Happy New Year! ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Onward to a new year!

Hello all! It has been a while since the last post, hasn’t it? While we have all been busy with the holiday season, rest assured that our work never takes a holiday. Sure, over the past few months our beneficiaries have been enjoying a very Feliz Navidad y Año Nuevo. But once the party is over, it’s right back to business. They know their business. We know they know their business. It’s why we want to work with them, naturally.

So, what has been going on with PHPG over the past couple months? Well, let me tell you! Eric Pires, our dear Regional Coordinator in Matagalpa since July 2013, has since moved on to other things. As has Trent Shelton, who was the Regional Coordinator in Granada, who also began in July 2013. While we will stay in touch with both of them, and they are sorely missed, we of course wish them the absolute best of luck in all of their future endeavours.

Trent Shelton and Eric Pires

The individual we have volunteering in Nicaragua who has taken over their responsibilities is Dr. Steve Marks, who is spending his sabbatical for the next few months working with PHPG. We are honoured and humbled to have the opportunity to work with him, without doubt! Not only is he a professor at the Boston University School of Law, as well as the Academic Director of the same institution, as well as having several esteemed publications to his name, but he is also an all-around pleasant guy to be around. We are truly fortunate to be able to have him working with us, and more importantly, our beneficiaries have been thriving, and will continue to thrive, under his more-than-capable guidance.

Dr. Steve Marks

Dr. Marks and Juan Carlos distributed a whole new set of loans in the El Pantanal neighbourhood of Granada in December, and next month, we should be seeing the results of our big project in Muy Muy. And, of course, there are the hundreds of beneficiaries we continue to work with, ranging from agricultural workers in the countryside to small shop operators in the heart of the city.

We apologize for our relative silence the past couple of months. We really ought to keep you all up to date with what we’re doing. But our silence here is belied by the continuing positive outcomes we see in the people we work with, in the communities on the ground in Nicaragua who are using the resources that the supporters of PHPG – people like yourself – have made possible.

We thank you. They thank you. We’ll keep you updated on what’s happening. Let’s make this a great year in the fight against extreme poverty.