1

Jenna Cameron, Class of 2011 (Social Work major, Spanish & Honors Forum minors)

Taliah Hope-Griffith, Class of 2012 (Anthropology major, Latin American Studies minor)

BACKGROUND

Nicaragua, currently the second poorest country in the Americas[1], possesses a past characterized by conflict, hardship, and instability, from dictatorship and civil war to natural disasters like Hurricane Mitch. The struggle between Sandinista revolutionaries and U.S.-sponsored counter-revolutionaries (“Contras”) in particular had a devastating affect on the country’s economy and unity, from which the country is still healing, 25 years later. In addition to Nicaragua’s recent civil war and climate-threats, Nicaraguans encounter conflict in many facets of everyday life: political, religious, economic, familial. Alcoholism, family violence, drug use, and gang violencecreate daily barriers to peace and safety.

Rural communities confront these issues with increased intensity as their isolation and small size emphasize and escalate conflict. Gang violence has developed a dominating presence in rural communities, particularly in the Matagalpa region, where educational opportunities are limited, thus enticing the need for affiliation. Family conflicts, harmful gossip, and other micro-level conflict also accompany dynamics typical of rural communities, which can escalate to damaging levels.

Education plays a crucial role in dispelling conflict and combating tensions between groups. However, education for people in rural areas of Matagalpa is sparse and inconsistent. Access to books in particularly is rare. Most schools operate with minimal materials, including few, if any, books. There are only a handful of lending libraries nationwide. Most families in the Matagalpa communities cannot afford to buy books and thus the children are not provided the opportunity to read and to learn. In the absence of other schooling, borrowing books may be the only chance for continued education for many children and adults alike. The opportunity to borrow books not only would vastly supplement or fill the void left by other education, but would provide the opportunity for the type of active learning that can target conflicts in the community.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Our Davis Project for Peace will work toward alleviating community conflict and building peace in the rural villages of Matagalpa, Nicaragua by creating a mobile library. A mobile library that can be shared between the villages on a semi-weekly basis, allowing community members and schools to borrow and exchange books—a privilege they are not currently permitted and a concept they have not previously been exposed to—would dramatically increase educational opportunities for community members, improve the quality of current schooling, and provide a pathway to learning about and discussing particular issues of conflict in the communities. We plan to create the library during the summer of 2011 in collaboration with the organization Planting Hope and La Chispa Library, purchasing a used bus, appropriate books and materials, and involving Matagalpan community members through employment and exchanges. We will mentor student community members currently associated with Planting Hope to manage the library and work with them to begin programming,such as weekly story hours and book groups. In the community of La Chispa, Jenna will co-facilitate a book group with a Nicaraguan university student from the neighborhood surrounding issues of gang violence. Jenna will go to Matagalpa for eight weeks during the summer to implement the project; Taliah will oversee sustainable collaboration with Skidmore in the fall.

COLLABORATING ORGANIZATION

Planting Hope (“Sembrando Esperanzas”) is a small nonprofit, community-based organization that currently serves the villages of San Ramón, El Chile, Ocalca, La Hermandad, and La Chispa in the region of Matagalpa. Under the direction of Beth Merrill (from Vermont) and Mercedes Guerrero (from San Ramon, Nicaragua) Planting Hope is staffed by Nicaraguan community members and scholarship students and is dedicated to “serving communities in Nicaragua and the U.S. by enhancing educational opportunities, supporting grassroots initiatives and fostering cultural exchanges.”[2] Over the past nine years, Planting Hope has worked with communities in the Matagalpa region to construct a library and cyber café, multiple preschools, a casa maternal, a special education program, and—most recently—“coffee camps,” providing education, recreation, food, and healthcare to children whose families work cutting coffee and cannot care for them during the harvest season and long school break. Planting Hope communities have consistently identified their individual needs and maintained involvement and ownership over each project to ensure sustainability and community investment. The villages of Matagalpa have continued to struggle with educational opportunities and expressed their desire for access to books for many years. However, Planting Hope has been unable to execute such a project due to lack of funding. This Davis Project for Peace would therefore deliver an invaluable resource to an area where the need has already been clearly expressed and strategies for implementation and involvement have already been identified.

OBJECTIVES, TASKS, & TIMELINE

Objective 1: Create and implement a mobile library to be used by rural communities in Matagalpa, Nicaragua

Task 1) Select and purchase books in Spanish appropriate for preschool through adolescent-age students. Books which focus on community-building, cooperation, and conflict resolution will be central to the project. (By the end of May, 2011)

Task 2) Purchase and repair a used bus, large enough for standing room and book storage. Construct storage/display space for books inside the bus. (By the end of June, 2011).

Task 3) Select and train library assistants to manage the mobile library. (By the end of June, 2011)

Task 4) Identify and visit each interested village at least once to discuss use of the library. Start to plan and implement activities like weekly story hours, determine involved parties, times, and locations. (By end of July/mid-August)

Objective 2: Facilitate a book group in La Chispa addressing issues of gangs and community

Task 1) Select applicable book. Purchase multiple copies in Spanish and identify facilitator. (By June, 2011)

Task 2) Promote and recruit community members to participate in the book group. Prepare group structure and discussion materials. (By end of June, 2011)

Task 3) Co-facilitate book group with a Planting Hope staff member from the community. (July–mid-August, 2011)

EXPECTED OUTCOMES AND FUTURE IMPACT

This project will have immediate and lasting impacts on the rural and urban Matagalpa communities. Most importantly, it will provide immediate access to books and education for the communities, as well as employment for a number of individuals and opportunities for involvement of many more. It will provide the resources and opportunity to begin conversations and education on specific areas of conflict in each community. The size, scope, and impact of the library are expected to grow over the following months and years as Planting Hope maintains strong cultural exchange relationships with a number of schools and communities in the U.S. as well as a dependable presence in Matagalpa. Once created, the library could be easily expanded to include greater inventory, serve additional communities, and involve and affect an unlimited number of individuals. The bus for the mobile library could also be temporarily converted and utilized for a variety of other important transportation purposes for Planting Hope and the communities. Beyond the clear physical and educational impacts, the Paz-Movil would enable cultivation of a new culture of sharing and borrowing in central Nicaragua.

A SUSTAINABLE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE SKIDMORE COMMUNITY

The mobile library would be a perfect opportunity for the Skidmore community to maintain a lasting contribution in the Matagalpa community. Over the past winter break, a brigade of six Skidmore students, including Jenna and Taliah, traveled to Matagalpa in conjunction with the Cornell Extension Program to volunteer with Planting Hope’s coffee camps and particularly to explore the possibility of creating a sustainable relationship between Skidmore and Planting Hope for the future. It has been established that students and faculty at Skidmore are interested in participating in a yearly or bi-yearly cultural exchange with Planting Hope in Nicaragua. The opportunity stands for a larger Skidmore brigade to return to Nicaragua in January of 2012 as well as potentially during August 2011. Spanish classes, students clubs, or future brigades could contribute to this project locally by collecting used children’s books in English and translating them for the mobile library, expanding the library, or planning activities, programs, or trainings to be implemented by future brigades. This project has the potential to cultivate an internal, sustainable peace, through developing strategies for conflict resolution and overturning the notion that violence and feuds must be an accepted part of everyday life.

[1]Nicaragua Country Profile. 16 Nov. 2010.The BBC.15 Jan. 2011.

[2]Our Mission.Planting Hope. 15 Jan. 2011. <