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Celebration time at the spring – 12/12/11

It was time to celebrate at the spring in Agua Fría this week.  After months of hard work, not to mention interruptions and delays caused by a volcanic eruptions and a tropical storm, the work to improve the spring which supplies water to around 260 people was completed...  More>>

Ambassador left buzzing after visit to El Ojochal – 05/11/11

Chris Campbell, the recently appointed British Ambassador for Nicaragua, took the opportunity to visit Nuevas Esperanzas whilst he was in León a couple of weeks ago...  More>>

It's not just what you drink but what you used to drink – 25/09/11

For the last year, Nuevas Esperanzas has been investigating high levels of naturally occurring arsenic in water sources in the municipality of Telica, León...  More>>

Please can I borrow your canoe? – 30/08/11

Earlier this year, Nuevas Esperanzas met with representatives of the World Health Organisation to propose a project to investigate the extent, causes and affects of arsenic contamination which had been detected in several wells at the foot of Volcán Telica...  More>>

Springing into action in El Ojoche – 05/07/11

The sight of rainwater harvesting tanks in construction in El Ojoche in the municipality of Somotillo in the north of Nicaragua was nothing new to community members...  More>>

Trees for the bees – 23/06/11

It is now just over a year since Nuevas Esperanzas began a pilot beekeeping project in the community of El Ojochal del Listón.  We have hives in El Ojochal, El Ñajo and Agua Fría and a growing team of local beekeepers...  More>>

Did you hear that? – 22/05/11

Volcán Telica clearly had no intention of taking the weekend off so yesterday morning two of our team, Andrew Longley (a geologist) and Rolando Castillo, once again set out with people from INETER, the Nicaraguan geological survey, to monitor fumaroles and springs in the communities closest to the crater...  More>>

Steaming vents and volcanic ash provide important clues – 20/05/11

INETER, the Nicaraguan geological survey, reported a quieter night for Volcán Telica on Thursday but the geologists here with the team from the University of Pennsylvania continue to gather as much data as possible...  More>>

Telica erupts! – 19/05/11

Many families have lived on the slopes of Volcán Telica for twenty years or more and they are used to a certain amount of volcanic activity.  This week though, things have been different...  More>>

Spring cleaning underway – 04/04/11

At first glance the spring at Agua Fría may appear to be an idyllic place.  Nestled in a cleft in the hillside, in the shade of the tropical forest, water trickles out of the ground...  More>>

Fundraising, El Ojochal style – 12/03/11

The school in El Ojochal del Listón has become the pride of the whole community since the second classroom was built and improvements were made to the whole building last year, thanks to the support of New Hope, Llantwit Major...  More>>

A picture is worth a thousand words – 04/02/11

In January the Nuevas Esperanzas team welcomed a new volunteer with a special, and very useful talent.  Jon Tan, a professional wedding photographer from New Jersey, spent four weeks photographing our projects...  More>>

Hot and cold water a first for a Nicaraguan village – 25/01/11

To discover that a water source is contaminated with arsenic is bad enough, but when it is the main supply for 200 families the problem becomes very serious...  More>>

Tons of tomatoes – 20/01/11

Opinion is divided on whether people are born with ‘green fingers’, that innate ability to make things grow, or whether gardening is a skill which can be learned...  More>>

The sweet taste of success – 16/12/10

The sun was already low in the sky when the Nuevas Esperanzas team reached the end of the climb to El Ojochal del Listón for the first ever honey harvest...  More>>

Fighting forest fires... on paper! – 27/11/10

It is not every day that the Nuevas Esperanzas team spends the day making a large paper forest and then seeing the paper trees go up in (paper) flames...  More>>

And now for the sports news... – 17/11/10

It was match day last week in Agua Fría and for the teams from El Ojochal, Nuevas Esperanzas and Agua Fría the work stopped so everyone could concentrate on the serious business of a baseball tournament...  More>>

Arsenic alert! – 21/10/10

Concepción Flores has lived in the community of Los Cementos on the flat plains below Volcán Telica for over 50 years.  She has reason not to be smiling...  More>>

Getting down to business with the bees – 13/09/10

The most recent visitors to the community of El Ojochal del Listón are visitors who we hope will stay, and there are thousands of them...  More>>

