Oh the Places We'll Go: Charlas Comunitarias!

Last week, I started having community talks in and around Ciudad Sandino with one of the women that I work with. The community talks are mostly to explain the work that my organization does, and to explain the resource guide that I created to let people know about the other resources in Ciudad Sandino.
The first one that we had was in area called Quilombo, which was very different from the part of Ciudad Sandino that I live in. Most of the houses were very small, maybe 10 x 10 feet, and made of all scrap materials - corrugated metal, plywood or a combination of the two. The only fences are barbed wire that is strung between branches that are stuck into the ground. Most of the bathrooms are outside, and the walls are not really walls at all, just black plastic sheeting. There is electricity (intermittantly,) but all the wires are just strung on long tree branches.

We held the charla comunitaria (community talk) at the house of one of the promotoras (promotors.) The institute that I work for, AMIFANIC, has a network of about 60 promotoras in and around Ciudad Sandino, who are all volunteers that have received training about intrafamiliar violence and how to help other women in their communities. I wasn't sure at first how the charla would go; it started about an hour and a half late, but I was definitely impressed with the turn out. There were 20 women there, and another 10 babies and children. Everyone brought their own chairs and we all sat outside. Rosa, who is the promotora who actually works at our office, talked about intrafamiliar violence, the ways to combat it, and the legal and community resources that are availible. We then distributed the resource guides, and answered questions from the women.

Here is Rosa and some of the women:

One of the biggest issues was that many women were trying to get child support payments from their ex-husbands. It seems pretty common here for a couple to have a child, or several, and then split up, so many of the women are left without resources to provide for their children, since many don't work. There are a lot of laws to help alleviate this problem, but the legal process is a long one, and difficult to navigate. AMIFANIC provides legal assistance for free, so hopefully after our charla, a lot of the women will come to the office.

Here are some others pictures from the charlas -

It has been really interesting to get to know some of the AMIFANIC clients who come in regularly for psycological or legal counseling, or who are jsut part of the network, so they come to hang out. Although there are a lot of problems, people here seem so resiliant, and they always have a great attitude. Even though sometimes it takes a long time to get things done, people do things with a smile, never complain about the heat, and often walk long distances to run simple errands. Its hard to believe how fast the time here has gone.

Last weekend, we had a midterm retreat with all of the interns who are in Nicaragua. We went to Jiquilillo, a beautiful beach in Northwest Nicaragua, and stayed at this cool rancho. We also toured a magrove forest, went on a little hike up to a fabulous mirador, and ate really fresh fish. It was nice to get away for a little while, but also fun to come home to see my host family on Sunday afternoon. Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Fishing boats