Cruz Rivas Williams getting to work at the training center, always experimenting to find new ways to help local communities become more food secure. Photo: Angela R-Schafer/CWS
In the midst of gripping poverty, Cruz Rivas Williams sees great potential right under his feet.
“The greatest gift God has given us is the water and the land,” says Williams.
Williams knows something about the gifts of water and land – he trains local farmers in sustainable farming techniques in the Nazaret 1 training center in the Rio Coco region of Nicaragua. Church World Service fights hunger with knowledge here, and the battle is playing out one family at a time.
Together with Christian Medical Action, CWS helps indigenous families of the Rio Coco learn how to diversify their crops for greater yield, how to use organic composting and insecticides instead of chemicals, and how to stop deforestation by putting an end to slash and burn techniques.
Here, in the jungles of northern Nicaragua, where the warm sunlight bounces off the grass to collide with the birds one sees everywhere, Williams and others are teaching and showing how sustainable farming is done in Transfer and Tech Training Centers, abbreviated CPTT in Spanish. The experience is hands-on, making the leap from theory to practice that much easier.
Lucia Salmeron proudly showing her peppers and how organic insecticides are protecting her plants. Photo: Angela R-Schafer/CWS
Providing seeds and livestock, and promoting long-term soil and water management techniques isn’t just for Williams and the teachers at the CPTTs either. The communities around the training centers choose who goes to learn the new skills, and who gets to take them home to share. And since the teachers are careful to go back to the farms to see how their students are using their new knowledge, the lessons grow into an ongoing lab where problems are solved and new methods are discovered.
Lucia Salmeron is using the seeds, planting and water conservation methods that she learned at Nazaret 1 back in her home village. She proudly tells that she now not only has enough food to feed her five children but surplus to sell, for added income for her family. Thinking of the future, she’s careful to show her children how she is growing and taking care of the family plot. She is planning on expanding and planting even more in the coming months.
“We feel we are making great progress with the families at the centers,” Williams says. “We are changing the consciousness of the people, to learn new ways. We are walking to a new horizon together.”