A Merry Nica Navidad

This upcoming Christmas, a team of people from New York and Nicaragua have come together to provide for eleven families in Masaya, Nicaragua. We have come together for the purpose to give back to this community and have handpicked the families in most need. As we began our research of Nicaragua we found several measures of development that stood out and have reinforced our mission to help these families.  

Nicaragua is ranked as the 2nd poorest country in the Western Hemisphere after Haiti (The World Bank Group). While policies have been enacted in country to reduce poverty and through outside investment that has led to the creation of jobs to locals, it has led to a steady decrease in poverty; it is still amongst Latin America’s least developed countries. Another important ranking we closely looked at was the Human Development Index, HDI. HDI measures life expectancy, education, and per capita income from a scale of 0 to 1. The closer a country is to the number 1, the more developed it is. Out of 187 countries, Nicaragua ranks at 132 with an HDI of .614 (United Nations Development Programme). We compared this stat to the United States that is ranked at 5 with an HDI of .914 (UNDP). This means compared to the U.S. people in Nicaragua have a shorter life expectancy, receive less education, and are earning less across the board.  

We have surveyed the families that have been chosen and discovered that most of them live on less than a dollar a day. The men take jobs in free economic zones where they earn 250 Cordobas biweekly (that is $9.06 USD). The women often stay at home looking after the children, cooking, and keeping their garden abundant with certain stables they need to survive on.

We also asked them what Christmas meant to them and they answered with, “It’s just another day.” We want these families to have a great Christmas and so we have budgeted to fundraise $1,700 for an event that will provide clothing and food to these families. In addition, we are organizing mini events to build community relations amongst themselves and to keep their spirits high as we approach Christmas. These events will take place once a month up until the event and we have budgeted its cost at $100. Overall we are asking for $2,000 to put on 3 mini events and one big Christmas celebration.

Family #1
Meet Dany Jose López, 9 
Geridalia López Gomes, 31
Gema de los Angeles López, 5 (from left to right). 

Family #2
Meet Angela Victoria Calero, 75 
Juan Jose López Gomez, 24 
Juan Gómes, 76 (from left to right).

Family #3
Meet Uriel Alexander Rivas Alemán, 27 
Cristofer Uriel Rivas Velasquez, 4 
Enmanuel Alexander Rivas Velasquez, 9 
Cristela Velasquez Gómez, 36 (from left to right).

Family #4
Meet Joseling del Socorro Martinez López, 13
Fanny Liseth Martinez López, 12
Wiliam Alexander Martinez López, 3
Wiliam Jose Martinez Sanchez, 35,
Ana Iscarelia Martinez López, 10 (from left to right)

Family #5
*Disclaimer: the baby's name is Noe and her parents were working the day we went to survey. She is 10 months old and is being taken care of by her neighbors*

Family #6
Meet Yorleni Vivas Suazo, 11
Jose Angel Suazo García, 57
Socorro Suazo Ocaupo, 31
Modesta del Carmen Ocaupo,  48 (from left to right)

Family #7
Meet Jenci López Suazo, 15
Maribel Suazo Perez, 33
Asly López Suazo, 5
Yelcin López Suazo, 13 (from left to right)

Family #8
Meet Nelson Rodriguez Estrada, 11
Liseth Rodriguez Estrada, 16
Francisco Rodriguez, 59
Yarithza Rodriguez Estrada, 8
Lucila Estrada, 38

Family #9
Meet Jonathan Hernández, 18
Eymi Noemi Soza Hernandez, 19
Joshuar David Lopez, 2
Ada Carolina Lopez Vasques, 30
Karely Hernández, 15
Maribel Cruz, 40
Michael Aguirre Rivas, 14
Francisco Hernández, 55 (from left to right)

Family #10
Meet Britney Priscilla Castro Zuarez, 10
 Brittany Adahra Castro Zuarez, 8
Ernesto Jose Castro Caldera, 36
Claudia Vanessa Castro Zuarez, 13

*Picture of Family #11 to be displayed soon*
*Note: Not all family members were photographed as they were working or ill*

Please donate to this event as it will directly help 74 people in 11 families. Any donation is helpful! 1USD equates to 27.30 Cordobas, the local currency. We believe that with your donations we can start to make a change in these peoples lives and their families.

Works Cited

The World Bank Group. Nicaragua. 10 April 2014. <http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/nicaragua>.

United Nations Development Programme. Table 1: Human Development Index and its components. 2013. <http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/table-1-human-development-index-and-its-components>.