Community Leaders Collaborate To Plan Cooperatives
“It’s because of CEPAD that we have come as far as we have, and it’s because of CEPAD that we’ll be able to continue on our own,” said Yalena Hernandez Serrano after a meeting at the Nehemias Center last week.
Yalena, from the Los Angeles community in Nueva Guinea, was one of 36 representatives from CEPAD’s partner communities who came to a two day workshop last week to learn how to navigate the forms and rules for creating an official association or cooperative. When the official partnership between CEPAD and these communities ends this year, the associations and cooperatives allow communities to continue in a positive direction and make the most of the skills the learned in their time working with CEPAD.
“The goal of our association is to continue producing new agricultural projects so we can improve our economic circumstances,” said Inocente Ramos Hernandez from the community Matazano in the Matagalpa region. “In this training we learned about how to make our association legal under the constitution so we can access government support and resources.”
Your support of CEPAD’s communities over the last five years has meant big changes in 43 communities around Nicaragua. Your continued financial support will help provide resources as these communities transition to their next phase and will make sure that the next set of communities CEPAD works with get off to a great start.
“Without CEPAD we wouldn’t be able to do this, because our economy wouldn’t be strong enough and we just wouldn’t know how,” Yalena said. “We are so thankful to everyone who made this possible.”
