WCCN's Newsletter, Winter 2008, Volume 24, No. 4

By Emily Allred
Loan Fund Manager

WCCN is pleased to introduce a new and exciting way for individuals to invest in the NICA Fund — online. Through MicroPlace.com, WCCN will soon be able to offer NICA Fund Notes over the Internet. This technology will allow for investments in the NICA Fund as small as $50. We welcome this development in WCCN’s microfinance work as one that will enable more people to participate, and allow WCCN to better meet the demand for capital among the working poor.

We are in a time of change. As the US enters an era of hope with the election of Barack Obama as our next President, WCCN is also in the middle of a transformation that will prepare our organization to face new opportunities and challenges as we expand to other Latin American countries.

by Sue Lloyd
WCCN Board Member

For almost 17 of WCCN’S 24 years, we have been channeling capital from socially concerned investors through partner agencies for much-needed credit to small enterprises in Nicaragua.

by Carlos Arenas
WCCN Executive Director

On November 9th, 2008, Nicaraguans went to the polls to elect mayors for 146 municipalities. Two weeks later, as this newsletter goes to print, the final results of the elections were still unknown, and the preliminary results have been strongly contested by the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC). According to the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), the state agency in charge of organizing elections nationwide, the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN) won 98 municipalities, the PLC 44, and other parties held the remaining 4. In Managua, the CSE has provisionally declared that the candidate of the FSLN, Alexis Argüello, won with 223,389 votes, or 51.32%, and Eduardo Montealegre, of the PLC, had only 202,752 votes, or 46.58%.

by Susan Frisbie
Development & Marketing Director

In 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations created the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, outlining the fundamental rights of men and women worldwide. While there is no doubt that many member nations, including our own, have violated articles in the declaration, WCCN believes that organizations like ours are obligated to step in where governments are unwilling or unable.

by Susan Frisbie
Development & Marketing Director

Karla Torres Salguera runs a small general store in Managua that specializes in products for women. Before receiving her first microcredit loan, Karla says she had to walk around her neighborhood selling goods out of the large bag she carried.