NEWTON/SAN JUAN DEL SUR SISTER CITY PROJECT

NEWSLETTER: WINTER 1999-2000

Kids at the in-town Pre-School show off their toys from Newton:

286 boxes of clothes, shoes and books and toys arrived in May.

APPEAL FOR SCHOOLS IN SAN JUAN

In 2000 we are rebuilding two storm-damaged schools [see report on right]. We know how much it bothers you to be called at home. Our only direct appeal this year will be in the Newsletter. Please slip the biggest check you can afford into the enclosed envelope and mail it to our Treasurer, Fiora Houghteling,

258 Mill St., Newton MA 02460.

Contributions to the Sister City Project are

100% tax-deductible. Thanks in advance for your generous gift!

STORMS BATTER SAN JUAN AGAIN, SCHOOL DAMAGE ENDANGERS KIDS

Although largely unreported in the US, the fall 1999 storm season in Nicaragua was brutal, especially in the San Juan del Sur area. Weeks of non-stop rain cut roads, isolated hundreds of families, washed out crops, collapsed latrines, threatened bridges, damaged some older buildings, and interrupted healthcare, schooling and the women’s literacy project. Your Sister City Project responded to the disaster in carefully targeted ways. We rebuilt the PreSchool known as the “Escuelita.” The school’s barrel-vaulted brick roof, like that of the old school at Las Delicias which we rebuilt last year, had been severely damaged by the rains. A work brigade from Newton South High School constructed a storm drain there a few of years ago; a solid, earthquake-resistant school now sits on the old foundation. We have also begun work on a new primary school for the isolated community of Papaturro, north of town, which required repairing their ancient washed-out road with a bulldozer and installing a rope-pump in the schoolyard. [See story below.] Please give generously and we can respond to more needs.

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LOREN McARTHUR RETURNS FROM HIS YEAR IN SAN JUAN

[Loren McArthur of Newton has returned from 12 months in San Juan del Sur and files the following report.]

When I arrived in Nicaragua in November of 1998 much of the country was a disaster area. Hurricane Mitch had devastated the population; mudslides had buried thousands of people alive; entire communities had been leveled--houses, bridges, crops, farm animals destroyed; and hoards of refugees were confronting disease and poverty, stripped of the meager assets they had once possessed.

At first, I found little evidence of devastation when I arrived in San Juan. In San Juan I learned to drink Ron Plata and dance salsa and merengue; I bought a boogie board and played basketball. True, there were groups of men sitting on the benches by the wharf every morning --fishermen or stevedores, maybe--for whom there was no work, and none coming. And there was no shortage of chronic alcoholics wandering the streets. San Juan was poor, underdeveloped, neglected--but at least it had been spared, so it seemed, the wrath of Mitch.

As I began to make visits to the rural communities, a grimmer picture emerged. The campesinos told me rains had washed away everything they had planted--beans, corn and rice. They had no food to give their families and no seeds to plant in the months ahead. The mayor had sent no relief. The government hadn’t done a thing to help them, and had no plans to. And forget about the banks. Some people were sophisticated enough to throw out the term neoliberalism.

A campesino’s tale of woe may become exaggerated when he is talking to a naive, guilt-ridden gringo. Yet the Nicaraguan Institute of Agricultural Technology corroborated: In the department of Rivas (which includes San Juan) it reported 40% losses in the corn crop and a 100% loss of the bean crop.

The Nicaraguan government does not offer a safety net for small farmers who confront this type of crop destruction. There is no FEMA insurance; in the event of a catastrophe, victims must rely on corrupt government officials to distribute (or permit the distribution of) international relief aid. And in San Juan, no aid was forthcoming. If a farmer was going to put food on the table, or acquire seeds to replant his crops, he would be forced to sell a calf or other important household asset, or maybe a piece of land. Those who had nothing to sell were going to suffer, along with their children.

Viewing the situation, I decided I could have the greatest impact providing a service the state and private sectors refused to provide to these poor farmers: affordable credit. Using the Sister City Project as a conduit, I raised money from family and friends to fund microcredit projects in rural communities. In total, I was able to extend low interest loans to twenty-seven families in five different villages. Farmers used the funds to plant corn, beans, tomatoes and other vegetables--even to purchase pigs.

Microcredit involves a whole lot more thought and planning then simply setting interest rates: among other things, one has to decide how much money to give out, and for what. Making these presumably simple decisions compelled me to confront a range of issues involving agriculture, ecology, and the suitability of various development models. In general, the ideal model keeps the farmer’s level of debt at a minimum by promoting the use of local resources rather than expensive chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and encourages savings and responsible money management.

