Work in Nicaragua

Nicaragua: Women Leaders in Latin America

In 2013 Spark Ventures expanded our partnerships to include Las Tías in León, Nicaragua. Las Tías was started by 8 business women in 1989 after the revolution in their country. They began reaching out to street children and 20 years later, they had two thriving community centers providing meals, education, health care, and job skills training – serving over 150 youth annually.

But their funding sources were slowly disappearing, jeopardizing their high-impact work. Spark stepped in to cover salaries, expand their meal program and hire additional social workers to support the mental health of children coming from unstable homes or with a history of child abuse.

Since the launch of our partnership in 2013, more than 220 people have traveled with Spark to support this work, helping expand the Las Tías library, helping with leadership succession, creating a new children’s activity room, and starting a women’s empowerment program focused on literacy, math and vocational skills training.

With the help of many generous supporters, Spark Ventures also invested in a social enterprise agribusiness in the beautiful mountains of Matagalpa, Nicaragua – the El Tuma Farm. We planted cacao and plantain trees and invested in honeybee hives. In 2020, Spark’s Board of Directors donated Spark’s shares of ownership back to the El Tuma Farm’s team of investors.