It's Competition Season Again!!!

Just like at the end of every Nicaraguan school year, Peace Corps sponsors a series of competitions at the local, municipal, regional, and national levels to determine the top three business ideas created by high school seniors around the country. Last year, we took it a step further and added a new component to the national competition - the national congress (two days full of workshops so the students could be more motivated to convert their academic exercise into a reality). This year we have joined forced with Red Emprende (a network of entrepreneurial organizations) to create the most ambitious congress yet, with approximately 300 participants from around the country. It has been a long year, and lots of work leading up to this ( I think I wrote about 4 grant applications to raise all the funds, not to mention a fundraising activity we coordinated for Red Emprende known as our Fundraising Gala) but it is finally almost here. I'll post pictures from the national event after next week, but for now, here are some pictures from the local and regional competitions.


A local competition at one of the high schools...

A beverage mix made with rice, cinnamon, cocoa, and others. It was really good!

The group of the beverage mix

A liquid soap, but my only complaint was each one cost almost $8 US!!!!

A natural shampoo for dogs

An alcohol gel for disinfecting hands

One group presenting

Below are pictures from the regional competition I hosted in Matagalpa:

All the groups together!

This group had a natural mouth-wash!

This group made some really comfortable chairs out of  recycled tires

These girls made some cattle feed

The disinfecting hand gel won first place, and will be heading to nationals

Last minute changes

My home stay brother who recently opened his own business served as a judge

The tire chairs (I think they should have changed the fabrics but it was quite comfortable

Stay tuned for more pictures from the National Congress and Competition!