In August 2003 ten students from Netherhall House joined volunteer groups from Italy, Spain, Germany and Costa Rica for a work camp in Nicaragua. A local Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that promotes the spread of farming technology and the advancement of women in rural areas sponsored the project.  Under the direction of engineers and construction workers from the area, the university students helped build a school, dug a well and installed sanitary facilities.

When the project was first discussed at Netherhall House residents were eager to take part. British collaboration included two aspects, medical assistance and manual work. Kevin, a dentist, with two medical students as his assistants, went each morning to a hospital in Diriamba to offer free dental treatment. The hospital lacked the required equipment, but with material brought from England and dental apparatus borrowed from another hospital, it was possible to provide much-needed treatment for 150 patients in the two-week programme. Other students undertook a project that involved repairing a roof and painting a community centre in Los Guerreros. They also collected the funds needed to construct a slide for children in the area.

Netherhall House has organised work camps to Nicaragua since 2002. That year the work camp involved a medical project, digging latrines and the reconditioning of a community centre. The volunteers travelled to Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua, which was where they would be based for the next two weeks. Each day they drove the 40 kilometres to Diriamba, where the medical project took place, and from there to Los Guerreros, where the latrines and the reconditioning work was to be carried out. The medical project proved a great success and was geared at achieving lasting public health improvements.

Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in the Northern Hemisphere. Poverty is especially acute in its rural communities where it is common to find children suffering from malnutrition, dehydration, and parasitic and viral infections. The Netherhall House work camps aim to contribute to solving these problems by: delivering health care in the rural communities and in local hospitals, carrying out health promotion programmes, improving levels of sanitation, and building or reconditioning schools and community centres. Following on from the success of previous years participants in the work camp are eager to return next year.