We’re back from another amazing delegation to Nicaragua! While our visits to PeaceWorks’ partners were as impressive and meaningful as always, this trip was different. This time we felt more than ever the profound changes that Nicaragua is experiencing.
While nothing like the hardships reported during the US-backed Contra War in the 1980’s, we felt an overwhelming sense of political uncertainty and insecurity. Thousands of NGOs have been closed and their assets seized, work for many Nicaraguans is very difficult to find, and young people are leaving the country en masse.
Despite the hardships, this “Report from the Field” is a celebration of the potential of people to work together across borders, to build peace, and to bring joy and purpose to everyone involved. As always, we are forever thankful for the opportunity to take this journey with you, in one way or another, to Nicaragua.
Diane Sterner, 2023 PeaceWoerks Delegation Leader
Photo: on location in rural Nicaragua with the Axayacatl Women's Collective
LA MARIPOSA SPANISH SCHOOL
A Blueprint for Community Development
By Tom Provost
When travelers go to La Mariposa Spanish School and Ecolodge just south of Managua, español is only part of the learning. Students can see how community development isn’t a preconceived blueprint, but is rooted in local people, their ideas and dreams. It is about how education, health, the environment and respect for animals are inextricably linked.
That philosophy starts at the school itself: solar powered, processing its own waste with a gray water recycling system, and furniture made by local carpenters. Its talented (and very patient) teachers and staff have decent paying jobs, and local families that host students receive much-welcomed stipends. The school buys local and organically grows much of its own food.
Stepping out into the community is where you get to see La Mariposa at work.
Our delegation visited the school’s nearby nature preserve where La Mariposa employs local people to staff critical community projects, like the Chispa de Vida program, which now serves 50 differently-abled children and their families. Their nursery in the preserve has grown more than 60,000 native trees, which they donate to families and institutions in the area to promote reforestation. And no matter which Mariposa project we visited, we saw kindness for all creatures great and small as they rescued and rehabilitated dogs, cats, monkeys, parrots and horses.
On Tuesday July 26th, the delegation joined La Mariposa’s founder Paulette Goudge in the community of Los Mercados, where community leaders took us to visit four of sixteen homes that have been renovated with materials supplied by La Mariposa. PeaceWorks donations are helping additional homeowners replace their deteriorating walls and leaky roofs, creating a source of pride as residents improve their own homes and their neighborhood. Beautifully landscaped with flowers, fruit trees and gardens, we did not leave empty handed on our trek back to the school. §
Photo of Mariposa Director Paulette Goudge with a member of the Los Mercados community.
Support the work of Mariposa, like the Chispa de Vida Program for Kids with Disabilities, by making a donation here.
“Escaping darkness to lead a dignified life. “
That was Marjorie Gard’s experience as an Inhijambia Association program participant. Once a child working on the streets of Managua, Marjorie now works as a nurse in one of the city’s public hospitals.
Through tears of gratitude, Jasmina expressed that same sense of joy when the PeaceWorks delegation visited her new home – the latest of five built by Inhijambia with PeaceWorks’ funding in the small town of Mateare just west of Managua. Until last year Jasmina and her two young teenage daughters, Anayanci and Mirella, slept on cardboard in the garbage dump in Managua’s Eastern Market. Constantly surrounded by the risk of abuse and violence, they are now surrounded by fruit trees, gardens, and a small area to raise their pigs.
For over 24 years the Inhijambia Association has sought out and embraced Managua’s most vulnerable children. And PeaceWorks, starting with $600 from Founding Director Jim Burchell, has been a faithful partner from the very beginning.
At the Eastern Market the Inhijambia team took our delegation to meet with about 40 children ages 4-10 and their parents in a brightly painted patio. What was immediately apparent was the genuine affection shared between the children and Inhijambia founder Mirna Sanchez, Sub-Director Carlos Ernesto Molina and the semillero’s teachers and psychologists. Many of these children have suffered the trauma of dire poverty and, very often, physical and sexual abuse. But these kids have found a safe space where they can play, learn and begin to heal. Their journey with Inhijambia is only beginning.
As an organization with a nearly quarter century relationship with Inhijambia, the PeaceWorks delegation got to see the full span of their impact: working street kids who have blossomed into young adult students and professionals.
Can you support the work of Inhijambia? Make a donation here.
Back at the Inhijambia office, we met with 14 of the 18 university students who have scholarships made possible by Jerry McKenna, his family and friends and the PeaceWorks community. Most of these young people described feeling a little overwhelmed and out of place at college... at first.
Imagine a child who once stood at a busy intersection desperately hoping for the chance to wash a car windshield or sell some fruit, who is now attending lectures in law, medicine or nursing. Others are pursuing engineering, business administration, accounting, and geography. The young people who stood before us are the most concrete evidence yet for a future rooted in peace and dignity. For PeaceWorks, it’s also a beautiful reflection of a nearly quarter century relationship for which countless people, up here and down there, can be proud.
If you can make a scholarship available for a former street kid, make a donation here.
