Yesterday Whole Child concluded its three-part Directors’ Training program in Nicaragua, the first of two scheduled this year. These sessions are the initial phase in our interventions in participating orphanages; they will be followed by a planning phase at each institution, and then the onset of the caregiver training and support program.

The administrators of four orphanages attended this three-part program, which took place over two months at the Whole Child house in Managua. The sessions were designed to sensitize them to the services we provide, our expectations of each children’s home, and the child development principles behind everything we do.

The process began in January, when Program Director Diane Harkins and Regional Program Manager Gabriela Serrano began making needs assessments at Managua-area children’s institutions that had been suggested by our partners in the Nicaraguan Ministry of the Family.

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In February we completed the next big step toward full implementation in Nicaragua. Our new caregiver training team, Sylvia Haro and Marta Pereira, have moved full-time to Managua. Our first expatriate employees, they are replacing our Inaugural Trainers, Consuelo Espinosa and Edilma Serna, who traveled back and forth every month during the pilot year to establish our program and make extraordinary headway with the children and caregivers of the pilot institution.

Their arrival unites the Managua-based project team which includes Program Administrator Mario Bandes and At-Large Coordinator María Soledad Marenco Martinez. The trainers moved into a house in Managua that for now can double as our field office as well as our training center for small groups.

We are doing our best to use practices established by other international NGOs, and making our own along the way. This month the team will be joined by media specialist Nicole Gadaleta. Nicole is generously donating her time to help document our process for international replication and to build our training media library. We’re optimistic that Nicole will be able to help contribute everyday stories that will keep these pages interesting and inform the entire Whole Child community of our observations, challenges, and successes in the field.