Nicaragua: Encuentros y Ferias

Hello, all!  Once again, apologies for my silence here on the blog these last several days.  As mentioned, I have been super busy writing a grant proposal.  (And then, due to an unforeseen bus breakdown, I got stranded in Las Salinas on Thursday night, so although I wrote this blog post a few days ago, I am just now getting the chance to revise and publish it.)  But as of Monday, the proposal is turned in, and I can resume business as usual.  It was a lot of work getting all the pieces of the proposal together, and I am perfectly aware that we might not win it.  But in any case, writing it was definitely a great learning experience for me.  Moreover, I think that all the analyzing and planning we had to do in order to write the proposal made the project better than it would have been if we had just jumped straight to the funding campaign.

Speaking of the funding campaign, I want to thank you all so very much for your generous donations to the project! The campaign ended on Thursday, and thanks to all of you, we have raised $644—more than double what we need to cover all the expenses of the workshops!  This means that even if we don’t win the grant, we will have more than enough funds to cover all the necessary expenses, plus extras to expand the program, purchase starting materials for the participants to get their new businesses off the ground, and plan follow-up events to keep the momentum going after I head back to the U.S.  I am so extremely grateful to all of you who have donated and who have spread the word about the project.

Anyway, enough about fundraising.  I wasn’t writing grants 100% of the time these two weeks, and I have some stories I’d like to share.

On Monday, July 8, we held a gathering, or an encuentro, of the promotoras (the women of the network of Women’s Rights Defenders, which was established in 2012 by the intern who came before me) in Las Salinas.  The purpose of the encuentro was to allow the promotoras to share their experiences with their activist and education endeavors in their respective communities, allow them to express any ongoing needs, and get their input on the workshop series we are planning.

Attending the encuentro was boy a lovely and a heartbreaking experience for me.  Some of the women there have experienced really terrible abuse or exploitation at the hands of their husbands, their employers, or others in their community.  They spoke about the prevalence of violence against women, and how when children grow up in a household where women are abused, they often come to accept that abuse as the normal way of things, rather than something that can and should be changed.  They spoke about how women who are abused verbally and psychologically often tend to internalize the degrading messages they hear and come to believe that they are of little or no value.  Some then shared personal stories of abuse they had suffered (which for confidentiality I will not repeat here).

My heart broke to hear these stories.  But there was also a great deal of hope shared too. The women spoke about how much they had benefited from the trainings on women’s rights, and the difference that information had made in their own lives and the lives of their families.  They spoke about how they had taken ownership of their rights and had come to believe that not only did they deserve better, they were also protected under the law and had the right to expect the fulfillment of that protection.  They spoke about their obligation to be examples to their communities: if they wanted other women to come to understand their rights, they, the promotoras, must live their own lives, and teach their children to live their lives, in a way that affirms, rather than degrades, the dignity, value, and rights of women.  I saw in these women such a hunger to learn, to grow, and to work for the good their families and their communities.

The promotoras discussing their work during the encuentro.

Here is a picture of the group of promotoras (and me; I am, obviously, the fair-skinned one on the left).  These women amaze me, and they shatter any stereotypical expectations anyone might have about the poor, helpless Nicaraguans who need saving.  They might not have access to the resources or the education that many U.S. Americans have, but they have so much passion, initiative, and resourcefulness.   

There was another notable event this past week I wanted to tell you all about.  Last Sunday, July 14, Sarah, another FSD intern who started before I came, helped host a community fair in the neighboring community of Nancimí.  She worked with the clinic there, so the fair started as a health fare—representatives from the clinic where there to do free HIV testing and give consultations.  But the event expanded to include people from all over the community.  There were a few teen girls selling their handmade crafts, lots of vendors selling delicious food, a local natural medicine group, and a man selling beautiful handmade jewelry boxes.  A group from Casa de la Mujer also came and put on a skit about AIDS and machismo, a group of young girls did a few dances, and a local boys’ soccer team played a game against the team from Rivas.  I walked over with my hosts sisters in the morning (about an hour-long walk though really lovely countryside) and spend most of the day there, eating, watching the presentations, and just sitting and enjoying the community atmosphere.

