Although she looked nervous, Alejandra launched with surprising confidence into her story. She is a mother of eight and a beneficiary of Fabretto’s parent workshops. Now, as an advocate at Fabretto’s urban center in Barrio La Chureca, she engages mothers in the community and encourages them to send their children to school.

We asked Alejandra about partnering with Fabretto in 2007. She told us, “we began working with mothers,” she told us and “guaranteed that if mothers brought their children to school we would provide a hot meal, school supplies, shoes, and other necessities.” Gaining support was no easy task. When the project began, “the mothers didn’t see the value of school, or didn’t have the resources to send a child to school.” Alejandra persisted with negotiations: “Because I’m from the community myself, the parents would talk to me. They would listen, since I was one of them.” Regarding the promotion of educational opportunities, she added, “You don’t have to convince the child…you have to convince the parent.”

Alejandra is an advocate for Fabretto’s programs because she feels they have helped fill gaps within her own education. “These workshops have shown me how to…do more for myself and the community.” Beaming, she told us that there are now 16 children (from La Chureca’s community) in university. “You have to remember, this is in a place where children normally don’t study beyond the third grade.” She attributed the change in perspective to Fabretto’s training: “Now we have the tools that Fabretto showed us—we know that education is important, and that there are alternatives available to us.”

“I have changed,” she said. “I am now a leader. I am a bridge to something different and better…”

Fabretto is honored to empower community leaders like Alejandra. Expressing both pride and humility, she summed up the result of her growth with Fabretto: “As a human being, as a woman, as a community member, I have changed. I am now a leader. I am a bridge to something different and better. It is my desire to go out to more communities, to get more children into school – for the good of the child, the community, and of Nicaragua.”