Our Team
Yamileth Perez
The Director of the Artisan Program, Yamileth Perez, is an inspiration to all who meet her. She is a single mother of four daughters; their home is in one of the poorest and most dangerous barrios in Managua. This is the location of La Chureca, the vast city landfill where 1000 people live and work, digging through mountains of trash and filth to collect specific products to sell to intermediaries to be recycled. Half of those who work in the dump are children, who begin working when they are as young as five years old. Yamileth spent many years working in the dump and her small children helped by washing plastic in their home, which was a shack made of plastic and cardboard. Now Yamileth lives in a home of solid concrete cinderblocks and is earning a good salary working for Esperanza en Acción.
Yamileth has developed her skills to become the Director of the Artisan Program and she is vitally important to our success. Yamileth and our executive director partner together as a team; we could not survive without her leadership and coordination efforts, as well as her hard work in many areas of actualizing our mission. In addition to working with artisans, Yamileth teaches in our Economic Justice Education Center and is in charge of sales in our Fair Trade store.
In addition to her work with Esperanza en Acción, Yamileth volunteers as a health promoter, providing a base house for malaria prevention and care in her barrio, coordinates a soccer league for at-risk youth and is a community organizer for the Nicaraguan Community Movement. She has also volunteered in the areas of infant survival and reproductive health, teaching in the community about the importance of vaccinations, pre-natal care, birth control and human sexuality. In addition, she has worked as a monitor in the dump for the International Program to Eliminate Child Labor.
You may contact Yamileth (in Spanish) at yamileth@esperanzaenaccion.org
Listen to an interview Yamileth did with Canadian Radio program CareerBuzz.
Emily Hewes
Emily Hewes is our Executive Director and currently lives in Managua, Nicaragua.
Originally from Blue Hill, Maine, Emily graduated from Earlham College with a degree in Peace and Global Studies in 2003 and has been working for social justice through her career choices since that time. Upon graduating, Emily interned for a year at a Quaker school in Cambridge, MA. The following year she worked as a manager of 10 staff members and support staff for over 150 individuals with an organization that supports the vocational aspirations of adults with disabilities.
Emily has been living in Nicaragua since October of 2005 when she came to volunteer with an international organization that works in sustainable economic development just outside of the capital of Managua. During her two years with this organization Emily gained the experience of assisting in the development of a worker owned sewing cooperative, writing grants and funding appeals, directing a program for international volunteers and learning a variety of construction skills.
Emily brings a background in visual arts and a passion for social justice to her work with Esperanza en Accion. You can contact her at emily@esperanzaenaccion.org
Listen to an interview Emily did with Canadian Radio program CareerBuzz.
We are also strengthened by our Board of Directors that is located in the United States.
Julia Holmer-President, voting member
Maura Shramko- Voting member
Nancy Escue- Voting member
Justine Hanson- Voting member
Sarah Fuhrman- Voting member
Amy Board- Secretary, non-voting member