Hi everyone, this is Christa. I’m in Nicaragua for Raquel’s upcoming high school graduation. It’s always wonderful to come back to El Sauce to see friends and to visit with our students. Most of them are grown women now; only Emily and Krisbell are in secondary and primary school, respectively.

Raquel will undoubtedly be continuing on to the university but still has to figure out what she will be studying. Lovely Belen still has one year to go in her five-year English program at the university, and Tatiana is finishing accounting studies at the local vocational institution and wants to continue on to study accounting at the university. Seyla will finish her first year of pharmacy studies in February.

Elizabeth is working at the hospital doing her “social,” her state-mandated work for her last year of university. She’ll be done in late March or early April of 2026, after 6 years of hard work to get her degree in biomedical analysis. Michel is working hard as a 4th grade teacher in a nearby community. Karina is still working to bring her tourism business to fruition, and has created an incredibly detailed and impressive proposal to obtain loans and other help.

I’m so excited to attend Raquel’s graduation; she’s just a love, and it’s been five years since this wonderful young woman entered our lives. We’ve known some far longer and they truly have become like my daughters. I had lunch with Belen on Monday and we just sat and talked like adults, not “madrina” and student. It was really lovely.

As I write this, the ubiquitous “Marcha de Aida” plays on repeat outside in the streets, ushering students from preschool, primary, and secondary school on to their next steps. This is graduation week; the ceremonies started Monday and continue on through Saturday. It is both a wonderfully happy and a somewhat pensive time for me. I want so much for all these students to succeed, yet I know the odds are stacked against most of them. I am surrounded by people who are working so hard—both students and parents—to survive, to move forward, to care for their families. These are good people and all over the world, so many people have so little, while so few people have so much. It doesn’t seem fair when I look around at all the hopes and dreams of these people and how hard it is to sometimes just live.

Which brings me to all of you. I want to thank you for your support over the past nearly 15 years. We are, none of us, among the most wealthy in the world, yet we all do what we can to help those with less, and I am so profoundly grateful for your spirits and your hearts. It is no exaggeration at all to say that without your help there would not be a One New Education, and these young women—and several others in different countries—would have far less of a future. You’ve helped bring hope and possibility to a few lives, which is a wonderful thing.

In these unsettled days, people are giving less, which is completely understandable. At the same time, our costs are rising. As students move from primary to secondary school, or into post-secondary studies their costs go up. Some of our students have very specific and very expensive needs. I know many of you have donated recently, and I do not want to ask for more on top of that. But I will ask you to introduce us to other people in your lives. A hundred people each donating $20 can pay for a year of high school in some of our countries.

Please talk to your family, friends, co-workers, churches—anyone you think might have an interest in helping young women improve their lives and the lives of their communities. The vast majority of our monies go directly to supporting our students. None of us receive a salary, and things like bank transfer fees and other administrative fees make up a minimum of our costs. We aren’t a big organization, but I think for our size, we are pretty effective. The proof of that is in these beautiful faces.

Thank you so much. We’ll be posting more soon about this visit and the graduation ceremony.

With gratitude, Christa