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Our first Nicaragua distributionClarence Deyoung — Halifax, NS In the fall of 2007, Sleeping Children Around the World [SCAW] received a request for bedkits in Nicaragua. Months of communicating with the Rotary Club of Managua followed. A pre-distribution visit took place to determine if the two organizations' mission, values, and goals were aligned. The club learned about our distribution procedures and provided a sample bedkit. After reviewing trip details and the bedkit, SCAW's board of directors decided to proceed with a distribution of 4.000 bedkits for the week before Thanksgiving in October, 2008. Nicaragua, the largest country in Central America, is boarded on land by nicaragua and Costa Rica, with the Pacific Ocean, and the Caribbean Sea to the east and west. It is primarily an agricultural country, exporting items such as bananas, sugar, and coffee, but they also export rum, beef, and tobacco. Exports amount to well over 300 million dollars a year. Unemployment is high and the income for the average person in Nicaragua is $100 a month.
The Rotary Club of Managua acted as SCAW's Overseas Volunteer Organization [OVO] for this first ever distribution in Nicaragua and what an impressive job they did. Led by their president, Rotarian Jose Delgado, and SCAW chairman, Rotarian Justo Arauz and his team, their attention to detail was impeccable. Special thanks to Fabiola Monterrey and Marcia Miranda for their exceptional organizational skills. It was obvious that these two ladies literally spent hundreds of hours making this distribution happen. In addition, there was an abundance of volunteers, including Rotarians and their wives, Rotoract (junior Rotarians) members and their friends, university students, high school students, and the parents of the bedkit recipients — with the bedkit recipients always being the focal point. One of the highlights for the SCAW team was the remarkable way in which Franz Orschel and his wife Martha and their housekeeper Migda opened up their bed and breakfast to us and made us feel so welcome. SCAW team members were the only ones staying at the B & B which featured: wireless internet access, full breakfast, laundry, hot water, and other amenities — all for $30 a night. For the SCAW team it was truly like "coming home" to a warm or cold shower if you wanted, after distributing bedkits in 35 to 40 degree temperatures with a few rain showers mixed in making it very humid.
The 2008 inaugural SCAW team to Nicaragua hope you enjoy your pictures as much as we enjoyed taking them. We wish you could have been there with us because there is probably a story behind every picture. From the 4,000 bedkit recipients, muchas gracias (thank you very much). |