Sometimes money really does grow on trees! – 19/07/10

When you live high up on the slopes of a volcano, making ends meet is a daily challenge and it might seem safe to say that money does not grow on trees...  More>>

It's the bee's knees – 09/07/10

We have just welcomed a new member into the Nuevas Esperanzas team.  Erika Perez is 25 and comes from León...  More>>

When we can't see the wood for the trees – 30/06/10

The Forests and Fires project began last year in the dust and heat of the dry season with the Nuevas Esperanzas team tracking forest fires and assessing their risk to the dry tropical forests on the slopes of Volcán Telica...  More>>

See how her garden grows! – 11/06/10

Holding a freshly picked radish in her hand, it is easy for Manuela Centeno to forget the doubts that she and the other 19 women from her community felt when the idea of growing their own family garden was first suggested...  More>>

And don't forget to wash your hands... – 15/05/10

When the Nuevas Esperanzas team finished the construction of sixteen family rainwater harvesting tanks in El Ojochal del Listón last year, the tanks began to collect water in the last rains of the season...  More>>

A burning issue – 30/04/10

When the Nuevas Esperanzas team first visited the community of El Ojochal del Liston the extensive deforestation on the slopes of Volcán Telica was plain to see...  More>>

Party time – 04/03/10

Having a proper school for their children has been a dream for many years for the parents and teachers in the community of El Ojochal del Listón...  More>>

Just passing through – 11/02/10

At Nuevas Esperanzas, we have had quite a few visitors from different counties who have come to learn about our projects, but none has travelled quite so far on a bicycle to reach Nicaragua...  More>>

Ready, steady, build – 26/01/10

The new school year starts in the first week of February for the children who attend the school in El Ojochal del Listón...  More>>

A grand day out – 30/11/09

The day started early on 27th November for the children of El Ojochal del Listón...  More>>

A dream comes true – 22/10/09

Almost exactly 8 years since they first arrived at La Palmerita, over 100 families have received the much anticipated title deeds for their houses and plots of land...  More>>

Water supplies go down the drain – 08/10/09

Seeing their precious water supplies go down the drain is actually exactly what the people of El Ojochal del Listón want...  More>>

Teaming up for toilets – 14/08/09

One week in August provided a whole new experience for a group of Nicaraguan teenagers...  More>>

Lots of surveying at La Palmerita – 04/06/09

Back in February, the people of La Palmerita participated in designing the division of agricultural land for their community at a workshop organised by Nuevas Esperanzas...  More>>

Adiós Jorge, bienvenido Rolando – 30/04/09

The end of April marked the end of a chapter for Nuevas Esperanzas as we said goodbye to Jorge Murillo who has worked with us for over four years...  More>>

Cut and paste at La Palmerita – 20/02/09

Land rights for the farmlands at La Palmerita have been longed for by members of this new community since their arrival at the site in 2001...  More>>

Putting El Ojochal on the map – 06/02/09

During the last five years of working in the village of El Ojochal del Listón, set high up on the slopes of Volcán Telica, the Nuevas Esperanzas team has discovered that this remote community has hardly even been visited or even noticed by the many aid organisations or government agencies which work in the region...  More>>

It's all in a song – 28/11/08

To celebrate the end of the school year in San Jacinto, the students took part in a song competition.  They had to write and perform songs on the theme of reading and books...  More>>

A drop of rain won't hurt – 10/10/08

One of our volunteers, Ben Hext, a surveying specialist from the UK, has given a training course for members of the Nuevas Esperanzas team on how to use a recently acquired Leica total station...  More>>

Old ideas, new innovations – 06/10/08

Nuevas Esperanzas has been building rainwater harvesting tanks in Nicaragua for over three years now, but even with the best ideas there is always scope for new innovations...  More>>

Rainwater harvesting goes on tour! – 22/09/08

It all began back in 2005 when Nuevas Esperanzas first introduced the concept of ferro-cement rainwater harvesting tanks to the community of San Jacinto...  More>>

Building bridges in San Jacinto – 22/08/08

It may not be surprising that one of the classrooms of a San Jacinto school was full on a Friday morning in August.  But this day was different - the classroom was not full of students but rather of members of the four different church congregations from this rural community...  More>>

