Yale Alumni Bring Needed HealthCare to Leon Region

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A group of more 68 people from the Yale Alumni Service Corps visited Trohilo, a small community near Leon, to provide medical care and other projects. In five days, they provided medical consultation and care to more than 400 people from Trohilo and nearby communities.
Jelen Yalisa Espinoza, 16, said she came to the clinic to get treatment for a headache and couldn’t remember when she had last been to the doctor previously. In Trohilo there is a health clinic with a doctor and a nurse, but the clinic is only open part time. They don’t have the capacity to serve everyone who needs care, said nurse Esperanza Quiroz, and there are no specialized doctors in the community, like cardiologists or internists. Many people have to travel to the city of Leon to receive treatment or medicine. “I feel confident to say they have saved lives by diagnosing people, like women with cancer, who never would have known they were sick otherwise,” Quiroz said.

She has been working at the clinic for 8 years and said the two primary health concerns in the community are women’s health needs like Human Papilloma Virus and the devastating Chronic Kidney Disease that kills many people in the community, especially men who work in the nearby sugar farms — dehydration and exposure to pesticides both greatly increase the risk for that illness, she explained.

“Everyone who lives here is at risk for CKD,” she said.

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Every Day Is International Women’s Day

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We hope you had a great International Women’s Day! We celebrated el Día Internacional de la Mujer a couple days late with a breakfast and devotional to honor the women who work for CEPAD and those we serve with our programs.

About 60 percent of CEPAD’s staff are women, including at the leadership level with Damaris Albuquerque at the helm as executive director and Anita Taylor leading our partnership and delegation programs. In our programs, we work to support and empower women through our programs by providing microloans to help women start small buildings, training women on their rights against violence, and more. Women lead CEPAD’s community development committees in many regions, and they learn skills to be leaders in other areas of the community. Read more

"I am a strong woman"

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On a recent delegation trip with Amos Trust, Jenny Richardson wrote this poem and meditation after meeting with women in a rural community to learn about their experience with Prestanic, a microcredit organization that has strong ties to CEPAD. We are thankful to share it here.
I am a woman.
I raise my family in one room and create our home.
The government gives us materials for a roof
and we can shelter from the rain.
I wash our clothes in the stream
and watch the bright colours dancing as they hang on the washing line.
I pick the fruit,
Growing in abundance,
to feed my family.
Do you think I am poor?
Do you not see, I am a strong Nicaraguan woman?I helped my mother to sell the bread she made.
It was all too much
and I left to live on the streets.
I took drugs but have been given a road to a new life.
I want to be a fashion designer
and my mother will be proud of me.
Do you think I am poor?
Do you not see, I am a strong Nicaraguan woman?I meet with my friends
and we delight in sharing news of our business ventures.
We slaughter pigs,
sell clothes,
Bake bread,
And with our profits we repay our loans and provide for our children’s education.
Do you think I am poor?
Do you not see, I am a strong Nicaraguan woman?

I teach my children to harvest the ripe coffee,
To work the processing machine outside our home.
To sort the best coffee beans for market
And to carry the precious load to market.
Do you think I am poor?
Do you not see, I am a strong Nicaraguan woman?

I have lived through change in Nicaragua.
Friends have died in the 1972 earthquake.
Relatives have been caught up in the fighting between the Contras and the Sandinistas.
Yet I welcome the hope that the government gives me.
Do you think I am poor?
Do you not see, I am a strong Nicaraguan woman?

You ask me about faith.
I am a Catholic and an Evangelical.
Faith is a gift of God.
It is no ones property.
I live with dignity as a daughter of God.
My theology takes me out of the door of the church into the streets
To work for justice and reconciliation.
Do you think I am poor?
Do you not see, I am a strong Nicaraguan woman?

We nurture our children
And they are proud of being Nicaraguan.
As they grow stronger
Nicaragua will continue to flourish.
They are are our hope and our future.
Do you think we are poor?
Do you not see we are strong Nicaraguan women?

I am Mary,
A girl from Nazareth.
Engaged to be married.
I trust God.
He will liberate the poor.
He will bring down the mighty.
He has chosen me and I say ‘yes’.
I will be the Mother of God’s son,
With all it’s joys, challenges and responsibilities.

Do you think I am poor?
Do you think I am weak?
Do you think I am holy?
Don’t you see, I am a strong woman.

Fall 2013 CEPAD Report

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Download the Fall 2013 CEPAD Report or read it here.  
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Together, We Help Thousands of People Each Year

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In 2012, CEPAD provided direct training and resources to more than 1,000 people in rural Nicaragua. Those people are each charged with sharing what they’ve learned with their communities. That means thanks to your support, CEPAD reaches thousands of people every year with our programs. We couldn’t do it without you!
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A Single Mom Gains Leadership and Farming Skills

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As the only breadwinner in her home Tita Rocha was delighted when she was chosen to be a Community  Agriculture Promoter to learn about conservation techniques as well how to diversify her crops and improve the type of food that her family can eat throughout the year.

