Us in June

NE-US 2011 Annual Review

Steph and I have put together the Nuevas Esperanzas US 2011 Annual Review and invite you to take a look.  The most enjoyable part about writing it was the chance to reflect on how change really can be achieved over time, even though the progressive steps feel smaller than we would like.

The annual review this year was also a project of small steps, and we finished later than we had planned.    Nevertheless, I hope it gives you a greater sense of the work's scope than is possible in a typical monthly update.   For those who prefer to skip right to the human interest story, in the previous blog post I copied an article from the annual review about what we mean when we say Nuevas Esperanzas' goal is to empower people, and what it looks like in the life of a bright, young man named Luis. 

Empowering Luis

One of Nuevas Esperanzas’ main goals is to empower communities. An important element of empowerment is the ability to take full advantage of the talents and resources one already has. Nuevas Esperanzas works to provide communities with the addtional resources, training and confidence they need to realize their potential.

Luis Tercero is beginning to enjoy new benefits from three things that he has had all his life: trees, rain and intelligence. Luis is a bright teenager from the small, hillside community of El Ñajo. Luis’ father passed away a number of years ago, and he and his brothers have been providing for the family since Luis was a young teen, growing beans and corn, and making a daily trip to gather water from the well, a quarter mile away.

Two years ago Nuevas Esperanzas built a 10,000 gallon rainwater tank at Luis’ home, giving his mother easy access to clean water all year. We’ve also started training Luis and his brothers how to beekeep. While the hills where they farm are not ideal for beans, their forest cover is an ideal environment for bees. There also happens to be an excellet market for Nicaraguan honey. Luis is one of our most promising beekeepers, and if he keeps it up, he could easily double his family’s income and help establish a whole new livelihood that will benefit his entire community. 

It was never hard to see Luis’ potential. It just required someone to look.

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