Roadworks – 25/07/08

There are often a lot of complaints when roadworks are taking place; traffic is held up, there are delays and diversions and it is all rather inconvenient.  For people from the communities of San Jacinto and El Ojochal del Listón it is a rather different story...  More>>

British Ambassador pays us a visit – 26/05/08

Last week the British Ambassador to Nicaragua and Costa Rica, Tom Kennedy, made a two day visit to León...  More>>

Now available on DVD... – 08/03/08

Nuevas Esperanzas has just released two short documentary films about its work on DVD.  Click here for more information and for downloadable versions of the films… More>>

What women want – 16/02/08

In Nicaragua, as in many Latin American countries, it can be difficult to find out what women really think about the situation in which they live… More>>

Spring opening in California – 19/11/07

It was only just over two months after Hurricane Felix had destroyed their homes and forced them to take temporary shelter in the local school, but the community of California were ready to celebrate… More>>

Competition time – 12/11/07

As the school year draws to a close in San Jacinto there have been some welcome distractions from the end of year exams. … More>>

Rainwater tanks now a familiar sight in Gracias a Dios – 11/10/07

Two years ago, the construction of some strange ferrocement tanks next to six of the houses in Gracias a Dios was regarded with a mixture of suspicion and intrigue… More>>

Hurricane relief underway – 21/09/07

Just over two weeks since thousands of homes were literally blown away by Hurricane Felix, hundreds of homeless families in Nicaragua's mining triangle now have clean water supplies as part of Nuevas Esperanzas' disaster response… More>>

Felix wreaks havoc in Nicaragua's North Atlantic Region – 14/09/07

On 4^th September at around 5 am, Hurricane Felix reached the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua as a rare and powerful ‘Category 5’ hurricane… More>>

A student's best friend is... – 23/07/07

...a book!  That was the theme of the official opening of the ‘Libro Amigo’ library at the school in San Jacinto when students from all the different year groups took part in the ceremony… More>>

Lights, camera, action... – 12/06/07

For a week in June, the work of the Nuevas Esperanzas team came under the spotlight when Hywel George, a documentary film maker from Wales, visited us to make two short films… More>>

Drilling at dawn to combat disease – 28/05/07

Late one night in May, a convoy of vehicles finally crawled into the community of La Palmerita after the long drive over muddy tracks from Managua which had included several stops to change tyres by the light of headlamps… More>>

Hope and houses (at last) at La Palmerita – 05/03/07

When a group of former coffee workers moved onto the land at La Palmerita in October 2001, hope was all that they had… More>>

Mozart comes to León – 28/02/07

'Can anyone come?’ was the most frequently asked question following our publicity campaign for an evening of classical music at Hotel El Convento in León in February… More>>

It's official - on both sides of the Atlantic – 01/11/06

Nuevas Esperanzas has passed two important milestones in the last couple of months, on different sides of the Atlantic… More>>

UK consultants collaborate in Nicaragua – 12/10/06

In September 2006 Liz Buchanan and Liz Hammock, from rival UK water consultancy firms Entec and Atkins respectively, spent a month in Nicaragua working together as volunteers… More>>

San Jacinto churches ready to catch the rain – 19/07/06

Work has just been completed on rainwater harvesting systems at each of the four churches in the rural community of San Jacinto, bringing the different denominations together for the first time… More>>

Walking for water – in Yorkshire! – 03/07/06 

A group of 13 intrepid walkers from Mendlesham Christian Fellowship in Suffolk have completed a gruelling 40 km walk taking in Yorkshire’s “Three Peaks” to raise money for a water project in Nicaragua… More>>

Hope for the coffee refugees at last – 12/06/06

After four long years living under black plastic, the displaced former coffee workers living at the community of La Palmerita at last see signs of progress with the division of their land into lots… More>>

Rainwater brings hope to volcano community – 31/03/06

With no electricity and a five hour round trip to the nearest water source, life is not easy for the community of El Ojochal, high up on the side of one of Nicaragua’s most active volcanoes… More>> 

New Hope under a new name – 13/02/06

In November 2005, Nuevas Esperanzas (meaning “New Hope”) was launched, merging the staff and ongoing projects of Mercy Ships Nicaragua with a local charity, FUNDAPADELE… More>>