Learning by example, leading by example in Nicaragua

Miriam Martinez regrets that she never got to go to school. Her parents couldn’t afford it when she was little.

Miriam was raised in Krin Krin, one of many small villages scattered along the Coco River, which makes up the border between Nicaragua and Honduras. When she was 20, she set off for the biggest town on the river, Waspam. She found work as a cook.

Two years after she arrived, she got married and returned to Krin Krin, where she had eight children.

“I had no experience in working the land,” Miriam says. “I started after I got married because my husband was lazy.” While she may have started out with no experience, Miriam has become a successful farmer. Her family has about 120 acres of land, about 75 acres of which are under cultivation with banana and plantain trees, fruit trees, tubers, beans and rice. The rest is still forested. Miriam also has chickens, pigs, cows and horses.

Miriam grows her family’s food, and she sells extra produce to put her children through school. Her children won’t have the same regrets that Miriam does. Two of her eldest are studying far away from home in the city, one of them in the field of veterinary science.

“A couple of years ago, our community leaders chose me to be an agricultural promoter to further my skills and help my neighbors,” Miriam says. Agricultural promoters like Miriam participate in classes and information sessions at local training centers, where they also use sample gardens to test different ways of cultivating plants. They learn and experiment with different techniques for growing crops, and then they can put what they learn into practice on their own land. Plus, each promoter commits to sharing what he or she has learned with at least two neighbors so that the whole community can begin to benefit. For her part, Miriam is happy to be an example for other farmers – both men and women – in her community.

A boost for a family figuring out their next steps

She was a lawyer. He was a decorator at an event venue. Now, their country is in crisis and they’re living in an informal settlement across the border, trying to figure out their next steps.

This is their story.

Flor and Miguel had successful careers in Lara State, Venezuela. As political unrest intensified, both husband and wife saw their hours scaled back and their salaries drop. Both are natural entrepreneurs, so they came up with alternatives to supplement their shrinking paychecks. They started a garden, which supplied them with all the food they needed for a few months without adding any extra costs. This idea was so successful that they shared it with their friends and neighbors – gardens like theirs started popping up all over the neighborhood as people converted their patios to help mitigate some of the effects of the crisis. Flor and Miguel also made and sold donuts to generate some income.

As the crisis deepened, access to even the most basic supplies and ingredients became limited. After more than two years of struggling to support his family, Miguel was the first to leave to try to find work elsewhere. In early-mid 2018, Flor left, too. She joined Miguel in an informal settlement in Saravena, Colombia, across the border from Venezuela. Now seven months pregnant, Flor focuses on caring for her family and making and selling a pastry called torrejas for some income.

Flor and Miguel heard about a CWS-supported program in La Union that helps families like theirs, so Flor attended a meeting for more information. She liked what she heard, and expressed an interest to join the program and learn more about building a business. Her family received food and hygiene vouchers that they could use in local stores to meet their basic needs. They also received a livelihoods voucher, which they could use to purchase supplies that would help start or expand a business. They used it to buy cooking tools that improve production of the torrejas.

“The project became a source of motivation,” Flor says. “For us and many others, we had the desire and the will, but we were missing a boost and you gave us the techniques, tools, support and motivation. Today, I feel strengthened and motivated by the project.”

Sadly, Flor and Miguel fall into a growing class of people worldwide: smart, talented people who are willing to work hard for their families but who are facing dark times because of circumstances beyond their control. We are proud to partner with families, including theirs, to help give them a boost.

The Humanitarian Assistance to Venezuelan Migrants to Saravena, Colombia program was implemented by Lutheran World Federation in 2018. It was supported through CWS by partners: United Methodist Committee on Relief, Church of the Brethren, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, United Church of Christ and Week of Compassion.

An investment ripples out through a family

It’s a story you’ve probably heard from your friends and neighbors plenty of times: having a child in college can take a toll on a family’s finances. Sometimes making that investment in someone’s education means taking on extra work, and sometimes it means taking out loans when you wish you didn’t have to.

Suriati Roro and her husband have two sons in college. The family earns a living through farming rice, cocoa and coffee – it’s the typical livelihood of a family in this part of Indonesia. They also have a small food kiosk near the local junior high school where they sell noodles and cakes.

