Community Partners

Stones & Waves Veterinary Clinic
Located on the property of Piedras y Olas Hotel, Stones & Waves is an affiliate program of Fundación A. Jean Brugger and is the Nicaraguan partner clinic to the World Vets.

Stones & Waves provides critical veterinary support and education for San Juan del Sur and its surrounding communities. They provide free veterinary care for Nicaraguan pet owners; spay neuter clinics, learning opportunities for animal health care professionals and care for a small feral cat colony.

They also operate a volunteer veterinarian program, which allows their clinic to offer regular veterinary assistance to the community. Piedras y Olas Hotel is a proud sponsor of these visits and provides visiting veterinarians with lodging.

Stones & Waves is a nonprofit veterinary clinic and relies on dedicated donors and community support to provide the necessary materials such as medical supplies, funding and resources to fulfill their mission. If you would like to take part in their efforts or to learn more, click here www.stonesandwavesvetclinic.blogspot.com

Comunidad Connect
It has a vision of unity, communication, cooperation, and support between local Nicaraguan residents and foreigners living in or visiting Nicaragua. By bringing together these two communities Communidad Connect capitalizes on their individual strengths and addresses their individual needs in a way that is mutually beneficial.

Comunidad Connect's non-profit arm focuses on community development projects around the San Juan del Sur area in the South Pacific part of Nicaragua, and on a national level an initiative called Community REfund, which channels donations from participants in the real estate market towards the needs of the local communities. A VolunTourism program helps to support the administrative expenses of Comunidad Connect.

Community REfund
Community REfund solicits contributions from real estate buyers, developers, agents, and other parties involved in the real estate transaction, and channels these funds towards the needs of the local communities in a way that is mutually beneficial to both donors and recipients.

Community REfund has two main programs. The Savings Start program supports local small business owners and contributes to microenterprise development. The Community Bridge program helps to raise funds for community led projects.

Free High School for Adults
The Newton-San Juan del Sur Sister City Project (NSCP) is a US-based organization that has been working in San Juan for 18 years in many aspects of community development including rural elementary-school construction, health campaigns, and adult literacy. The Free High School for Adults—or "Saturday School"—opened its doors in 2002 and since then has already graduated 185 students. It is a second-chance school for members of the community with no access to public education: women with children, those living in the various rural communities surrounding San Juan, adults over 18 (59% this year), and people who work during the week.

The Free High School is open to all adults with a sixth-grade diploma, including those who live far from San Juan del Sur through our ten satellite programs in the villages. We now educate 37% of those who go on past sixth grade in the San Juan region. Our hope is to drive continued education in the community; our students pass on their knowledge and skills by teaching literacy to other adults. Many graduates go on to higher education. To learn more, visit their webpage at: http://www.newtonsanjuan.org/literacy.html.

San Juan del Sur Biblioteca Móvil
The San Juan del Sur Biblioteca Móvil (lending and mobile library) began in 2001 as an idea to obtain and provide books for the people of San Juan and the surrounding communities, due to there being little or no access to research and other materials in schoolrooms and other libraries in the country. In 2003 the mobile branch of the library was launched, which takes books to 20 schools in the outlying communities of San Juan del Sur – anyone who wants to borrow a book is issued a library card. There has been a terrific response to this program in the region. For more information, you can visit their website at http://www.sjdsbiblioteca.com/mobile.htm.

Mujeres Bahía “Gaspar García Laviana”
Mujeres Bahía was formed in response to the rise against Somoza, in 1978. The women of San Juan del Sur, left alone by their men who went to fight, decided that it was important to organize and band together. Today, three decades later, Mujeres Bahía works to assist in local governmental decisions, aid women in their economic endeavors, teach about child nutrition and education, and even train in alternative health methods. Among their primary programs is that of their sewing shop, which gives jobs to local women. The Fundación has partnered with Mujeres Bahía since 1999 in the production of school uniforms for local children (please see our Uniform Project page).