“I am happy because I am changing the way I work the land. I am now planting different crops that will yield food for my children in different times of the year, making use of techniques of soil and water conservation to protect my land and my plants.”

Tita participated in three trainings provided by CEPAD and learned conservation techniques which included preventing soil erosion through the use of live and dead barriers, making natural pesticides and making organic fertilizer.

As a Community Agriculture Promoter Tita also has other farmers who she is sharing the information she learned with to help them also improve their crops and protect the environment.

For Tita the value of these trainings extends to her children as well. She is teaching them what she has learned which is helping them to be more involved in the work that she does.

In the future Tita hopes to plant all of her land to reap the benefits of her newly diversified crops. “In the future I hope to plant the rest of my land,  putting into practice what I have learned through the trainings.”

Thanks to your support of  CEPAD’s programs together we were able to train 516 farmers in 2012 in these farming techniques, improving their food security as well as their  treatment of the environment. This post originally appeared in the Fall 2013 CEPAD Report. Subscribe to the e-newsletter to receive the report and other news from CEPAD.

Irrigation Systems Mean Hope In Face of Drought

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The first half of 2013 left many Nicaraguan farmers in despair as crops and animals died. But Luis Robles has hope for the future after CEPAD installed an irrigation system to help farmers in his community.

Luis, 23, leads the Community Development Committee in Malacatoya, a rural community outside of San Jose de los Remates, some 96 kms from Managua, the capital city. This year, he and two other farmers were able to irrigate their crops thanks to a motorized irrigation system that pumps water to their farms. This system will allow them to harvest basic crops year round to provide food for their families and to increase their income.

“Because of climate change, the drought this year was long and hard,” Luis said. “We had enough clean water to drink, but we didn’t have enough water to cultivate. So, it was amazing when CEPAD brought us the irrigation system and trained us how to use it.”

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Water Flows at CEPANA Thanks to Baltimore Youth

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A donation from the Christian Temple CYF youth delegation from Baltimore, Maryland allowed CEPAD to repair the potable water system at CEPANA, our farm in the Matagalpa region. We are so thankful for this water, and for Christian Temple’s gift!

Water at CEPANA Farm

Potable water is now available throughout CEPANA, CEPAD’s farm. CEPAD’s Matagalpa director, Juan Carlos Palma, shows off the system.

 

The system has been out of commission for more than a year after thieves stole the electrical wiring necessary to make the well run and to carry the water throughout the farm. CEPANA provides a site for training farmers in sustainable agriculture methods as well as hosting delegations and other groups. Read more

Plantain Cooperative Expands Economic Opportunities

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Farmers in Nueva Guinea this week signed an agreement with the San Antonio bank to create a new cooperative plantain business that leader Yalena Hernandez Serrano said will help producers earn an additional $2,500 per year.CEPAD helped the farmers organize and implement the new business plan with financial and planning support from Episcopal Relief and Development. So far, 13 farmers have signed up to participate in the Allianza Productiva de Platano, also called APROPLAT, and about 80 are interested.

“We’ll do training on how to grow the plantains, the responsibilities of the project, and how to sell commercially,” said Yalena. “I love farming life, and I’m excited to help lead this project. We’ll sell in Nicaragua to start, and we hope to be able to sell internationally as well.”

CEPAD will help provide that training. A cooperative model is a great fit for rural farmers, said CEPAD program director Evenor Jerez.

“The law permits them incentives when they participate in cooperatives like better prices on tools and fertilizer,” Evenor said.

The San Antonio bank is a cooperative bank that CEPAD started 18 years ago to promote fair commerce. They provide loans at manageable interest rates as well as infrastructural guidance.

We hope that with this great network of support – CEPAD, Episcopal Relief and Development, and the bank – the farmers can expand their businesses and learn new skills. An additional $2,500 per year in income would mean a drastic improvement in quality of life for many farmers in Nueva Guinea. Although the project is still in the early stages, the participating farmers are committed and motivated by a hope that radiates from the bright green plantain trees growing on their farms.

CEPAD Fights Violence Through Education

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Half of Nicaraguan women experience violence at the hands of a husband, partner or family member. In CEPAD’s psychosocial program, we work directly with women to help them learn what their rights are and how to report abuse.The primary legislation against gender and family violence in Nicaragua is the Integral Law Against Violence Against Women, or Ley 779, which passed last year. This law expands on previous anti-violence laws and includes protections for physical, psychological and sexual abuse. This article provides a great history and summary of the law. This article provides great background in English on the history and details of the law.But for the legislation to affect women, they have to know about it. That’s where CEPAD comes in. We train women in our 43 partner on how to identify domestic violence and abuse and how to respond to it. Last week, CEPAD staff went to the Pantasma region of Jinotega and conducted a workshop with 13 women from seven communities about the law. Read more