The following story comes from participants in the community of Nancital, Teustepe during the 2015-2020 cycle in the leadership development and sustainable agriculture. 

Community leaders Edwin Velásquez and Socorro Ráudez, the president and secretary of the CDC (Community Development Committee), are apart of one of the communities that CEPAD worked with in the Teustepe region. Today, they continue in the same CDC structure even though CEPAD is no longer intensively working in their community. Both members are part of their local Emergency Committee and continue to support CEPAD by sharing about their experiences and skills acquired through the workshops they received. They have the objective of being examples for the new communities of the 2021-2025 cycle. El Nancital is located 18km from the city of Teustepe. 

Edwin Velásquez, after receiving all of the workshops in CEPAD’s Leadership Development Program, continues to plan project to benefit his community, in support of 20 families who participate voluntarily. 

In 2020, he started to create the Multiple Services Cooperative in Teustepe. Edwin continued on as the founder and president of the cooperative. There are currently 18 members, and each one offers a service through the cooperative. Some of these include selling honey, vegetables, fruit, corn, beans, and milk. Edwin initiated the training of these 18 members that are from the communities El Nancital and Los Ranchos. 

Apart from the creation of the cooperative, Edwin and five other members also coordinated the following projects with the local government: 

1. Digging three wells using both the funds and manual labor from the community to benefit 21 families.
2. Road repair on the highway giving access to El Nancital, supported by the local government. Twenty kilometers of roadway were repaired and maintained with materials selected  for the ground. 
3. Donating produce to families of little resources for their families to eat. 

On August 11, 2022, CEPAD Executive Director Emily Reyes, was able to see the advances and development that all of our brothers and sisters have accomplished in El Nancital under the leadership of Edwin. He also supports by selling honey. The Cooperative has 277 beehives, which produce 554 buckets of honey to export outside of Nicaragua. This has proven to b a great income for the Cooperative to invest and bring work to other community members. 

With the honey sales, they’ve been able to have an income of US$4,500 during honey season, which is twice a year. This income is given to them twice a year. This success would not have been possible without the accompaniment and trainings offered by CEPAD and the CDC’s interest in benefiting their community. 

Edwin shares, “I feel proud of being able to accomplish these various projects for my community. When I started the workshops with CEPAD in 2015, I didn’t have any of the knowledge or the experiences that I have now. I was shy and not very social. Now I’m one of the people that encourages others to look for better conditions for our community. I’m filled with joy to be able to help the families who need it. As a CDC leader and a farmer from the sustainable organic agriculture program, we’ve been able to unite forces so that more people can come together for the community, so that everyone can have better conditions regarding incoming, new opportunity, and especially in studies. Without the workshops that CEPAD provided, we wouldn’t be seeing these beautiful results.”

“We’ll continue with the projects that are in process and continue to work with local authorities. We’re so thankful to the CEPAD staff and to all of the donors that make this possible. May God bless you always.”