The park in Nancimí all decked out for the fair.

Anyeri, who is my host mom's sister, Sarah's host mom, and the head of the community fair committee, introducing the fair and welcoming all the guests.

Don Clemente, the man I mentioned who makes the beautiful intricate jewelry boxes.  This photo doesn't do justice to the detail.

A drumline--ah, memories of marching band.

Vendors preparing and selling tacos and enchiladas (though Nicaraguan tacos and enchiladas are rather different from Mexican tacos and enchiladas).

Vendors selling handmade flowers, jewelry, and paintings.

The boys' soccer game. 

This entry has been rather lengthy, so hopefully you all enjoyed all the stories.  As of yesterday, I have exactly one month left in Nicaragua, meaning I am past the half-way point.  It simultaneously feels like I’ve been here for ages, and like the time has flown.  In these remaining weeks, I’m really looking forward to going forward with the project and continuing to build relationships with my host family and my larger host community.  Also, today I am off to Granada for a mid-internship retreat, so I’m also looking forward to relaxing a little and getting to do a little sightseeing.

Thanks again to those who donated to the project, and thanks for reading.  ¡Que se cuiden!

Nicaragua: A chance to help!

Hello, friends!  I bring you this special Friday update to let you all know about an opportunity to get personally involved in the work I’m doing down here in Nicaragua.

As I have mentioned, I am helping Casa de la Mujer plan and implement a workshop series on entrepreneurship.  The series will begin with a workshop on starting and managing a small business.  The participants will then divide into two groups, one that will learn to make jewelry and one that will learn to make a few different pastries.  Casa de la Mujer will provide the participants advice and support in the coming months in the hopes that they will use these skills to start a small commercial enterprise.  The series will then conclude with a workshop about Law 779, The Comprehensive Law against Violence towards Women, such that the women living in these communities may better know their legal rights and the resources that exist to help them should they suffer any sort of abuse.

As I have also mentioned, I have been in the process of writing a grant to secure funding for this event.  However, the grant application with FSD is a competition, meaning that it is not certain that I will receive funding.  Even if I do an excellent job writing the grant proposal, another intern here or at another FSD site might have an even better idea.  So in order to be sure that my project is funded, I am also launching an online fundraising campaign.

The funds we need to raise will cover the materials for the workshops (notebooks, paper, beads, thread, flour, sugar, etc.), fees for some of the instructors, and refreshments for the participants (which is very important in Nicaraguan culture; it's expected that if you are hosting an all-day event, you will serve food.  Hospitality, from what I have experienced of their culture, is a big cultural value). If we do not win the grant, this campaign will ensure that we can still carry out this project.  In the event that I do win the grant (or if you all are super generous and we exceed our goal), we will be able to expand the program and make it even better—opening it up to more participants, purchasing starting materials for the women to use as the initial boost in launching their businesses, and expanding the follow-up activities that Casa de la Mujer will carry out after I leave.

This is where you come in!  If you are interested in my work down here in Tola and if you are able to help out, I would love it if you could chip in a little bit to help empower the women on this community.  Our current fundraising goal is $350, meaning that if only 20 people chipped in just $20, we would easily exceed our goal.

The deadline to donate is this coming Thursday, July 18--meaning we have only one week to meet our goal!

If you are interested in donating, please click the following link for more information:

http://www.fsdinternational.org/donate/projects/christina

I would really love it if you could help out in getting this project funded.  The women whom I have met through Casa de la Mujer’s network of Women’s Rights Promoters are all such amazing, dedicated, and strong people, and I really hope that my work here can be of assistance to them in expanding their efforts in the communities of Tola.

Best wishes to all, and thanks in advance for your generosity!

