“They looked for us to help us” in Nicaragua

“Mi iglesia, mi comunidad está bien agradecida con este proyecto, ha llegado en un momento oportuno, tenemos que aprovechar para salir adelante.”

“My church, my community is very grateful for this project, which came at a very opportune moment, and we have to take advantage of it to get ahead.”

These are the words of Iván Aburto, a promoter of a CWS-supported food security and nutrition program in Nicaragua. Iván’s church joined the program in 2017, but he was aware of CWS’s local partner, CIEETS, for years. They felt confident joining a program that CIEETS was leading. Iván says, “We planted fruit trees at our church, and each member of the church also received and takes care of a fruit tree.”

Lissett Palacios grew up in Santa Elena, the same community where Iván lives. Her family had financial challenges when she was growing up, so she joined the CIEETS program as a way to generate additional income.

Lissett has a diversified vegetable garden with citrus, fruit, quiquisque, banana, guava yucca, chiltoma and papaya. She also have chickens. In her words, “I feel stronger to cope with a crisis like the drought we had two years ago, which affected us a lot. Drought made us poorer, but it also made us stronger and more intentional about looking for alternative livelihoods. It is for this reason that today I have my diversified plot, which assures me the food of my family and also some surplus to sell at the market.”

She added, “I have also worked in my water reservoir to irrigate the plants. I also did soil conservation works.”

In regards to the usefulness of the program, Lissette says, “The trainings have been necessary to help us understand better how plants, soil and water work as part of one system.”

Speaking of water usage, in the nearby community of La Vainilla, Tomasa Acuña’s church has just received a water filter so that the member families will have clean water to drink. Tomasa is the pastoral leader of the Church of the Nazarene here, and she has observed many impacts of the CWS-supported program among the community.

“The results of the project can be seen in the participant families… some have several crops, have more food, and new knowledge that will help them overcome all that poverty that they have suffered for so many years. Children, the elderly and pregnant mothers can eat three meals each day,” she says.

“We thank all the people who collaborate with us to improve our situation … Rest assured that we are taking advantage of these resources that come to us through the CIEETS,” says Lisette.

And in Iván’s words, “Nos han busando para ayudamos.” They looked for us to help us.