First impressions about Nicaragua, the School Feeding Project and Poverty

Our first days at the office were last week’s Thursday and Friday. We got to know our office, our fellow colleagues and each of us was appointed a desk. We found out that the office of Matagalpa is actually quite small. There are nine people working here: four officials, one receptionist, two drivers and two guards. Working hours are from 7 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon and we were told that on average we will spend 3 days a week in the field. Sounds good! After a slow start (on Thursday we were told to wait for the introduction on how everything works here and on what we are supposed to do the next couple of months and on Monday we finally got this information) we started our work this week and went to the field to see the part of Nicaragua that differs a lot from what we had seen already during the trip Sophie told you about in her first blog.

In the cities we visited poverty was visible because of some beggars in the streets, houses in bad conditions and some people washing themselves in rivers, but at least the majority had a good roof above their head and basic conditions like electricity and water were available. What we saw in the field was much more striking. Houses (If that’s what you can call them) are made of wood and plastic, basic conditions are very scarce or simply not there, people look undernourished and chickens, pigs, and dogs are walking freely in and out the so called houses. Nicaragua is the poorest country in Central America and that is clearly visible if you go outside the cities and into the field. According to the CIA Fact book (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/nu.html) almost half of the population of Nicaragua is living below the poverty line and after seeing the conditions people are living in here I don’t find that hard to believe. It is very obvious that the people here need help and that the aid the WFP is giving here is more than welcome. The WFP is doing a good job here.

One of the projects the WFP is doing in Nicaragua is the School Feeding Project. The WFP donates food to schools and makes sure the food is used only at the schools. By limiting the food supplies to schools only the WFP tries to promote school presence for the kids and an incentive for the parents to send their kids to school. (Most parents don’t want their kids to go to school, because they want their kids working with them in the field, especially this time of year because of the coffee that needs to be harvested.) Numbers indicate that this project is working. Another project is a TNT project executed by the WFP. TNT is building schools including a kitchen, hygienic toilets and water tanks. After such a school has been built the school becomes part of the School Feeding Project. Last Tuesday and Wednesday we visited some of these schools. One of them was almost finished and the others were already in use. We checked the condition of the schools and kitchens, counted the food to make sure they are using it wisely, talked with the teachers about how things are going and supplied some pencils and other school material. In the school that was almost finished we talked with the community and told them how to use the new school and facilities. We told them it is the responsibility of the community to keep the school clean, take good care of it and protect it. This way the WFP also tries to promote cooperation within the communities and shows the community that the schools are very important.

In our first trip we saw the difference between an old school and the new school. The old school: 25 kids in a dark, muddy “house” without windows, water or light. The new school: spacious, clean water, windows, a building made of stone and concrete, clean latrines outside and a healthy clean kitchen. Surely the new school, together with the food and drinkable water will keep the kids healthier and their ability to concentrate a lot better. Let’s just hope the parents will see the difference and advantages as well, but I am sure they will.

Next week I will be in the field for five days. Since it has been raining like crazy the entire week I don’t expect the conditions to be improved. Hopefully our car will be able to bring us to all the deserted villages we are going to visit. Even for a powerful 4x4 the roads here are almost impossible to drive on..