Community Survey

The project supervisors who will be directly in charge of the volunteers this summer have all just left today for their "Community Surveys" where they will secure housing, food plans and youth partnerships in each of their communities. Some of these communities will be the first time they meet an Amigo de las America, and for others it will be their second year and will know exactly what to do, but what all communities share in common is that they will all treat their foreign visitors with care, kindness and compassion.


One community was mentioning that they were formed many years ago when the plantation owner had kicked off all the workers of the coffee fields who had been livingon the land for years. They had no where to go, so they settled in un occupied land. Here they lived for years until the government tried to kick them off their unclaimed land until some Spainards came and purchased their land to allow them to stay. Then since they had no schools, or community spaces, another delegation from Spain came with 24 volunteers who built them schools and gave them necessary infrastructure to succeed. Now that Amigos will be there, they are elated that they will receive more help as the community leaders have been reaching out searching for more volunteer groups to come.

While now they have infrastructure, this is a complicated issue because this community received all this from the standpoint of a dependent recipient of wellfare without the means to help themselves, or at least this is how they perceive themselves. Its the reason why if you read below about our community based initiative from below, we try to focus on the community organizing themselves to decide and create what they need with little support from us.

Nonetheless, one positive thing in this community, is that the Spanish Delegation of the schools is making the community pay back 25% of the cost of the school and this money will go towards a microlending fund that will be reinvested in to the community. A decade ago, a school may have just been built and then the community forgot about, it is great to see progressive ways of working with the communities for sustained development.

Allthough the Spanish came and purchased the land they were squatting on, not all stories end with flowers and dandelions. Many times, people in impoverished regions in Nicaraguans, are told by underground organized criminals to move into land to squat on and because there is a law that for after several years the land can be reclaimed legally. The criminals take advantage of these people by putting all the land in one person's name promising to give it to them at a fair price one the land in reclaimed. However, as soon as they legally take ownership of the land, these well connected criminals instead kick out their indigent helpers and instead sell the land to foriegners (many Americans) at an expensive price for the locals yet at a very cheap price for the dollar.