E1: Provision of a Secondary School Teacher at San Juan Bautista Secondary School, Chaguitillo, Dept. of Matagalpa.

This “entry level” project we mean one that appeals to congregations and individuals launching their first appeal, or to youth groups and children. As they grow in their understanding of development issues, they may choose to move on to another group of projects.

One could argue that funding for school costs and teachers’ salaries should be the responsibility of the Government of Nicaragua and indeed, in the best of worlds, it would be. The reality, however, is rather different.

Almost a decade ago, the community of Chaguitillo, Matagalpa constructed its own secondary school which serves everyone in the area. No child is turned away because of an inability to pay fees. For this reason, the school often runs a deficit. A funding crisis looms.

The Community of Chaguitillo, Matagalpa is well-known to many people connected to Sheaf/Espiga. Sheaf/Espiga personnel share an enthusiastic evaluation of the community’s work, which has been long connected to and supported by The Presbyterian Church in Canada (for which several Sheaf/Espiga personnel once worked). Sheaf/Espiga aims to embrace a new venture which builds upon these earlier relationships. The community has received funding for a variety of small projects and, more importantly, it has hosted literally dozens of delegations, volunteers, and visitors.

Sheaf/Espiga is looking for funds to cover the salary and benefits for one teacher. (the teacher's whose name will be provided to the donor). The cost is approximately CDN$1,750 per year.

Sheaf/Espiga is well aware that teachers’ salaries will never become self-financing. Nevertheless, as students at this school graduate, continue on to professional careers, and build some level of economic stability, we hope to develop an alumni campaign, around the theme of, “You were gifted, and poor, and foreigners paid for your education. Now you are an independent professional. We hope that you will send a student through San Juan Bautista and see that contribution as your own “deferred tuition”. This is a hard concept to sell in a country so desperately poor, but it is one upon which Sheaf/Espiga is already at work.
 

REQUEST

E2: Secondary School Scholarships, San Juan Bautista

A relatively small contribution can have a marked impact on a young life. A few students who have graduated from San Juan Bautista High School hope to continue to university. Without outside help, these costs are prohibitive for the gifted student and family. Such studies cost between CDN$250 and $550 per year depending upon the programme and the university where it is offered, since transportation to and from the school varies in distance.

The cost per student is approximately CDN$130 per year. We hope that individuals, religious, and service groups sponsoring the students may decide to take on other projects as well.
 

REQUEST

E3: Micro-Credit Programme

The concept of micro-credit and its role in enhancing family and community well-being received tremendous positive profile and endorsement with the awarding of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize to the founder of the Grameen Bank, a micro-credit enterprise in Bangladesh. This has increased demand for such opportunities worldwide. Sheaf/Espiga has identified a reliable way to expand micro-credit opportunities in the communities it serves.

For a number of years, a trusted agency in Nicaragua has provided small business loans to groups of women in order to generate income to support their children. Loans are provided to women for two reasons: 1) experience has shown that they will almost always repay their debts [the recovery rate for loans is more than 98%] and 2) help women almost by definition, means help reaches their children. Loans range from about US$60 to about US$300. Gradually, repaid loans have generated a revolving fund so that additional loans can be granted.

It is vitally important that loans not just be given without proper preparation or accountability. A programme of training in small business and in business planning goes along with the granting of credit.

Our Nicaraguan partner has already acquired the necessary infrastructure: office space and staff, and even motorcycles so that trainers can actually reach remote areas in which the clients work and live. There are in 19 credit centres. Seventeen of these communities are in the Department of Boaco and the remaining two in the Department of Matagalpa.

The success of the programme has generated enormous “grass roots” interest so that more and more women are asking for both training and loans. (Currently 229 women are on the waiting list). While the loans now outstanding would eventually allow the micro-credit programme to respond to these requests and loan to other women, the process could take years. An injection of additional funds (following the model of the Grameen Bank) would enable the programme to provide more loans sooner, but still in a sustainable fashion.

Sheaf/Espiga’s idea is to offer additional capital so that more groups of women can receive funds in the short term. These funds will eventually be repaid and then recirculated through still more groups of women.

