An update from the homefront

Despite the blog silence much has been going on with the SWB Nicaragua project since our departure at the end of March.

Upon our return, Molly, Daniela and I met up with Ben Gucciardi and Kyle Hartman to wrap up the trip and design a plan for the future of the project. Looking ahead, there is still much more to be done and we hope to make strides from afar in the next few months before returning to Granada in the winter to continue our work.


As of now, 8 Saturday morning practices with the young girls have taken place since we left. These have been led by Chepe, with the help of our 5 other SWB Granada employees. The practices have been averaging between 25-35 girls, and we hope that the numbers will continue to stay steady until we go back to Granada and reach out to more girls in more schools.

We are also proud to announce our official sponsorship of the Granada premier team, Real Sultana, in the National League. They are currently 4 games into the season and are 0-4 at the moment. It's been a real eye-opening experience for them to travel around the country representing Granada, and their coach, Carlos Zambrana, tells us of their renewed energy and efforts to improve. In a country with so few opportunities for girls to begin with, Granada is even farther behind. We are excited to hear more about the girls' reflections on the National League experience and see how we can translate that into ideas for greater opportunities for young girls in Granada. This sponsorship will act as a pilot for the potential sponsorship of the other 9 National League teams in the future, a major goal of ours for the next year. Through sponsoring these other teams, we hope that they will in turn launch Saturday practices for young girls in their respective towns, giving girls all over Nicaragua opportunities to interact, build confidence and athleticism, and develop relationships with older role models from their areas.

The word about this project and Soccer Without Borders work elsewhere has started to really spread, and we are constantly talking about how to involve future volunteers, as well as get more people involved here at home. We will look to hold fundraisers and equipment drives this summer and fall in preparation for our return in the winter. If someone could tell the airlines that charging for a second bag is a bad idea, we'd really appreciate it!