Esperanca is a global health non-profit that provides life-changing programs to over 100,000 people a year. We provide poor children and families with surgical missions, training to grow nutritious food microbusinesses, building safe housing, access to clean water and preventing as well as treating diseases.

What is the best way to learn something new? You learn from the best! Juan is one of the finest farmers in Jinotega, Nicaragua.  He has dedicated his life to agriculture and the production of basic grains. At 63 years of age, his wife and 8 children support Juan in his work and his service to the community as a health volunteer, church leader and Esperança volunteer. today he and his family are pillars of leadership in the community. But, there was a time when Juan and his family were barely surviving, living with limited resources. He had no hope of additional income for a better quality of life.  Little did Juan know, but Cacao also known as chocolate was going to transform his family’s life.

In 2011 Juan took a chance, and because of your support he was selected to be a part of a new organic cacao project. The goal of the project was to introduce organic cacao growing to farmers in rural Nicaragua, creating an opportunity for  economic  growth for the benefiting families. Right from the beginning of the project we could see the leadership of Juan’s experience and passion as a farmer emerge. He quickly became the leader of the farmers benefiting from the organic cacao program.

He organized program beneficiaries into groups of 10 farmers per community served by this project. After Juan went through the training on growing the new crop, he provided training and technical assistance to other growers, volunteered to prepare the land with them, and helped clean and disinfect it in preparation for organic growing.

Juan used his years of experience growing other crops to recommend supplies such as bio-fertilizers and natural insecticides. Once the seed growing period had been completed, the cacao trees needed to be properly cared for in order for them to produce. Through this time Juan dedicated himself to ensuring that the cacao seedlings were tended properly. His wife María was alongside him during this whole time, in the fields with him, at meetings with him. She did this to show that she supported this new effort for their family.

Now we arrive at 2014-2015 when the cacao trees have reached maturity and are starting to produce. These cash crops need access to the local markets and that is where Juan’s and his family’s hard work is paying off. With your help Esperanca is now building a storage and processing facility that will allow Juan and other growers to store and market their cacao! Juan is thrilled now that he is able to earn a living and market his product at a good price. With his hard work and dedication, he has been able to expand his plot of land, which will yield more cacao plants and beans with each growing season. This will increase his income and bring a better quality of life to his whole family while at the same time continuing to increase his production year after year.

Esperança has been honored with a prestigious 2014 Top-Rated Award by GreatNonprofits, the leading provider of user reviews about nonprofit organizations.

“We are excited to be named a Top-Rated 2014 Nonprofit,” says Tom Egan, president and CEO of Esperança.  “We are proud of our accomplishments this year. Our successes that impact health directly include our volunteer surgical teams transforming the lives of over 1,500 rural villagers, and educating tens of thousands of Bolivians to prevent tropical diseases that kill 30% of their population. Our successes in community health include providing clean water for hundreds in Nicaragua, and building the first safe housing villagers in the highlands in Peru have ever owned”.

The Top-Rated Nonprofit award was based on the large number of positive reviews that Esperança received – reviews written by volunteers, donors and clients. People posted their personal experience with the nonprofit.

Being on the Top-Rated list gives donors and volunteers more confidence that this is a credible organization. The reviews by volunteers, clients and other donors show the on-the-ground results of this nonprofit. This award is a form of recognition by the community.

To learn more about the award, visit www.greatnonprofits.org.

Christmas Eve, there’s a picture of it, already, in your head, in your heart, Ornaments and lights. Presents under the tree. Children snuggled safe in their beds, squirming with anticipation. But the picture is very, very different for the children and families we serve. This Christmas, they’ll be walking. Trudging, on foot,mile after mile, simply to stay alive.

Water for Survival
• The families we serve walk an average of three miles every single day of the year — to find water. Children often have the chore of fetching water for the entire family, so they can’t go to school. They even have to make the trek when they’re sick — because there’s no way to survive without water. And even then, the water they bring back is dirty, unsafe and yet it’s all they have. We need to dig more wells.

Growing Their Own Food
• Many of the parents we serve have to walk long distances to find work — they leave home before dawn, return after dark, leave young children alone all day. They have no choice — even though their wages are pitifully small. There’s no alternative. But for $80, we can get a family started raising chickens or pigs, growing a garden, planting crops. Parents can stay home with their children. The children eat better, and get back in school. We need to help more families grow their own food.

Surgical Mission Teams
• Some people walk hundreds of miles — for surgery. One woman carried her baby boy more than 2,000 miles to reach an Esperança surgeon. We can hardly imagine such a thing. Surgery is traumatic for anyone, but I can hardly fathom the pain of having to walk hundreds of miles to find help. It only costs $7,000 to send an entire surgical mission
team to a needy area — and each team averages as many as 45 surgeries. That’s about $156 for an operation (another mind-blowing number). We need to send more surgical mission teams.

I invite you to look through the gift catalog. You’ll find many different ways to change the lives of children and families in serious need. The Matching Challenge applies to anything in this catalog and any additional items. Your pledge will be DOUBLED this month due to our board of directors agreeing to match your gifts up to $100,000!

Today is #GivingTuesday and that means a lot to those who support Esperança and our mission, this means your donation will be doubled! Your donation from today and throughout this month is doubled up to $100,000. Because of this generous matching campaign and friends like you we have saved hundreds of lives by bringing hope through sustainable disease prevention and treatment. This means:

• Clean Water – In the developing countries we serve, contaminated water is at the root of much of the needless sickness and death we see in rural villages. Esperança locates fresh, clean underground water sources and provides villagers with the training and materials needed to bring this precious resource to their community.
• Micro Business Loans – Many of the families we serve in rural areas just barely survive on the income each family member contributes. Esperança can create a new source of
  income by providing a set of chickens, a sack of quinoa seeds, or even a pig. In time, these resources pay for themselves and enable the family to pay back the loan and spread the same life-changing opportunity to another family in need.
• Health Education – Much of the sickness not caused by contaminated water can be avoided by basic changes to lifestyle habits such as using soap or sleeping under a mosquito net. Esperança provides health education and training – teaching the local residents why they get sick and how they can prevent sickness in the future. Materials are also provided to help families make these life-saving changes.
• Home Building – Thousands of families around the world live in unsafe, unsanitary houses built out of sticks, mud and other debris. Esperança provides the materials and training needed in order for these families to build safe homes they can call their own.

So much is accomplished through your support! Help me give Esperança a great head start next year by giving a special #GivinigTuesday  gift.