In the last few years, though, finances have been tight for the family. They had to close a larger kiosk that they operated out of their house because they couldn’t afford to restock it. Suriati went to the bank to try to get a loan to keep the kiosk open, but her application was rejected. Other people who had borrowed from the bank for similar reasons in the past hadn’t repaid their loans, so Suriati was considered too high risk. Without the bank loan, she turned to other lenders. “I once borrowed  money to restock my kiosk from a neighbor at seven percent monthly interest, which was quite high and burdening to me and my family,” she says.

Without that kiosk, the family began to struggle. “If we depended on our farm interest alone, we could not finance the children who are in college; the money just wouldn’t stretch that far,” Suriati says. “This is especially true for the last couple of years; our cocoa plants haven’t been producing as much as in the past, and our coffee harvest has also slowed down.” She’s describing a challenge that many families like hers are facing: gradual changes in the climate make it hard to rely on rain-fed agriculture, which is what they have done for generations.

Families like Suriati’s are working hard to make that challenges outside of their control – whether it’s climate change, economic uncertainty or a disaster – won’t destroy their income and livelihoods. One of the most effective ways to build this resilience is to have multiple income streams.

That brings us back to the kiosk at her house.

Through the CWS DREAM programs, people like you are investing in community groups in the area. Members of these savings and lending groups contribute a little bit each month. Group members can borrow from that pool of money to start or expand businesses – at a very reasonable interest rate (in this case, two percent).

Two months ago, Suriati took out her first loan from the Mawar Savings and Loan Group.

It was a loan for $35 to reopen her household kiosk. Suriati focused on goods the sell with a quick turnaround, like gasoline for motorbikes and popular vegetables, cakes and snacks. With the kiosk back in operation, her family is making about $2.50 each day in profit. They are saving some profit to pay back their loan, on time and in full with interest. But they’re also using those profits to pay their sons’ college expenses.

“I am very grateful for the Mawar Savings and Loan Group because it has given my family and me the ability to invest in our future. I plan to apply for a larger loan after I pay off my current one. I want to expand my kiosk business near the school to sell more school supplies, uniforms and shoes,” Suriati says.

People like you invested in Suriati and other hardworking entrepreneurs. She, in turn, invested in her business and in her sons’ education. It’s an investment that is rippling out to improve many lives.

Equipping Village Development Committees to lead effectively in Myanmar

For anyone in a leadership position, the ability to run a meeting effectively is an important skill. So are things like goal setting and making sure everyone’s voice and perspective can be heard. Many of us have attended workshops or seminars to build these skills. And now, the same opportunity is available to our neighbors in Myanmar who are part of newly-formed Village Development Committees.

CWS, in partnership with Lutheran World Federation, has helped about a dozen communities in Maubin Township, Myanmar, establish these VDCs. Groups like these, which are part of many of our programs worldwide, are the backbone of the sustainability of our work. Yes, we help communities make infrastructure changes like building clean water systems. And we lead information sessions for families to learn about topics like child nutrition or hygiene. But what happens when the water system is complete, or the information session ends?

VDCs are made of elected or volunteer community members who continue the impact of the work. In addition to having vital advisory roles on program activities, they also support families to continue putting into practice what they have learned, maintain new systems or convene regular meetings of program participants. And thanks to some recent Leadership and Management Training Workshops in the area, they can do this more effectively and efficiently.

Between the two three-day workshops, 55 men and women came together to learn more about leading their groups. Participants included committee chairs, secretaries, bookkeepers and general members. Key topics were community development, community participation, good governance, leadership styles and management techniques. Practical sessions covered meeting facilitation, goal setting, work planning, activity leadership, monitoring and follow-up.

Since this was a first-time learning-sharing opportunity of this kind for most people, everyone joined enthusiastically in discussions and asked many questions, many of which were answered in conversation with other VDC members. Everyone also had a chance to practice facilitating a meeting and leading a discussion; and, one priority of the training team was to share ways and means to encourage women’s participation is all activities.

In reflecting on her time in one of the training workshops, Daw Wan Wan Lwin from Auk Htone village said, “It is really worth my time to join these sessions because this is the first time for me to learn things like this. [Though I knew the basics of what being a Committee member means], I now understand more of my role and responsibilities as a leader and I feel more confident as a woman leader.” (Despite the fact that more than a third of the workshop participants were women, it is still not typical for women in rural Myanmar to be community leaders – though this is changing with the CWS Integrated Resilience and Development project, and others like it across Myanmar.) Daw Wan Wan Lwin continued, saying, “Now I will use what I have learned, especially about facilitating meetings, to help Auk Htone organize to create a development plan. I am sure that my fellow Committee members do not think nor feel differently from me.”

