Nicaragua’s recent history has been turbulent due to the devastating civil war during the 1980s. Today issues for Nicaraguans include rising unemployment, access to health care and education and the increasing gap between rich and poor. Nicaragua is the poorest country in Central America, 80 percent of its six million people live in poverty.
Most Nicaraguan’s are dependent on agriculture. Unfortunately, under the pressure of multilateral institutions, the government has favoured the interests of large farmers producing for export at the expense of small farmers. An additional problem is rich countries taking advantage of the free trade agreement and selling their crops in Nicaragua at lower prices than the local producers can compete with. The result is high levels of rural poverty.
For women in rural areas, poverty is further compounded by a dominant male culture. Women struggle to be heard and domestic violence is common.
To respond to these challenges Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is supporting the following work in Nicaragua:
Productive Capacity of Small Farmers
Farmer organisation ADDAC works alongside approximately 400 rural families in the mountainous and economically disadvantaged north of Nicaragua. As a way to tackle rural poverty ADDAC is assisting small farmers to increase their income off the land by building on their practical farming skills, encouraging sustainable farming, and working with other organisations to ensure there are buyers for their farming products.
Local partner: Asociación para la Diversificación y el Desarrollo Agrícola Comunal - Association for Diversification and Communal Agricultural Development (ADDAC)
Psycho-social recovery of rural women affected by family violence Women from the municipality of el Viejo are a vulnerable group in an area highly affected by poverty, rural unemployment, limited access to basic services such as education and health care. APADEIM empowers and enables women to become more informed about their rights and about the impacts of domestic violence on their communities. Women now have the opportunity to gain access to basic services.
Local partner: APADEIM
Economic Empowerment of Rural Women
In rural Leon, Northern Nicaragua, the Rural Women’s Committee is helping rural women improve the income and food security of their families by assisting small groups to invest in simple activities which will improve and diversify their income and nutrition. This includes irrigation of small areas, homestead gardening, purchase of goats and processing of milk products.
Local partner: Comité de Mujeres Rurales (CMR)
Prevention and Awareness Raising of Family Violence
FUNDECOM offers woman from 10 communities across the rural district of Villa El Carmen legal and psychological support. The organisation also educates the police and medical staff who have often not been very supportive in the past in assisting and informing women of their rights.
Local partner: FUNDECOM