While all of WCCN’s development projects support the advancement of Nicaraguan women, our women’s empowerment initiatives take a specific focus centered on breaking down gender exclusion. Currently, contributions from WCCN supporters are helping finance economic development and educational projects affecting impoverished rural Nicaraguan women.
La FEM’s Sustainable Futures: Women’s Empowerment Livestock Production Project
Through the Sustainable Futures Project, small in-kind loans are given to women that are organized in “solidarity” groups. The loans consist of a productive livestock package with a value up to $500, containing a combination of nine chickens, a pig, a cow, and two peliguays (a cross between a sheep and a goat). The solidarity group model employed by the women allows them to work together in managing and reproducing their livestock; however, each woman receives her own productive livestock package. When the animals reproduce, the offspring are passed on to other women in the community that join the solidarity group.
The in-kind loan recipients receive technical assistance from La FEM during which they learn how to raise their livestock and best utilize the animals for alimentary and income generating purposes. Additionally, there is an element of leadership training that accompanies the technical assistance so that the women in the community can become advocates in their community and teach other women the skills they have acquired.
Xochilt Acalt’s Youth Education Scholarship Project
The Youth Education Scholarship Project of the Xochilt Acalt Women’s Center works to enable young Nicaraguan women to overcome inequality, to gain independence, and to forge better futures for Nicaraguan youth.
Many of the scholarship recipients are daughters of women involved in the Center’s adult programs. Scholarship recipients must be involved in the Center’s youth education programs for at least one year to qualify. The gender education workshops or “reflections” offered through the youth education program’s cover topics such as knowing and understanding one’s body, self-esteem, sexuality, gender violence and political rights.
The scholarships that Xochilt Acalt offers cover the costs of uniforms, transportation, supplies, and meals. Without scholarships, the economic reality of the young women’s families would put their ability to obtain an education in jeopardy. Paying the $10-$15 necessary for school uniforms alone could place a financial strain on low income families that is large enough for them to have to forfeit their children’s educations. The scholarship project allows families to avoid having to make such difficult decisions.
WCCN believes that Xochilt Acalt’s youth programs help build the backbone for ideological change within adolescent girls; however, through advanced studies the young women will also be able to realize their economic and societal potential.
Contributions to WCCN’s women’s empowerment initiatives help finance both Sustainable Futures and the Youth Education Scholarship Project. Donate now [1] and select to have your gift designated for women’s empowerment. Your donation will help create brighter futures for low-income Nicaraguan women.