A post-workshop survey showed that everyone was satisfied with what they learned and experienced, both in terms of the process and the content. Eleven VDCs are now well-equipped to hit the ground running on behalf of their families and neighbors. And, as Committee members reach out to their neighbors and other village leaders and duty bearers to ensure quality work to improve water, sanitation and hygiene; mothers’ nutrition awareness and knowledge; young children’s nutritional status; some families livelihoods and everyone’s preparedness for disasters, CWS staff will follow-up regularly with VDC members to help ensure continued self-confidence and results-oriented action to benefit all community members.

A young refugee is “making up for lost time” in Jakarta

Taman was born to a poor family in Afghanistan, which didn’t have money to send her to school. So, she took matters into her own hands to be educated.

“I was always working odd jobs and learning and trying different things so I could earn extra money to pay for my education,” Taman told one of our CWS colleagues in Jakarta recently. At the age of 12, Taman was already a hairdresser and seamstress. She would make clothes and sell them to her neighbors.

This innovative and entrepreneurial attitude was successful, until a day that changed her life and ended her formal education at Grade 7.

That day she came home and found that her brother had sold her to a man in his 40s. Forced child marriage is common in Afghanistan, particularly in rural areas where desperately poor families sell their daughters for cash.

Once she was married, Taman continued sewing to keep her mind off the bad situation she was in. Still, she couldn’t handle the stress of her circumstances, so she boarded a bus to Kabul. She lived in a run-down hotel while she sorted out a plan to leave the country.

By a familiar smuggling route, Taman reached Jakarta, where she was met by someone in the smuggling network who took her to Bogor, a city nearly 40 miles south of Jakarta and left her in a market. She didn’t know where she was, but she managed to meet a couple of Iranian refugees and asked for their help. They took her to the UNHCR in Jakarta, where she registered and met several other Afghan refugees.

After a month of living in temporary housing, Taman was able to move to the girls’ group home that CWS supports with funding from the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. Once she settled in, Taman got busy. She joined all the classes and activities she could, including an informal school for refugees. “I wasted a lot of time in Afghanistan, and now I am making up for lost time. I want to learn everything! Thanks to CWS, I have an opportunity to take all these classes. Learning keeps me busy and is what I have always wanted: lots and lots of learning!”

It wasn’t long before a social worker noticed drawings Taman posted on the wall next to her bed. Taman clearly had artistic talent, so the social worker encouraged her to join an art class with CWS partner, Kampus Diakoneia Modern. “It started out easy at first, because I already spend a lot of time drawing: I usually draw every night before I go to bed. But then we started using color pencils and oil paint – which was all new to me! Using colors and learning new techniques added a new dimension to my drawing!” Taman explained.

Impressed by her progress, her teacher asked her and two other students to sketch a drawing on a 3-foot x 6-foot canvas for a yearly sports event for underprivileged children, where each child had a chance to fill in the drawing with color, and it is now displayed in KDM’s art class. Taman’s comment? “I had never drawn on a canvas before, let alone one this big. The drawing was fun, the children enjoyed it, and the result was wonderful.”

Networking for prosperous, healthy futures in Cambodia

The government in Battambang Province, Cambodia, recently held a Safe Vegetable Exhibition. The event had two main purposes: 1) to raise awareness about safe agricultural practices for farmers in the region and 2) to create a demand for safe vegetables and, in particular, to link small producers and buyers.

Through our local partner Rural Development Association, CWS supports families in Battambang to produce safe vegetables. These families are just the type of small producer that the exhibition focused on, so five groups of families from our program took their produce to sell and share. They were able to sell the vegetables at good prices. Just as importantly, they had the opportunity to connect with new customers and markets for the future. And they had time to connect with one another – talking with and learning from other farmers.

The gathering was quite a success. It brought together farmers, organized cooperatives, brokers, agents, direct buyers and non-governmental organizations. Thuch Chantheng, the representative from one of the producer groups, reflected on her experience: “This is my first time joining an event like this, and I am very happy that we could sell our products at a good price and that buyers showed interest in buying more from us. This day was really an encouragement for me and the group. Now, we will work hard to increase our production, especially safe vegetables, which we can sell at higher prices and with no harm to people’s health. Thank you CWS and RDA for all the support for this opportunity, which really motivates us!”