We helped Maria José escape a cycle of poverty and violence.

1,900+ women have graduated

95% of graduates secure jobs

XtraOrdinary Women is an award-winning not-for-profit organisation founded in 2009. Based in Nicaragua, our sole purpose is to empower disadvantaged women to achieve financial and emotional independence.

We work with extraordinary women between the ages of 18 – 55, living in marginalised areas; these women and their families survive on an average monthly income of $40. They live in cycles of poverty and violence; physical, psychological and financial. Many did not have the chance to finish school and have little or no work experience. We created job skills programs to empower women from marginlaised communities with the skills and psychosocial support they need to get a job or build a business, to become financially independent and transform their, and their children’s lives.

5+ years on an XOW graduate still has a stable income, sends her kids to school, and has built herself a house. We achieve sustainable change through our deep understanding of the basic needs of these women, our proximity to the communities, and the personal relationship we develop with each participant.

Since 2009

Over 1,900 women have graduated from our courses and they in turn have lifted 10,000+ family members out of poverty

95% of Job Skills graduates remain in stable employment

85% of our entrepreneur graduates triple their business income

What We Do

Learn more about our programs

Since 2009 we worked with women from La Chureca (Central America’s largest landfill) providing opportunities for education and job skill training to lift themselves out of poverty and violence through dignified work.

Meet Maricela, one of the reasons we exist and do what we do. Watch her story flipping her odds against poverty and violence.

Watch and see how Anita has made a lasting change, and how she has broken away from her cycle of poverty and violence. We empowered Anita with the right opportunity and she changed her life, and the lives around her.

Nicaragua is the poorest country in Central America and second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. 59% of those in poverty reside in double cities, like the capital Managua.

60% of abused women in Nicaragua are women who have limited participation in activities outside the home.

46% of women today in Nicaragua, 18 and over, did not attend to high school. That is almost half of the women of working age today, that lack the skills and opportunities to secure jobs. With no formal job, they remain in cycles of poverty.