Christmas for children in Juigalpa (Nicaragua)

For farm families living in the countryside of Juigalpa it is difficult to keep one's head above water. Some small farmers produce just enough to survive, but extreme drought can lead to famine in the countryside. Most of the small farmers have insufficient income to provide their families with such basic needs as clothing, school, health care, a good house, etc. There is no money for extras.



Christmas is an important holiday in Nicaragua, and a visit from Santa Claus is a part of that. Farm families, however, do not have the means to afford a present for their children. The sister-city alliance (CdV) in Juigalpa wants to give the children in the countryside a happy Christmas: a party with games and a small Christmas present.



The number of children involved is 500 (220 boys, 280 girls) and they live in 13 farm communities of Juigalpa. These are children who never receive a present, not even on their birthday, because presents are an unaffordable luxury.

Total cost: 795 Euro.

Background information:
The SIS (sister-city alliance Den Haag-Juigalpa) is an organisation that has been working for 20 years to collect funds for development projects in the Nicaraguan sister city and to implement projects that support technical and organisational elements. The projects always come into being as a result of dialogue with the local population. The local contact of the SIS, the Comité de Vinculo, plays a crucial role in this; it is a broad-based platform in which neighbourhood organisations, the local "mainstream", utility companies, local and national governments are all represented. It is there that the main lines are drawn and proposed projects approved.



The city of Juigalpa is in the department of Chontales and is located in the central south area of the country. It has approximately 80,000 inhabitants, 20,000 of whom live in the countryside. Juigalpa is the most important rural centre in the region. That is where the representatives and officials from ministries and institutions working in the region are located. The most important economic activity is in the primary sector, animal husbandry in particular. Agriculture is not very developed and is based on small-scale production of grains, vegetables, various types of bananas and other fruit. The 13 neighbourhoods in the Christmas project are also the neighbourhood in which SIS is currently supporting a large-scale agricultural development project for small farmers.





TOTAL € 795,-- 

ADOPTED BY MOMENTS OF JOY