About Rancho Esperanza & community involvement

Origins

The idea for Rancho Esperanza was born when Nathan Yue came to Jiquilillo as a volunteer in 2001. He lived and worked here for a year as a health promoter with a project funded by a small NGO. He worked alongside the local health worker Doña Francisca and the community members of Jiquilillo to build wells, latrines, coordinate beach clean ups and provide basic health and hygiene education.

Problems with funding meant the NGO pulled out of the community. But Nate, having already fallen in love with the area and its community members resolved to find a way to continue helping the village.

In October 2004 construction began and in 2005 Rancho Esperanza opened its doors to the public. By combining community development and tourism, Nate has been able to show travelers, guests, and volunteers the real Nicaragua he is so passionate about, while continuously benefiting the community.

Rancho Esperanza is Nate's dream, but its realization has been achieved through the work of many talented, inspirational and just plain hardworking people. It's the characters you meet here that make the experience. Without the ideas, input, and inspiration of community members, guests, and volunteers, Rancho Esperanza would not exist.

Our mission

To create a positive sustainable living environment for travelers while integrating the community through the creation and support of education and eco and cultural tourism.

Community involvement

The work we do with the community is funded from hostel earnings. So even if you don't volunteer yourself, just by staying at the Rancho for a few days you are still supporting your host community. However, if you're more actively interested in what we are doing and would like to volunteer with us, that's possible too.

Our most successful project is our Kids Club, which we have been nurturing for over 7 years. We are currently working with our second generation of kids. In the initial 3 years we ran the after school program out of the hostel's main rancho, but through hostel earnings and donations from past guests we were able to build a dedicated Community Center to house Kids Club. Our on going venture is to provide a fun, safe setting for kids to be kids through games, children's library in Spanish, arts and crafts all of which are lacking in the community of Jiquilillo. The Kids Club has grown to include a once monthly fun family film where popcorn is provided for all community members and their children.

Our involvement in youth education extends outside of the Community Center. We have worked alongside Assist Jiquilillo, Inc providing updated textbooks, maps, and other classroom supplies for Jiquilillo's primary school. These donations are based on the needs of community leaders and teachers.

Our community involvement also provides free hospital transport to all community members of Jiquilillo and the surrounding areas. Jiquilillo has limited public transportation, with the last bus leaving at 3:30 in the afternoon. If there is any medical emergency after this time, we provide free transport to the nearest medical facility located 45 minutes from Jiquilillo. We average four to five emergency trips to the clinic per month; our services have assisted in bringing four new lives into the community and other medical emergencies.

As of 2010 we have been training the local people to run cultural excursions. Our goal is to prepare the community for the inevitable growth of tourism. We are attempting to ensure that Jiquilillo maintains its friendly community while preparing the locals to take advantage of the new economic opportunities.