Monday, January 21, 2008

United Nations come to El Menco
























In the last few days, the Millennium Village Project has transformed into action, and I can only hope that the wonderful momentum it has at the moment continues. Wednesday I spent the better part of the day in Managua meeting with ANF’s project coordinator, Neyda Pierera.

El Menco recently identified it’s priorities for development. The list is as follows:

  1. Wells for the whole community
  2. New houses for the whole community
  3. A new school and a teacher for El Islote
  4. A doctor
  5. A better health center
  6. Employment for women

Neyda and I both identified organizations both governmental and non-governmental that could assist with each of these priorities. Next month she is going to call all of these people together including the newly formed Committee for the Sustainable Development of El Menco, to formulate a 1 year plan, which is very exciting.

We went through a report that I had written in December, point for point, and had some great discussions for action.

Today, perhaps one of the moments I feel very glad to be a part of, the Committee presented their process to Semia Tapia and Maribel Castillo from the United Nations, as well as the Mayor, and the potential next Mayor of this Municipality, and two other staff members. I think the leaders were shocked that everyone actually came, and I was very impressed with their presentation. While they were nervous, they explained many of the activities that we learned through together quite well. Now the biggest part is discovering what kind of support they might be able to give to the project.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Elizabeth,

That was a great presentation at UU, I hope your work gains attention and momentum.

Here's a link to a story about the 'One Laptop Per Child' project
http://radian.org/notebook/astounded-in-arahuay

Thanks,
Kent

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