Vuela Libre Movement in Nicaragua Tawa Tawa – Tesis

In Nicaragua, TESIS is a non-profit organization with more than 24 years of experience in the field of development cooperation, whose mission is the development of programs in education, health, economic entrepreneurship and public advocacy for the change of life of children, promoting the respect of human rights based on gender and generational equity from actions aimed at strengthening capacities and self-management in women, men, girls, boys, adolescents and young people so that they are protagonists of their own well-being.

To fulfill its mission and vision, TESIS works on the following cross-cutting issues: Human Rights, Gender, CSEC, Gender-based Violence, Sexual and Reproductive Health, with emphasis on STI / HIV / AIDS, economic empowerment through the elaboration of the Life Plan.


In the fight against CSEC, TESIS acts at the level of Prevention, Attention, Coordination and incidence through the following actions:

-Develops prevention strategies for girls and adolescents who are at risk from commercial sexual exploitation.

-Implement actions related to health, education, recreation and family ties, aimed at influencing the risk factors that make a child or adolescent vulnerable to CSEC.

-Provides multifaceted attention to children and adolescents who are in a situation of victims of commercial sexual exploitation.

-Provides health care to victims of CSEC through coordinated actions that involves case detection, case transfers to specialized centers, complaint and legal accompaniment.

- It affects the treatment of the issue by the institutions in charge of the application of justice; national government, regional governments; and NGOs.

-Continue providing accompaniment to state institutions and civil society with presence in 10 areas of the country targeted as the highest risk to CSEC so that they can articulate and coordinate local actions in compliance with the special protection of girls and boys against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of children and adolescents.

In the last years, TESIS has included in its prevention strategy with the families of girls, boys and adolescents at risk of CSEC, the development of the Economic Empowerment component through the elaboration of a Life Plan that helps parents to assume their responsibility in the protection of their daughters and sons, by reducing the risk factors against CSEC.

For doing that, TESIS has two programs:

1-The Program for Attention to Women in Situation of Prostitution, which began in 1995, and aims to promote sexual and reproductive health, human rights and skills development, and leadership of young women, as well as economic empowerment through the elaboration of a life plan that, on the one hand, allows for the social insertion of women who wish to leave prostitution, as well as developing skills regarding their universal basic rights, with those women who decide to remain in prostitution; and
2-The program of care for children, adolescents and youth, which began in 1993, and aims to promote and defend their rights with emphasis on the prevention and psychosocial care of childhood victims and at risk of commercial sexual exploitation and access to an inclusive and quality education. Likewise, for four years the theme of new masculinities has been included in the work with children, young people and parents; and economic empowerment of young people, mothers and fathers of the communities where we intervene, as a protective factor for girls and boys.

In addition to developing these programs, TESIS provides consulting services, research, documentation center, exchanges and volunteer internships with other NGOs at national and international level.


Overall Objective:
Reduce the commercial sexual exploitation of boys, girls and adolescents (CSEC), including human trafficking, through the creation of protective environments as a space in which the people responsible for the well-being of children unite all their capacities to promote, demand and defend

Specific Objectives:
SO1: Promote the generation of protective environments and the co-responsibility of the public sector, the private sector (tourism and transport), the organized civil society and the media in the awareness, prevention, detection, denunciation, attention and punishment of CSEC.
SO2: Strengthen the knowledge and capacities of social and political advocacy, social control and monitoring of the Vuela Libre Movement in Nicaragua and Paraguay regarding to advances in the protection of children's and adolescents human rights.


Principal Outcomes:
O.1. National and/or local governments and public organizations responsible for the issue of CSEC implement policies, action plans, budgets and protocols to fulfill their responsibilities to ensure that children and adolescents are protected against abuse, violence and exploitation.
O.2. Under the logic of co-responsibility that makes protective environments, 48 Associations and industries of the private sector of tourism (20 in Paraguay and 28 in Nicaragua) are involved and coordinate with the public sector and organized civil society actions of detection, prevention and reporting of CSEC and trafficking.
O.3. 48 Companies from the private tourism sector (20 in Paraguay and 28 Nicaragua) promote the guarantee of the rights of children and adolescents through the strengthening of protective environments by adopting codes of conduct and ethics that include the protection of the Rights of children and adolescents.
O.4. There is a Knowledge Management System, exchange of good practices and experiences and inter-learning on the creation of protective environments among the organizations that are part of the Vuela Libre Movement in Paraguay and Nicaragua.

Target Group: 28 enterprises from tourist private sector.