Education brings new confidence

Agustin Jarquin Hernandez and his daughter Carmen [Marcella Haddad]

Far from Nicaragua’s capital of Managua, the people of Cerro Bonito have found new confidence and lobby their local mayor to make sure their needs are no longer neglected

Agustin Jarquin Hernandez speaks with pride about his regular meetings with the local mayor - those in power hold no fears for this local farmer.

Thanks to training and adult education classes from the John XXIII Institute, Agustin and his family are leaders in their own community in all sorts of ways.

His wife, Maria, is part of the new housing committee, and their 17-year-old daughter, Carmen, gives adult literacy classes to local people.

Well-organised

Agustin says: "We’ve become more able and confident to do things. Before I could only count on my fingers but now I can count properly."

“I can communicate with the mayor and tell him what we need. Now he comes and shakes our hands, and pays more attention - whereas he used to only come once every five years."

When the project first started, the John XXIII Institute - which is supported by CAFOD - took 20 people from Cerro Bonito to a neighbouring community where they had already been working for a few years.

Agustin says: “We saw how well-organised the people were there. They had built houses, they had a community fund which they had worked together to save.

"It was like studying for us. We saw how we could work together and move forwards in whatever we put our minds to."

“The John XXIII Institute took the time to explain everything properly to us, and we are more educated and have more skills. That will last.”

Carmen’s class currently has eight students aged between 30 and 50. They study in the evenings because they have to work during the day, so the classes run until it gets dark.

She says: “I would like to keep studying but I can’t afford to do this. My sisters work in foreign-owned factories but it’s very tiring work so it’s difficult to keep studying.

"It’s difficult unless you ask for help or get a scholarship, but there aren’t many. Because we are a bit remote the government doesn’t do much for us."

“But I love this work because I like to see that my community is moving forwards. This is the poorest part of Cerro Bonito and, because we haven’t had projects here, before we had little access to anything.

“Life is very different now,” says Agustin. “Before, we didn’t trust each other. Now from the youngest person to the oldest they all take part.”

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