Nederlands | English | Español
__________
Home
__________
__________
__________
__________
____________________
__________
__________
Contact info
___________
Click to subscribe to El Arbol Newsletter
The aims of the El Arbol Foundation are environmental protection, gender and employment in Nicaragua.
Welcome
The El Arbol Foundation supports projects in Chinandega (Nicaragua), that improve the lives of women, the environment and generate sustainable employment.
Los Laureles in Chinandega
Our workshop run by women in Nicaragua.
Short History
El Arbol was founded in 1997 by a building contractor in The Netherlands, Saskia van Vuuren. She was for 20 years one of just five female contractors in that country with 16 million inhabitants. In her business she used only ecologically sound materials.
From 1992 until 2000 Saskia van Vuuren has combined the management of her business with training female carpenters in Chinandega (on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua) and helping them build their own co-operative workshop.
In the meantime she initiated small-scale projects for disabled women and the local women's network, amongst others. The foundation was set up with the aim to coordinate all those different initiatives in Chinandega.
Products of Los Laureles
The Foundation has become the caretaker of all these initiatives and of the workshop in Chinandega.
After the hurricane disaster in 1998 (Mitch) the prime priority of the workshop was the redevelopment of the hard hit Chinandega region. The Foundation supported the women with material and financial aid. We have restored 100 houses destroyed by hurricane Mitch, together with the women of Los Laureles.
The aims of the El Arbol Foundation are environmental protection, gender and employment in Nicaragua.