AXAYACATL WOMEN'S COLLECTIVE
Empowering Survivors of Domestic Violence
By Alexandra Gulden (Quixote Center, Washington, DC)
When we stepped out of the sweltering Masaya street and into the Axayacatl office, I felt like I had been transported into another world. The building was cool and airy, while still allowing for natural sunlight to sustain the abundance of plants.
The mission of the Axayacatl Women’s Collective is to defend and empower survivors of domestic violence, while shifting the narrative around gender violence in Nicaragua. The staff explained that they had painstakingly designed the women’s center so that survivors could feel safe and at peace.
Photo of Axayacatl's Maribel, Maria Eugenia and Elia.
An estimated 22.5 % of Nicaraguan women have experienced partner violence across their lifetime, and research indicates that women living in poverty are at greater risk of abuse. Child marriage is not uncommon, as a concerning 32% of Nicaraguan women between the ages of 20-24 were married before they turned 18.
Through a grassroots model, Axayacatl spreads awareness about domestic violence throughout Masaya and other parts of Nicaragua. The team trains leaders in local communities to identify signs of domestic violence and support survivors. Axayacatl hosts a radio program to reach a wider audience, and works closely with journalists to ensure sensitive and accurate reporting on the realities of gender violence. The team has also produced several feminist documentaries featuring the stories of Nicaraguan women and some of the biggest challenges they face, such as child pregnancy and femicide.
A key component of Axayacatl’s strategy is to alleviate extreme poverty by assisting survivors in becoming financially independent. The team provides professional development, training women to become hairstylists or sew and providing the tools to get started.
They also gift farm animals, veterinary products, farming supplies, and occasionally land, while facilitating workshops and advice on how to maximize their investment.
We visited the organization’s latest project in the countryside of the Masaya department, where they took a unique approach to building a new home for a local resident - training community members to build it themselves. In the pilot program, Axayacatl trained four women in masonry and construction, after which they applied their new knowledge to build a house for one of the participants. Given that Axayacatl simply had to provide the land and building materials, for just under $3000 to build a house, this model also proved to be more cost-effective than similar housing projects.
I could see the immense pride in the builders’ faces as we stood outside the house they had built together. Three of the four women continue to apply their skills in their daily life, with one participant now working alongside her husband in construction.
Support women re-building their lives in Nicaragua by making a donation to the Axayacatl Women's Collective.
The view from the top was breathtaking, but getting there took all the stamina we had. We were heading up to visit the El Porvenir coffee cooperative, located at the top of a nearly inaccessible mountain. A tractor pulled us up the dusty trail in a cart.
El Porvenir began its life as a colonial plantation whose owner turned it over to the workers and fled after the Sandinista revolution. The former owner left them the processing machinery, which is over 100 years old and still in use. Coffee machinery has not changed much.
The community, 52 families in total, produces all of its certified organic coffee for export, using the income to support their families and their self-governing little town. If they sold the green beans locally, they would get a lower price, although the export price they get, about $2.75 per pound, is still low. Too low to cover their basic needs, which include turning the dusty trail into a passable road, pumping water up the mountain, and electricity.
Water is a huge problem. They have a reservoir, a pond that collects rainwater, but in recent years the area has been suffering from persistent and extreme drought. They finally found the money for a pump to bring water up the mountain, but then the diesel generator broke down. Now they are raising money for electricity to power the pump. “Cuando hay tortilla, no hay carne. Cuando hay carne, no hay tortilla,” they said, smiling.
I asked them about their business challenges and about their dreams. Their challenges include managing to produce coffee with less rainfall. They have been planting a drought-resistant variety and would like to plant more. [Last year PeaceWorks paid to repair El Porvenir’s big truck so they could transport 5,000 new drought resistant coffee plants from Matagalpa up to their mountaintop perch.] They also worry about their old machinery breaking down and would like to upgrade it. But their biggest challenge is accessing a market that will give them a better price for their coffee. If they made enough money from their coffee, they could pay for things like replanting, equipment breakdowns, and electricity.
One of their dreams is to roast, bag, and market the coffee themselves for a local market, eliminating the middlemen and retaining for themselves the full value of their coffee. While we were visiting, a delegation from the coop was pitching the idea to the Ministry of Family Economics, hoping for a grant to buy their first small roaster. With a small roaster they can try out the idea and test the market before going big. The idea is to diversify, so that they retain some of their coffee for export and sell some as a finished product locally. Over time this dream would bring them more independence and financial security.
Coffee growers around the world are facing similar challenges and have similar dreams. People want to have the means to support themselves, their families, and their communities through their own labor, without the endless need to find outside assistance. It’s hard to fathom that folks who produce such a high-value crop have to greet visitors with their hands out because they cannot get a high enough price for their product. This is exactly the issue that Quixote Center is working to address, one small village at a time, in Haiti, and in Nicaragua.
Help the families of the El Porvenir Co-op grow some of the best tasting coffee in the Americas by making a donation here.
