Kids Helping Kids Travels to Nicaragua

Sarah Maddox

The dedicated volunteers at Kids Helping Kids set out for Nicaragua last month.  This marks the fourth time the organization has traveled to the area.  Over the last year, donations have been collected to bring on the trip including hundreds of pairs of shoes that were passed out to needy children in Nicaragua. 

Kids Helping Kids wasn’t alone on their journey.  They partnered with Nica Photo for the fourth year and received a generous grant from the Westport Rotary Club.  The money from this grant funded many projects including establishing an organic garden at a local preschool.  Lexi Kelley, a 16 year old from Stamford said, “Every year is successful and this year was no exception.  The Garden Center in Darien also provided us with hundreds of seeds which allowed the garden to be even better than we had hoped.”

The grant money also allowed the volunteers to make 70 toilet seat covers and provide solar lighting to 15 families.  Toilet seat covers greatly improve hygiene and prevent illness.  This is a huge help for the locals who can be sick unnecessarily.  The solar lighting is important because the electricity in Nicaragua is often not reliable. 

Another huge project that the Kids Helping Kids team worked on was building solar ovens.  These ovens can be used for disinfecting eating utensils and toothbrushes.  Toothbrushes and toothpaste were also distributed to those in need.  “At the end of the day we were walking people back to their homes and everyone had their new toothbrushes” said Lexi.  “It was a great feeling.”

If you are interested in more information on Kids Helping Kids, or if you would like to make a donation, please go to kidshelpingkidsct.org.