Host Highlight: Fabretto Foundation (Nicaragua)

During the last four years of the USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program, Partners of the Americas has been actively working to strengthen the production and organizational capacity of numerous women and youth-based groups in Nicaragua. As with other country-specific F2F projects, the “Women&Youth” project in Nicaragua relies on the mutual collaboration of a myriad of local agricultural cooperatives, foundations, as well as educational institutions. Among these various entities, Partners will like to take the opportunity to recognize the work of our local host, Fabretto Foundation.

With their HQ in Managua and field offices throughout the country, Fabretto’s mission is to ensure that children, families and communities in the most disadvantaged areas of Nicaragua, reach their full potential and improve their future opportunities through educational and nutritional programs. Currently, Fabretto implements an innovative high school program called SAT (Tutorial Learning System) in rural and remote communities. This program is tailored to the real needs of these young people and the curriculum is based on the practical methodology of "learning by doing". Simce many of the Fabretto tutors are community leaders that don’t necessarily have formal training, the program is facing an increasing need to strengthen the capacity of these mentors in order to ensure that their grassroots youth initiatives are effective and their impact is long-lasting.

In May 2016, F2F Volunteer Dustin Homan took his passion
for 4-H to Nicaragua to work with youth
at Fabretto Foundation on their community goals.

In the last three years, the Farmer-to-Farmer program has sent dozens of volunteers to assist Fabretto and their commitment to empower both underserved women and youth in Nicaragua. These volunteer assignments have cover a wide range of areas including 1) the implementation of 4-H programs for rural youth centers, 2) the development of business skills training courses for youth entrepreneurs, as well as the 3) interactive workshops on soil conservation and integrated pest management (IPM) practices for women-led agricultural cooperatives.

In August 2017, F2F Volunteer Megan Roberts
taught several accounting workshops for women
and youth groups in the Department of Madriz

These specialists are just some of the long list of F2F volunteers that have assisted Fabretto’ s initiatives. In the coming months, the F2F program at Partners of the Americas plans to send several other volunteers to strengthen the foundation’s capacity in several strategic fields, such as crop-processing, soil analysis, brand marketing, as well as supply chain management. In the coming years, we hope to continue this ongoing partnership with Fabretto in order to advance the capacity and skills of women and youth in all of Nicaragua.