Nicaragua is slightly larger than the state of New York with close to 5.7 million inhabitants, of which twenty-seven percent live in the capital city of Managua. Forty-five percent of the population lives on less than $1(US) per day making Nicaragua the poorest country in central America and the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Within Nicaragua, approximately 45 percent of the population is under 15 years of age, which is the main reason we are working in Nicaragua. One by One has a huge burden to reach out to children and youth. This, coupled with the overwhelming need in Nicaragua, has fueled our desire to reach as many children and youth as possible.

Nicaraguan children/youth face the following:

• One in three children has some degree of chronic malnutrition.
• Adolescent pregnancies account for one of every four births nationally.
• It takes an average of 10.3 years to complete the mandatory six years of schooling, and only 29% of children complete primary schooling.
• Poverty affects school participation and results in child labor, which affects more than 167,000 children and adolescents.

*Statistics came from Family Health International and Unicef (www.fhi.org and www.unicef.org).