Nicaragua: La Casa de la Mujer

Nicaragua: Semana 2, la Casa de la Mujer

Hola a todos!  It is Sunday the 30th of June as I write this, and the end of my second week in Nicaragua.  This week has focused mostly on getting to know Casa de la Mujer, the organization where I will be working, and drafting out what I will be doing while I am there.  They seemed to have a pretty firm idea of what they wanted to do with me before I arrived, so Monday consisted of working out deadlines for all the various steps that need to be completed in order to plan the events.

The project I will be working on has two parts.  First, they want to reinforce the work that was done by Corrie, the intern who worked at Casa de la Mujer before me.  She worked on implementing a network of Women’s Rights Promoters, who go into the various communities in Tola to teach the women who live there about their rights and about how they can seek justice if they have been abused.  In order to carry on with this project, we are first going to have an “intercambio”, or a meeting where all the promoters from the different communities come together to share experiences and advice and talk about what more they want to do with the program.  Then, later in August, we are planning a workshop about the new Law 779, La Ley Integral Contra la Violencia Hacia Mujeres (Comprehensive Law Against Violence Towards Women), which was just recently passed in January 2012.  According to the Instituto Nicaragüense de la Mujer (the Nicaraguan Women’s Institute), the law “aims to improve public policies on violence prevention and eradicate gender discrimination” (translation mine). ¹

The second part of the project is focused on developing the economic empowerment of the women in Tola.  The municipio of Tola—especially the communities closer to the beach, like Las Salinas and Limón—have experienced a massive boom in tourism in the last few years (in fact, there was a big surf competition just a few days before I arrived, and surfers from around the world came to the area to compete).  So my supervisors, Martita and Teresita, wanted to teach the women in those communities some skills they can use to start small businesses marketed at said tourists.  So at the moment, we are planning a workshop on how to start and run a small business, and then three workshops on different products around which to build a small business—one workshop on jewelry making, and two on baking/pastry making.  We still have to finalize details, but that’s basically the framework of the project I’ll be working one.

 

I also got a chance to get to know observe a few other of the activities of Casa de la Mujer.  On Wednesday, there was an informational fair in the park in Rivas about drug prevention, AIDS prevention, and other health issues—apparently, June 26^th is the International Day of the Fight Against Drugs (in Spanish, El Día Internacional de la Lucha Contra las Drogas).  A few different organizations and government ministries, like the Ministry of Health, participated.  Casa de la Mujer was there, handing out information about gender-based violence and women’s health.  Below are a couple pictures of the event.

On Thursday, I visited the first part of the meeting of the group Auto Ayuda, which is a support group for women who’ve experienced violence or abuse, either physical or psychological.  I only came for a little while at the beginning of the meeting, to say hi to the women and here about what the group does.  Once they started sharing their stories, I left, because all the information shared at the meetings is confidential.  It was really great, though, to hear the women talk about how participating in Auto Ayuda helped them heal from the abuse they had experienced and had helped them regain a sense of confidence and self-worth.

Yesterday morning, I travelled out to Las Salinas to invite the women in the network of Women’s Rights Promoters who live in that area to the intercambio we are planning.  Several of the Las Salinas women in the network are also part of a cooperative that, among other things, makes organic compost using worms and cow dung.  They were working on that when Alex (the FSD Program Coordinator here in Tola) and I went to see them.  It was really interesting to see their work and talk with them about the project.

Aside from work, I’ve also gotten to spend a lot of time with my host family, just sharing stories or playing games or watching the finals of Miss Teen Nicaragua with the girls.  They attend the Nazarene church here in Tola, so last Sunday and this morning I went to church with them.  I’m really happy to have found a faith community to be a part of while I am here and that I can attend with my host family.  The congregation has a very strong sense of community and mutual love and support, and they have been so welcoming of me.

As usual, there are a lot more stories I could probably tell, but for the sake of conciseness I shall wrap it up here.  This week I’ll begin working on writing a grant proposal for the project I’m working on and drafting a budget, so hopefully I should have some interesting updates for you next weekend!  In the meantime, que todos se cuiden, y hablamos muy pronto.  ¡Abrazos!

