Helping out developing countries one library at a time, SF State's nonprofit organization, BRIDGE Nicaragua, gives students a chance to get out in the world and help communities in need.

BRIDGE, which is an acronym for Building Resources in International Development for Global Equality, was founded by a small group of SF State engineering students a year and half ago. The whole idea was to travel and apply the skills the engineers learned and are learning at SF State to the real world.

"We all gathered together, and were like 'let's go to Nicaragua," member David Reber said. "We wanted to create a group with no real hierarchy and build for one of the poorest countries." Reber, 23, said that he and other members of BRIDGE Nicaragua were involved with another group on campus called Engineers without Borders, who also build housing and community centers for the less fortunate.

BRIDGE wanted to make their organization as laid back as possible and really work as sort of a tight knit family. BRIDGE chose Nicaragua over all the other countries because Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Americas. A staggering 34 percent of the population lives off of $1 a day.

Morrito is the little town BRIDGE has decided to focus on and is the third poorest town in the country. "We got most of the information about what needed to be done from the internet," member Kristin Lowe, 24, said. "We networked and got in touch with people and decided to go forward with plans to build a library."

Lowe and the rest of the BRIDGE crew asked friends, acquaintances and colleagues to help donate books, laptops and money and were able to raise $1,200 in cash.

"It's amazing how so many people who get a virus in their laptops or just need an upgrade give their old computers away," Reber said. "They really make the people in Nicaragua happy. We take a picture of a kid using the laptop and make sure to give it to the person who donated the computer."

BRIDGE's first trip out there consisted of about seven members. "It was a bit of a culture shock," Lowe said. "We saw children playing in a dump full of waste from the sewer. It was shocking."

The trips to Nicaragua are a relatively pleasant experience, according to members of BRIDGE. All expenses are paid out of pocket and it usually comes out to be around $1000 per person. The group always hires an interpreter out there because only one of the members is of Nicaraguan descent and none of them speak Spanish fluently.

"It's like real-world Nicaragua," Ryan Oldham said. "Anyone is invited to come along on the trip if they don't mind rooming with seven other people."

The Nicaraguan people are accepting and excited to have BRIDGE help them out. The students were even welcomed with a huge town party the first time they visited. So far, actual construction hasn't started, but BRIDGE found a location for the library right next to the Morrito's main elementary and middle school.

The library is will be open to the public, but will be geared more towards the kids in school so that they have a place to study and an opportunity to use computers. With each trip the number of volunteers slowly grows; their last trip consisted of 15 people and they have over 100 people subscribed to their newsletters.

The group says that if they had more access to advertising or even an office in the Cesar Chavez Student Center they would have more volunteers and donations so the main challenge is raising the money fast.

BRIDGE will be holding a scavenger hunt by Dolores Park on Feb. 21 to raise funds for future projects. There will be prizes available and BRIDGE will be asking attendees for a $10 donation. The organization also plans to eventually branch out to other countries, but for now they are concentrating on finishing up their first project.