view59December 2006

The Nest Trust


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We are a small group of people responding to needs expressed by communities in rural regions of Nicaragua.
As of August 2010, The NEST Trust entered its third phase.
NEST now stands for Nicaragua, Education, Sustainability and Technology and the aims have been redefined:

Phase 1 The Nest Trust arose from the English and community tourism project with UCA Miraflor, a personal, and completely voluntary, initiative which ran from 2002 - 2007. In order to achieve some sustainability we formed a small organisation and now:

  • there are English speaking guides.
  • there are specific teaching materials for others to use.
  • there are (ex)students teaching English in their communities using these materials.
  • the first(ex)students are studying English at University.
  • several of the volunteers who taught English continue to support communities through projects of their own.
Phase 2 When the The Nest Trust was established in the UK in August 2006, NEST stood for Nicaragua English and Sustainable Tourism and the aims were:
  1. promoting sustainable tourism and sustainable livelihoods through community and rural tourism related activities
  2. facilitating the learning of English for Community and Rural Tourism
  3. spreading the educational materials developed throughout Spanish-speaking Latin America
  4. alleviating poverty and hardship
Phase 3 Current activities of The NEST Trust:
  • supporting Miraflor students who are now teaching English in their communities;
  • disseminating the specific English teaching materials;
  • offering part scholarships to students of UCA Miraflor;
  • supporting community-led [solar powered] computer classes.
The project has brought education and employment opportunities; it has made a difference.

Since 2007 the Trust has produced specific English for Rural Tourism teaching materials.

Six modules, with the essential accompanying recordings and teacher support documents can be downloaded, for free, from this site: click on The NEST teaching materials.

You can view a sample unit of each module on the same link. Printed copies are available in Esteli, Nicaragua at cost price. Contact us on info@thenesttrust.org.uk