Nicaragua is the poorest country in Latin America after
Haiti and with more than 4.4 million people living on less than 2 dollars a
day, Nicaragua presents the worst poverty situation in Central America. It is the
fourth country that I cycled through where Trocaire are involved and last Wednesday
I visited their office in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital.
Trocaire has been supporting local partner organisations in
Nicaragua since 1978 and their current programmes support over 30 partners working in four key areas; governance & human rights, a sustainable
livelihoods programme that support poor rural communities to improve their food
security, disaster risk reduction programme and
finally a programme aimed at supporting the prevention of gender based violence
which is all too prevalent in Nicaragua. Trocaire’s programmes are focused in
parts of the country (Pacific and North Central) where there are high or severe
poverty levels. These zones are predominantly rural and where agricultural
production was severely affected by the civil war in the 1980s.
When we met in the Trocaire office Ronie, Zoila and Carlos talked Rowan and I through some their projects in
more detail.
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| Zoila, Rowan, Ronie, Carlos and Billy |
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| Rowan (thrilled with his Trocaire sticker), Billy and Ronie |
In the area of Disaster and Risk prevention they explained
to me how they work to set up local committees to coordinate relief efforts, get
radios into some of the more isolated rural areas that get effected by natural
disasters, educate children in schools about natural disasters and steps they
can take, and also encourage isolated communities to communicate better with
their municipalities. Nicaragua is extremely vulnerable to natural disasters
(earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, floods and landslides) and in the last 20
years has been the 4th most vulnerable country in the world for
extreme weather events.
In the area of sustainable livelihoods Trocaire work with
poor communities by helping and educating them how to produce different foods
to eat and sell and in turn help to improve their self esteem. Maize and beans
are the most common foods in Nicaragua and traditionally the staple of the
poor. They work with communities to grow
additional foods such as tomatoes, bananas, yuca and casaba to complement
their diet and be less reliant on one or two food stuffs.
Trocaire work with local partners to help communities so
that they feel empowered and can see the difference that the communities can make
themselves. A recent example was in the municipality
of Posoltega where the government wanted to build a school in a community where
there was a low child population but there was a nearby area with a high child
population without a school and the local organisations succeeded in lobbying
the government to change the school location.
Later I spent the afternoon with Impulso a partner
organisation of Trocaire’s that works with victims of gender based violence in
Laureles Sur one of the poorest neighborhoods on the outskirts of Managua. Laureles
Sur is a ghetto that was established in 1990. As part of the peace agreement to
end the civil war fighters from both sides were promised land if they laid down
their arms. These were nearly all rural people from the countryside who fought
on both sides of the conflict, they were all dumped into this small area with
no electricity or running water. Not used to city life most of the inhabitants
main experience was of working the land and war so needless to say it's a
neighborhood that suffers from extreme violence. To be honest I was slightly
apprehensive when the guys from Impulsivo told me where I was going for the
afternoon once I had heard that background to the area.
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| A diagram of how Impulso works within the whole community |
Impulsivo runs a 5 year programme for the victims of GBV,
with the first 2 years focused on councelling the women and helping them to
come to term with their experiences. The remaining years are to train them in
different techniques to be able to help other women and train them as
councellors and legal advisors. Training would include such things as knowing
the law, to help a woman who has been raped in preserving evidence and counseling.
Trocaire, Impulsivo and other partners main focus is on
trying to prevent Gender Based Violence by changing attitudes and society. This
is obviously a very long term process that involves the whole community not
just the victims. At a community level they work with women, men and teachers
and then at a municipal level they work with the police, court system and
public prosecution office. A survey was done in 2010 where 52% of the women in
the programme had faced GBV that year and last year in November 2012 there had
been a reduction of 30%. The programme is obviously having positive effects and
long may that continue but in a country that has experienced a recent civil war
and violence against women is still all too prevalant this will be a long
process, I wish them well.
Having seen it first hand yet again, I was incredibly
impressed by the work Trocaire does along with their partner organisations here
in Nicaragua.
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