Sources:

¹http://www.inim.gob.ni/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1149:ley-779&catid=1:latest-news

Nicaragua: Llegada y orientación

Hello, everyone! I am resurrecthing this old blog to update you about my latest adventure—I am currently in Tola, Nicaragua, for a 9 week internship with the non-profit organization, the Foundation for Sustainable Development.

For those of you who don’t know where Tola is, it’s a municipality (so, kind of like a county) in the department (their equivalent of a state) of Rivas, on the west coast and southern edge of the country, between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific Ocean. I live in the urban center of Tola, a small town of about 500 people, but there are a few other small communities where FSD works and where other interns live in the area, including Las Salinas de Nagualpa, Limón 1, Limón 2, and Nancimi. Below is a map of those communities:

I am living with a host family here in Tola: Araceli, a single mother in her thirties who works at a factory in the city of Rivas (about 20 minutes east of Tola by car), and her two teenage daughters, Valeria and Wilmara (I’m not actually sure if that’s how she spells it, but that’s what it sounds like). They are fantastic, and so very welcoming. I have loved getting to know them, talk to them about what it’s like living here in Tola, help Valeria with her English homework, and so on.

I have been here a week already, during which time we had orientation. Most of the orientation took place in the community of Las Salinas de Nagualpa, where Cecilia, the other intern who started at the same time as I did, will be living. I stayed with her and her host family (who were also extremely welcoming) during those days. Orientation consisted of several PowerPoint presentations regarding FSD’s approach to sustainability, Nicaraguan culture and history, personal safety and health tips, and some tools for who to go about the work we’ll be doing. We also did some survey exercises, where we developed a list of questions—the first time about Las Salinas in general, the needs that exist in the community, and what is being done to address them, the second time, more targeted to our area of focus, (so, in my case, women’s rights)—and went around the community asking people said questions. Given that speaking to strangers is not my forte, and that Spanish is my second language, this was kind of terrifying at first, but I think it ended up being a really good exercise, both because it pushed me to get outside my comfort zone and talk to people, and because the things they had to say were really interesting.

FSD partners with local community organizations that already exist in the community, and then matches the interns they accept with said organizations based on the interests and skills of the intern and the needs of the organizations. I will be working with the Casa de la Mujer in the city of Rivas. Yesterday I went in to meet my supervisor, Teresita, and learn about what they do. They have a variety of programs in support of women’s rights and women’s empowerment, including a medical clinic, a lawyer who offers legal advice to victims of abuse or violence, campaigns against gender-based violence, educational programs about women’s rights (as Teresita was telling me, some women don’t know that they have the right not to be abused, because for them that’s just the way life is), and classes on vocational skills. This morning, I went in again to observe their Saturday morning classes. The offer classes on hair styling/beauty, baking, cake decorating, sewing, psychology, law, computer skills, accounting, administration, and so on. It was really great getting to talk to the instructors and some of the students, hear about what they do, and see all the variety of programs that the Casa de la Mujer puts on.

On Monday I start working, and during this first week, I will develop the first draft of my “work plan”—that is, the project I am going to develop and the strategy for getting there. Though when I say “the project I am going to develop,” what I mean is, “the project I am going to help the organization develop and implement.” That was a very important and emphasized element of our orientation material: we, the interns and the FSD team, are not here to do things for the people of Nicaragua, we are here to support them in the process of learning how to identify their needs and their collective goals and implement them for themselves. So my tasks this week will involve learning what the organization is in need of, what the people they serve need and want, and what I can bring to the table to help them accomplish those goals.

This blog entry feels very abbreviated, as there is so much more that I have experienced in the past week. But I should have internet a bit more consistently now, so I can try to update more often. In the meantime, I hope you all are well, thanks for reading, and talk to you soon! ¡Abrazos!