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Sponsorship in Nicaragua

CFCA is working to help further the development of  children and aging persons in Nicaragua through its largest project based in the capital city of Managua. The project includes more than 20 sites in Managua and surrounding municipalities, including León, Masaya, Matagalpa, Madriz, Estelí, Chinandega, Boaco and Bluefields.

CFCA provides a variety of benefits designed to support children, aging persons and families as they seek to overcome obstacles of poverty. Benefits may include health care, which varies from subproject to subproject, but generally includes doctor’s visits, nutritional supplements and some medications.

Educational benefits include tuition assistance for children attending Catholic schools, school supplies, books and uniforms. After-school tutoring for students in public school is another education-related benefit.

In the Matagalpa region, families struggle to meet basic needs such as nutrition and medicine. Even potable water can be difficult to obtain because natural water sources are contaminated from agricultural and industrial chemicals that run off crops into waterways. CFCA provides children and aging persons access to medical check-ups, affordable medicine, nutrition consultation and food baskets. Sponsorship also helps provide educational assistance and clothing.

In the city of Masaya, CFCA partners with the San Pedro Claver Center, operated by the Little Sisters of the Poor, to serve aging friends.

Bluefields contains the third largest concentration of sponsored children, youth and aging after Managua and Matagalpa. The region is isolated and accessible only by boat or plane. Most of the inhabitants subsist on fishing and other marine activities or by planting crops. CFCA focuses on services that stabilize and strengthen families such as education, human and spiritual formation, nutrition and health care.

Sponsor a child in Nicaragua

About Nicaragua

Nicaragua, located between Costa Rica and Honduras in Central America, is the largest country in Central America and one of the Western Hemisphere’s poorest countries. Dictatorships, foreign intervention and civil wars have marked much of its history. Rebellion and conflict continued for many years after civil war in the late 1970s.

Hurricane Mitch struck in 1998, killing more than 3,000 people, damaging the country’s infrastructure and destroying numerous homes, schools, small businesses and arable land.

The country, named for the indigenous chief of the region who ruled when the Spaniards arrived in the 1500s, is a land of forests, large lakes, rivers and rugged mountains, many of which are active volcanoes. Three-fifths of the people live in the lowland area where the soil is fertile from volcanic ash.

The Mosquito Coast on the Caribbean Sea receives more than 100 inches of rain each year and is considered the wettest place in Central America. It is made up of swamps, tropical forests, bays, lagoons and sandy beaches.

Nicaragua has two seasons: rainy from May to February and summer from March to April.

The people

Family plays a big role in Nicaraguan society. Family is what helps determine status, political beliefs and provides other opportunities. Many Nicaraguan children have a special link to their godparents through a system known as compadrazgo. In this system, children can rely on their godparents for support in difficult times or for help finding jobs.

Much of Nicaraguan culture has been influenced by Spanish culture. Many of the traditional customs, practices and dialects were lost when the Spaniards decimated the indigenous populations in the 1500s.

One-third of the working people are farmers who work their own land, cooperatives or large private farms. Coffee and cotton are the main crops in these farming regions but Nicaragua is also the leading cattle-raising country in Central America. Many rural areas can only be reached by mules and ox carts.

“La Purísima,” or the feast of the Immaculate Conception, is a holiday when people set up alters to the Virgin Mary. Children go around singing songs to Mary and are given sweets, fruits or other treats. This may be an occasion where individuals eat nacatamal and vigorón, the national dish that is made from vegetables and meats wrapped in plantain leaves.

Education

Primary and secondary education in public schools became tuition-free in 1979, and since the 1980s Nicaragua has built hundreds of rural schools. Schools in the Managua project are in session from January or February to November.

Because of the large number of children, there is not enough classroom space for students, and they are only allowed to attend a half day. Children from poor families also have difficulty paying for educational expenses such as uniforms and school supplies.

Around the same time as the building of schools, the government also began a campaign to teach adults to read and write. Doing so helped to raise the literacy rate from less than 50 percent to its current level of 67.5 percent.

Sponsor a child in Nicaragua

Sources:

World Factbook

MSN Encarta Encyclopedia