Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Nicaragua Program Trip – September 2007

In September, I visited our partners SOPPEXCCA and CECOCAFEN in Nicaragua. The main goal of the trip was to facilitate an exchange or encuentro between AUGE, a Coffee Kids partner from Veracruz, Mexico, and SOPPEXCCA.

These face-to-face exchanges are an important piece of Coffee Kids’ approach to development by allowing our partners the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas and approaches to common problems.

Several months ago, Clara Palma, coordinator of AUGE’s savings and children’s groups, realized that the children in the groups were growing up, which brought up some challenges.

She wondered, what options they could offer these young men and women? Do we just tell them that there is no place for them? Or, do we try to fold them into the adult savings groups?

In Nicaragua, SOPPEXCCA has created two successful programs for children and adolescents in environmental education. As a result, Coffee Kids coordinated a meeting between the two groups to discuss and share approaches to setting up programs for adolescents.

On the second leg of the trip, I visited our partner CECOCAFEN to learn more about the progress of their GMAS (Groups of Women Saving in Solidarity) project and the scholarship program in the region of Nueva Segovia.

This region was one of the first places colonized by the Spanish; it was also an important center for gold production and a constant target of pirates. Ironically, the area is now one the most isolated and rural regions in Nicaragua.

During this trip, I visited the communities of El Ocotal, Jalapa and El Jicaro. Some of the project participants traveled 3 or 4 hours to attend the meetings. The participants shared their feelings and ideas regarding the savings programs and let us know how big a difference it was making in their lives.