Approximately US $100 is required to extend the programme to a woman (or approximately $1,200 to extend it to those in a single credit centre). This includes the cost of the initial loan and, the cost of training visits and repayment administration. Repayments are collected at regular meetings.
 

REQUEST

E4: Support of the Youth Choir at the Batahola Community Centre, Managua.

The area around the Batahola Community Centre suffered badly during the civil war in Nicaragua in the 1970s.

Nicaraguan history, like the stories of many peoples, is complex. Over the years, a major player in that history has been the United States, whose marines occupied the country for decades in the early 20th century. They left, having chosen the government to succeed them: and the dynasty of the Somoza family began. The Somozas – father, son, and finally grandson -- ruled the country for almost fifty years.

At Christmas, 1972, a powerful earthquake devastated the capital.

Opposition forces, named for an early leader, Augusto Cesar Sandino, gradually grew in strength. When the Somozas pocketed money sent for earthquake relief, public outcry grew and the resistance strengthened. In July, 1979, the Somozas fell.

As the Somoza dictatorship collapsed the National Guard launched an attack in the Batahola Community near downtown Managua.

Later, under the first Sandinista government, the area, once the property of a powerful landowner, was sub-divided and re-developed as low-income housing. A small Roman Catholic church was built, the land contributed by the government on the condition that it be used not only for church services, but also for social services to the poor.

See the history of the Centre at www.friendsofbatahola.org (Please note that a new director, Jennifer Marshall has been named).

Part of the work of the Centre from the very beginning has been a wonderful children and youth choir that has become world-famous. Its success has contributed to a dramatic decline in delinquency rates in the area.

REQUEST

The musical instruments (and accessories like violin “bridges”) are aging and the choir continues to grow. So funds for musical instruments (of varying prices from flutes to guitars to marimbas!) would allow the group to expand its “music in the barrio” programmes which encourages young people to take what they have learned into other poor areas of the City.

The Centre also has an “internal scholarship programme” which allows those who could not otherwise afford to participate in the classes. Scholarships are about $60 CDN and a high percentage of those who participate receive them.

E5: Volunteering - A Challenge for Canadian Baby Boomers (and Others!)

As a large number of Canadian baby boomers retire, many want to fulfill a life-time dream of engaging in overseas mission work or of living abroad to serve those most in need. Sheaf/Espiga has developed a programme to target these keen volunteers.

The idea is to offer a variety of ways in which such volunteers may become involved. The wide range of partnerships allows Sheaf/Espiga to offer something that would make use of almost any specific skill or general interest.

Volunteer candidates would first come to the region to see what type of work is needed. This first experience would be something of an “exposure” to the scope of work and possibilities.

After that initial contact, the individual would be encouraged to learn or perfect his or her Spanish, and to complete orientation, readings, interviews and screenings. Subsequent trips would blend on-going exposure and specific short-term placements.

Eventually, the volunteer might negotiate with Sheaf/Espiga the most suitable kind of placement: perhaps full-time for a year or perhaps for several months each year.

In Canada, participants would receive on-going “de-briefing”, and will be expected to assist in the work of interpretation of the Sheaf/Espiga Foundation’s work.

We have already had some experience in this: one municipal lawyer and his wife have returned to Nicaragua at least once a year and have worked with “working children” (sometimes referred to as “street kids”). Another person, a pastor, was exposed to the indigenous church in Guatemala and the Baptist churches of El Salvador; he returned as a full time missionary.

Some candidates come with their own funding, either personal or, as in the case of clergy, through their study leave allowance. Others, however, need assistance from other sources.

REQUEST

Presently, we are looking for approximately $3,500 Canadian to fund a pastor (and an on-going student) for two months. The candidate will be offering pastoral care in a remote village and working with women in a project in the capital. That work will focus on women who have received training -- and who continue to receive training -- at the Batahola Centre (See above) They have formed a small Bible discussion group and grapple with issues of empowerment, and discovering their own unique perspectives. Visits with people in their homes, helping them to integrate what they have learned into their family context, are also a party of this programme. One woman, a cleaner at the Center, writes, “I never knew that God had a plan for me as well, until the pastor and I began to think about what it might be.”

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