Portrait of Cesia Lea Hernandez Gomez,21, a graduate of the YouthBuild program in Somoto, Nicaragua. She is seen at a parcel she rents to produce peppers, tomatoes and onions she sells in her own store. An entrepreneurship supported by this Catholic Relief Services program and implemented by IMPRHU local partner. “I took the risk… A YouthBuild program facilitator gave me the plants and the fertilizers needed. I was going to pay for them with what I produced, with the profit I made. I planted them with my dad. He helps me look after them. Before YouthBuild there were not many opportunities for youths. This was a dangerous community. Youths were going astray, they liked to fight with youths from other communities. When YouthBuild came this has started to change”, she says.

Catholic Relief Services has adapted its flagship youth development for rural youth starting in Nicaragua in 2016. Part of the YouthBuild International network, YouthBuild is a comprehensive approach that includes life skills, vocational training, entrepreneurship, savings groups and community service in the kind of positive environment young people need to flourish. In the area in and around Somoto YouthBuild offers youth vocational training in beekeeping and honey production, livestock services, and tourism—activities that are closely tied to market demand in this rural region. Youth ages 16-24, attend training three days per week during eight months. At the end of the which, they are encouraged to develop business plans to market and sell the products they learn to make, such as dairy products or supplements for livestock, and the services they learn to provide.