Empowering Poor, Rural Girls in Paraguay

Twenty five second year students of the Centro Educativo Mbaracayú (CEM) are the winners of the second edition of the Stoplight Olympics, a competition aimed at students from public and subsidized schools from across the country, that become promotors for their families and the fight for the elimination of poverty.  As a prize, the students from Mbaracayú traveled to Camboriú, Brazil.

This year, the competition involved more than 2,200 students from 67 educational institutions, which competed using the dynamic Poverty Stoplight methodology that intends to help families eliminate their own poverty.  The students first guided their families through a self-evaluation of the family situation of poverty and then créate a plan to solve specific indicators, such as: family savings, insurance (medical and life), diversified sources of income, capacity to create a budget, access to communication and social capital.