Of course despite careful planning, research and organizational work, Mother Nature can always pull a fast one. When I left San Juan in October, tropical storms were again wreaking havoc in Nicaragua. In San Juan, damage to infrastructure and to agricultural production looked to be worse than last year.

The human factors--especially deforestation and soil erosion--that allow rainstorms to produce such widespread destruction must be eliminated. This is a complex social problem, involving many variables. In the meantime, it is absurd to think the farmers in San Juan can continue to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. My next project will be to create a Seed Bank in San Juan, where farmers who are without resources will be able to go to borrow seeds. Anyone interested in getting involved in this project can contact me: (617) 244-5145 or zmcarthur@hotmail.com

Dr. David Arond and daughter Elisa were present when the shipment of clothes and school supplies arrived at the new school we built in Las Delicias in cooperation with Norwegian and German partners.

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212 WOMEN CAN READ NOW !

“Empowering Women Through Literacy” has just passed its landmark first year, and almost all 212 previously illiterate women in the program have moved on to the second-year workbook, which means they’ll improve their reading and writing and begin math. Despite Hurricane Mitch, severe crop losses and emigration to seek work, the retention rate is 86%. Students study in 33 small groups in 26 widely-scattered rural and urban communities. Three fulltime teacher-trainers visit regularly to provide support, evaluation, and pedaogical assistance. (There are 16 such women’s literacy networks in Nicaragua.)

The second year of the program is being supported by the International Foundation We have received a challenge grant of $12,000 for the third and final year. Margaret Gullette (965-2164) would be happy to have ideas about which foundations to approach for the remainder.

¡MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS!

Hats off to Marissa Farrell (teacher) and Andy Weiser (Director) of the Underwood School AfterSchool program who worked with 4th and 5th graders to raise $700 for the Sister City Project. The Underwood kids held raffles, a carwash, a bake sale, a crafts sale, and a candy sale to raise funds for their friends in San Juan del Sur. Way to go! ***Starting in 1996, Julia Solow, an 11-year-old from Auburndale, sold lemonade and urged her family to make extra contributions to a special fund for the Sister City Project.

The result was a dazzling contribution this year of $55! Great work, Julia! ***¡Saludos! to New Balance Shoes of Brighton who donated 100 pairs of new shoes for our March shipment to San Juan. Special thanks to Kathy Shepard, Joseph Domelowicz, Ariane Kjellquist, and Tom Troy of New Balance. Roslyn Feldberg of the Sister City Project made it all happen. In San Juan, Servicios Medicos Comunales was able to sell the shoes to finance a rabbit-raising project.***Hurrah for Dennis Leidich and King Yee of Medi-Rents in Boston, which donated two wheelchairs for the 1999 shipment to San Juan.

***¡Adelante! Sara Montoya’s Third Grade and Maxine Shaw’s Fifth Grade at the Hennigan School in Boston gathered 10 big boxes of children’s clothes for San Juan, and Larry Grigor’yan of The Cobbler Shop in Newton Corner donated 94 pairs of shoes!

Last January we financed a project at the Chamorro school in the community of Genízaro. As you can see, the hill slopes down toward the classrooms, which would find their floors turned into pure mud during the rainy season. We built a drainage system [left] to carry the water away from the school and rebuilt the floors. In late January, a team of students from Newton South High School, led by teachers Franny Moyer and Kathy Knight repainted the (cement) blackboards. A charming letter from the director of the Chamorro school, Melania Vanegas concludes: “To everyone involved in the Newton/San Juan del Sur Sister City Project, our most sincere thanks for the help you have given to the children of the Genízaro community, and for all your work in our country of Nicaragua.”

Drainage trench at school in Genízaro

PROJECT STRETCH [DENTISTS] VOSH [OPTOMETRISTS & OPHTHALMOLOGISTS] AND NEWTON SOUTH TEAMS RETURN TO SAN JUAN IN 2000

Readers of the Newsletter will recall the smashing success of last year’s visits to San Juan del Sur by the dentists of Project Stretch (over 1,000 people got fluoride treatment and other services). They return in March 2000. This January VOSH teams again administered eye exams and gave recycled eyeglasses to over 2,100 people [See story]. For info about future missions, contact Sheila Clancy of Project Stretch (508) 653-2417, or Joe D’Amico of VOSH (508) 829-2033. Also, Kathy Knight will once again take a team of Newton South High School students to San Juan in February.

NEWSLETTER edited by David Gullette (617)965-2164. Check out our Website: www.sanjuandelsur.org.ni/community