On the shores of Nicaragua’s Juan Venado Island Nature Preserve several species of sea turtles come here year after year to lay their eggs. Olive Ridley’s are the most common. But there are small numbers of Leatherback and Hawksbill turtles. Loggerheads were found at one time but haven’t been seen in recent years. Under the 1973 Endangered Species Act these species are “in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.”
At sea, large fish prey on younger turtles. On land, racoons, dogs and the voracious appetites of birds naturally reduce turtle populations. But sea turtle’s biggest predators are humans. That’s why we are so very proud of the work of our partner Marvin Hernández and his team at the Palo de Oro Sea Turtle Sanctuary for which the survival of both people and sea turtles go hand-in-hand.
Marvin and his team work with people in communities on both ends of the 22 km long Juan Venado Island. Palo de Oro has been able to reduce the human threat of poaching by paying community members who might have previously consumed or sold eggs. They now bring in or alert the sanctuary to the locations of turtle nests. In return they receive money for eggs - money people can use for their own survival.
Sanctuary workers transfer the eggs to a protected nesting area to be hatched and then safely returned to the sea. Since PeaceWorks’ last delegation was here in June 2022, 250 nests, each with 50 to 70 eggs, has been rescued. Since last year, 15,000 turtles were successfully hatched and released back into the Pacific Ocean.
It is quite a sight to see many baby turtles scampering down the beach and entering the ocean water. It is amazing to think that the young turtles that survive will grow to be two feet in length, weigh 100 pounds and live to be 100 years old. §
Help the sanctuary hatch more baby sea turtles by making a donation here.
If you would like to be alerted when we announce our 2024 delegation to Nicaragua, write delegation leader Diane Sterner - dsterner14@gmail.com.
In rural Nicaragua, life can be difficult. Many rural areas do not have potable water, nor good sanitation. Climate change has made growing food and making a living more unpredictable. That’s why organizations like the Federation for the Development of Rural Farmers (FEDICAMP) are so important and so dear to PeaceWorks.
Fedicamp offers support to improve agricultural practices, diversify crops and harvest rainwater. Their work enables farmers to increase production to both provide healthy food for their families and income to survive. Fedicamp also participates in reforestation projects to protect watersheds and lessen the impacts of climate change.
In recent years FEDICAMP has undertaken life-changing potable water and sanitation projects with local communities. Our 2023 delegation spent two days with Fedicamp visiting projects that PeaceWorks has helped fund over the past year.
First, we visited the community of Redes de Esperanza in the municipality of San Juan de Limay – a community that was decimated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and continues to feel the harsh impacts of climate change today. We got to see a new water system that FEDICAMP experts helped install with municipal support that now reaches all 80 homes in the community. The people proudly provided the sweat equity to get the job done. They now proudly pay a monthly fee that covers the cost of electricity and repairs and will make the project sustainable long after FEDICAMP finishes.
We also visited another potable water system with new latrines that Peaceworks helped fund, along with Rotary International and Green Empowerment, in the community of San Antonio. All 119 homes are now connected to the new system and the residents of San Antonio were so pleased they simply asked FEDICAMP, “What’s Next?” So the project partners started a latrine project.
Sixty state of the art latrines were installed in San Antonio, for just about half the homes in town. Another 60 latrines were also installed in the neighboring community of Rio Abajo, a community where FEDICAMP completed a water project a couple of years ago.
Schools in both communities also got latrines as a part of the project.
But in the spirit of the people of San Antonio who asked, “What’s next?”, FEDICAMP took us to the community of Ducuali Abajo to discuss a new potable water project. This project would build on the community’s agricultural and environmental work, where farmers have been working with FEDICAMP for several years to diversify their crops, improve their farming methods and reforest nearby hillsides. FEDICAMP is in the process of planning this new project with another PeaceWorks partner, Green Empowerment, which has already granted initial approval for partial funding. We spoke with the local leaders who took us to visit several small nearby farms, where local farmers proudly showed us the plots of land where they are growing crops to support their families and discussed their hopes for the drinking water project. §
More safe drinking water projects are in the works with FEDICAMP. Make a donation to keep the water flowing.
When Terry Leary moved to Granada and opened a hotel, she heard about families living and working in deplorable conditions at the garbage dump outside of town. Last year she teamed up with evangelical minister Jesse Romero to help upgrade homes from makeshift, plastic wrapped structures to “four walls, a roof, concrete floor and a door that locks.” A year later and well into the project, they learned the impact was far greater than just a safe place to sleep. With greater security parents could go to work and send children to school, rather than staying home to guard possessions.
By the end of August, the project Terry and Jesse initiated will have built 120 houses and 35 latrines, with more than $100,000 in donations. To mark the project’s first anniversary, on Saturday, August 5th our delegation attended a lunch celebration that they hosted at the dump. We joined the 300+ family members and saw firsthand the terrible conditions in which they live and work. But upon being shown some of the new homes, we also saw peoples’ strong sense of pride and gratitude at this opportunity, supported by many people in our New Jersey community.§