YOUR HELP NEEDED / DECEMBER 2019 NEWSLETTER

Dear friend of San Juan de Limay and Nicaragua,

I hope you enjoy our December newsletter and photos, below, and that you will take a minute to see the progress of the wonderful projects in Limay. The work is still going strong there after 34 years!  Will you donate now so the work can continue into a joyous New Year?

Your gift can:

– feed an elderly person or a preschool child in poverty

– transport an ill patient to a regional clinic or hospital

– support a college or technical school scholarship for a Limay youth

– buy 4 hens and a rooster (with fencing and coop) for a struggling farm family

– and more!

This holiday season, support Casa Baltimore/Limay by making a tax-deductible gift or pledge in honor of a friend or loved one.  Donate now and read more.

In gratitude, Barbara Larcom, Coordinator

Casa Baltimore/Limay, Baltimore Committee

P.S. Federal employees:  We are an approved participant in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC).  Please consider a pledge to CB/L, using number 16262.

P.P.S. It’s not too late to support our projects further by ordering boxed collections of Nicaraguan note cards at 40% off the usual price.  Go here for more information, or reply to this email.

 

MAY PEACE PREVAIL ON EARTH, IN THIS SEASON AND ALWAYS!

Above:  In Baltimore at our holiday party, celebrating the season with food and song

 

Our Scholarship Recipients Give Back to the Limay Community

Every Saturday, over 30 young people travel by bus from Limay to larger cities, to attend a full day of classes in a university or technical school.  They leave town in early morning darkness, and they return in darkness on the last bus of the day.  During the week they “hit the books,” pursuing their studies at home.

But our scholarship recipients do more than study.  They volunteer with our counterpart board in Limay.  Some are members of an environmental commission – they promote recycling, and plant trees and gardens.  Other students, like those in the photo below, are on the social commission, concerned with people’s social needs.

Above:  Four scholarship recipients, visiting with an elderly woman while delivering a monthly packet of supplemental food

 

Working Together to Save Our Earth and Feed Its People

We are excited at the progress already made in our agroecology project, greatly expanded in late spring 2019.  Local farmers are learning organic methods to grow more types of food, and more of it, to feed their families and to market a surplus.  Communities are also planting trees and ensuring their survival, and they’re harvesting and conserving rainwater.  Six “improved ovens” have also been introduced so far.  The ovens consume less than half the usual firewood.

May the endeavors in Limay (and throughout Nicaragua) inspire those of us in the Global North to do our part to save our earth and feed the hungry.

Above:  Delivery of fruit trees to the community of Quebrada de Agua.  Altogether, 430 fruit trees of 11 species were delivered to 5 communities benefiting 42 families.  Fruit species include orange, Indian lemon, mango, nancite, soursop, acid and Taiwanese guava, sour orange, sweet lemon, coconut and mandarin.

 

Above:  New poultry, protected by new fencing, has come to 10 families in the community of El Terrero.  In addition, 60 families in 5 other communities received fencing to surround their poultry yards.

 

Above:  Construction of a water storage tank.  Altogether, 5 tanks were built in 3 communities, each to hold about 4000 liters.  Each tank took 450 cone bricks, 10 bags of cement, a PVC pipe, and sand.  Community members provided the manual labor, working under skilled instruction.

 

Above:  One of the 5 metal water containers with PVC pipe which were purchased and delivered to the community of Las Chácaras.  Each container has a capacity of 1100 liters.

 

Above:  A beneficiary of an improved oven.  Altogether, 6 improved ovens were built and provided to women who are engaged in bakery work (rosquilla cookies, bread, cakes, etc.) – in 4 villages as well as 2 in the central town of Limay.  As they earn, these bakers will make small loan payments over time to a revolving fund, so that more ovens may be built and provided on the same terms.

 

Loving the Children

The people of Limay love their children and understand their value for the future of their community and nation.  Preschool kids now have a beautiful building in the Center for Child Development (CDI, formerly known as CENIC or SIR).  Casa Baltimore/Limay, thanks to generous donors, contributes toward staff salaries so that teachers earn a livable wage.

 

Above:  Children in one classroom of the CDI

 

Upcoming Delegation Trips to Nicaragua

 January 2020:  A group of Marylanders, led by Jill Clark-Gollub, is traveling to Nicaragua and will spend 1 ½ days in Limay.  Regrettably, no Baltimore CB/L participant is able to travel with the delegation, but we are pleased that our Limay counterparts will host the group.  Norlan Vanegas, the Limay board president, is busily preparing for the visit, which reportedly includes several members of Friends of Latin America (FoLA).

Of course, the delegation will take their meals with Doña Nidia Soza!  The plan is for them to visit several communities, to see some activities described in this newsletter.  We look forward to hearing about their experiences.

Summer 2020:  Have you ever considered going to Nicaragua – or traveling again to Nicaragua?  The summer of 2020 may be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.  Casa Baltimore/Limay is beginning to organize a delegation for July or August – you can help set the dates for this roughly 12-day trip, which will visit Limay and other Nicaraguan towns – maybe including a volcano or the beach!  Don’t let cost hold you back – we can do some fundraisers together.

Delegations are tailored to the interests of participants, whether they be education, healthcare, the environment, agriculture, or something else.  For more information, email Barbara Larcom at BaltimoreLimay@gmail.com, or leave a message at 410-444-1023.

 

Bolivia, Nicaragua and Beyond:

More Sides of the Story

What is taking place today, in Bolivia and elsewhere, reminds us of the painful period in Nicaragua over a year ago.  It is often difficult to find news sources that tell a different side of the story from mainstream media, or that delve deeper into the background of current events.

To help provide understanding and context for such events, Casa Baltimore/Limay and Popular Resistance co-sponsored an October event in Baltimore about regime change operations, with special attention to the role of the US.  The discussion was intended to stimulate our thinking:  How can we critically examine evidence from many media sources and detect similar patterns of unrest occurring across countries?  Camilo Mejia and Margaret Flowers were featured speakers, with lively audience participation.

Please note, too, that more information about Nicaragua’s conflict in 2018 is available by free download online.  Alliance for Global Justice has produced Live from Nicaragua:  Uprising or Coup? an e-book available in several different formats.  It contains chapters written by over 20 authors (including Barbara Larcom) with years of experience living or working in the country.  (Scroll down this page to select the e-book format of your choice.)

The Alliance for Global Justice website also has information about what is happening now in Bolivia and elsewhere in Latin America.