WCCN's Newsletter, Winter 2007, Volume 23, No. 4

WCCN hosted a benefit concert on Octo­ber 4th, in response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Felix. Seven groups donated their talents at the event, which was dubbed Think Globally, Jam Locally. It was held at Madison’s Crystal Corner Bar, and owner David Day waived the room charge and brought in a sound technician at his own expense, which contributed significantly to the cause. Numerous Madison-area businesses also donated goods to a silent auction. Despite being put together on short notice and without a lot of advertisement, the concert was a huge success, netting over $1400 toward WCCN’s hurricane relief efforts.

As we approach the end of 2007, it is important to evaluate the work we have done this year. The NICA Fund had another successful year, increasing by over $1.5 million. WCCN also published a study on the social impact of microfinance in Nicaragua.

WCCN recently completed a study that confirmed the overwhelmingly positive impact that microfinance has on borrowers’ businesses, their lives and their children’s lives.

We were pleased to get many responses to the survey in the previous edition of Nicaraguan Developments. Here is a quick summary of the results.

At the end of October and beginning of November, 2007, WCCN and fair-trade coffee roaster Just Coffee brought a guest up from Nicaragua to see how the coffee her organization produces is sold, and to tell people of Madison, WI, about both the coffee and the organization. Here, she tells about herself and her work.

Thirty-five years ago an earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale devastated Nicaragua’s capital city, Managua. The earthquake proved to be the beginning of the end of the Somoza dynasty, as the aid money that flowed into the country made its way primarily into Somoza’s pockets. Nicaragua’s middle class, which had long turned a blind eye to the dictators’ sticky fingers, could not ignore the economic opportunism Somoza showed following the disaster, as their homes and livelihoods lay in ruins.

As William Grigsby Vado described in the University of Central America’s political magazine envío, “The earthquake changed the structure of society. It destroyed the country’s political and economic hub, killing 12-15,000 of the 150,000 people who lived in Managua at the time. The dictatorship had managed to consolidate itself up to that moment, but after the earthquake everything started to change. People in Nicaragua talk more about ‘before and after the earthquake’ than ‘before and after the revolution.’”

Mrs. Carla Acuña is an impoverished young artisan who lives in the rural community of La Poma, in the municipality of Masaya. The village has a bad road, and is almost inaccessible in the rainy season. The nearest health center is in the city of Masaya. People have running water only two or three times a week. The frequent interruption of electricity does not allow artisans like Carla to run their modest equipment and machines reg­ularly. Despite these adverse conditions, the León 2000 Foundation is pro­viding microfinance services to many microentrepreneurs and artisans like Carla’s family in La Poma and the surrounding communities.