and on track to becoming financially self-sufficient. All seven of the planned productive activities are underway and students are gaining invaluable business skills:

• Dairy
• Eggs
• Pigs for meat and insemination services
• La Bastilla Ecolodge & Restaurant
• Vegetable garden
• Beekeeping for honey production
• Coffee

This year the school is also going to start a bakery and a chicken business.

There are about 60 students in 3 grade levels benefiting from a combination of high quality academic and entrepreneurial technical education. This allows them to graduate from the school with the skills required by the job market for a well paid graduate job!

In the words of our students and their parents:

"Thanks to this school I learnt to look at life in a different way. It opened doors for me and turned me into a young man with an entrepreneurial mentality."
Darwin Montenegro Blandón, 17, Third Year

"For us it is a great accomplishment that our kids can accomplish more than we have been able to accomplish in life" 
Parents of Ignacia and Humberto Alaniz Rizo, 17 and 21, Third and First year respectively

Visit the La Bastilla Ecolodge

Located in the stunning Datanli-El Diablo nature reserve, at a height of 1200m, La Bastilla Ecolodge, founded in 2009, is a hidden gem in the mountains of Northern Nicaragua. At the Ecolodge you will stay in beautiful and environmentally friendly cabins or deck camping, while enjoying marvellous panoramic views of the primary forest, hiking trails, coffee tours, exotic birds, crystalline streams - simply nature! 

In addition to its spectacular surroundings, what truly distinguishes La Bastilla Ecolodge are its social and educational objectives, which you can support by volunteering with us - whilst improving your language skills through Spanish classes. As the main business of La Bastilla School, all profits from the Ecolodge are reinvested in the education of students from low-income families, offering new generations opportunities to reduce poverty.

Visit the La Bastilla Ecolodge website now!

Please help to make further progress - donate to this project!

This project needs your support to help the school's educational enterprises develop and to improve the staff's ability to provide a high quality education. Go to our Donate page to support this project now!