We ran into Sylvia, one of the leaders of Cena con Las Madres (older post about the community, brief overview of CCLM). She came up to us grinning ear-to-ear with a success story. A group of French travelers came through Granada and wanted to participate in CCLM. They went out to the Sabeneta neighborhood where the CCLM ladies live, and they cooked, ate, and danced the night away. The ladies brought in $60 bucks on the night (the equivalent of two week's worth of income for most of them), and the travelers took back an experience that I'm sure they'll be hard-pressed to forget for a long time.
People Helping People Global is very close to finding a permanent home in Granada! As many of you all probably know, our organization has operated in a nomadic style over the past year or so (Our apologies to those Continental workers that had to carry around our 75 pound checked bags). However, our friends at Soccer Without Borders have decided that they need a bit more space to house their projects, so they have bequeathed their lease on to us. The tentative move-in date is September 12th.
The last piece of exciting news has to do with the meeting that we had last Friday. Soccer Without Borders, the group mentioned above, decided that it would be a good idea to bring together the non profit groups that operate in Granada, Nicaragua. We had a pretty good showing, and the meeting really gave us a good starting point for collaboration. What's great about the group is that every organization brings something different to the table. Here is a list of the organizations that attended and a bit about them:
- Soccer Without Borders: a US-based NGO that uses soccer as a conduit for social change in various countries across the globe.
- Hotel con Corazon: a hotel in Granada which directs all of its profits to education programs in the rural areas outside of the city.
- Vida Joven: provides mission-oriented support to youth in Nicaragua.
- La Esperanza Granada: a Nicaraguan-based NGO that provides supplementary support in the primary schools surrounding Granada.
- FC Carita Sports College: a group that focuses on sport to help local at-risk youth.
- Cruz Roja de Nicaragua: the local Red Cross branch.
- Empowerment International: works with "street children" to help them escape their situations through various means (e.g., photography, daily programs).
We head out to see our micro-lending groups tomorrow for the fourth month of loan repayments. We're very excited to see how everyone is doing and how their businesses are fairing in this unforgiving rainy season that we're experiencing right now. We'll keep you updated.
Take care,
Alex
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