sustainable development

WCCN supports alternative development models aimed at overcoming current economic inequalities in Nicaragua, promoting greater justice for the majority of Nicaraguans. Our projects include:

• The Capital for Communities Fund (formerly the NICA Fund), which provides loans to support economic development in low-income communities.
• The Fair Trade Coffee Educational Project, which establishes ties between consumers in the North and small-scale farmer-producers in Central America. Enjoy organic coffee, and support farmers in Nicaragua, Mexico, Colombia and El Salvador.

For other news and events related to WCCN's sustainable development projects, click here.

Julio Cesar Cardenas has been borrowing from PRESTANIC for years. In this video, he tells how it's gone for him.

by Susan Frisbie
Marketing and Development Director

I just wanted to let everyone know that Brian Standing has made the NICA Fund video available online on his website. You can view the entire "Better Futures: Voices from the NICA Fund" at www.Prolefeedstudios.com

Now you can see the video and share it with other people without waiting for a copy of the DVD.

By Sue Lloyd
WCCN Board Member

It was 15 years ago that WCCN began to channel investors’ money into community economic development in Nicaragua through what is now Prestanic, the community loan fund started by the Nicaraguan Council of Churches (CEPAD). Just a year earlier, after the 1990 election ended the revolutionary Sandinista government, WCCN’s director, Sonia Taddy, and the Board had agreed that our focus going forward would be economic issues and projects. The opportunity to partner with CEPAD, a strong Nicaraguan NGO which shared a focus on economic development, came our way. WCCN took the initial steps on the road by which we eventually forged a model for investment in microcredit and community economic development in the third world.

By Shannon Bell
WCCN Intern

By Matt Early
Just Coffee

Recently fellow Just Coffee worker-owner Mike Miller and I had the opportunity to visit the organization La FEM (Fundación Entre Mujeres) in Estelí, Nicaragua. After finding out about the group from WCCN, we were excited to meet them and learn more about their work while exploring the possibility of buying their coffee to roast and sell in Madison.
La FEM is not simply a coffee growing cooperative. Founded in 1996, they organized to work on issues of domestic violence against women, women’s health, education, and job training. Upon meeting them we were immediately impressed with their level of organization and their dedication to women’s rights as a political and social imperative.

Bianca’s bright pink house is exemplary of the style of homes in the colorful neighborhood of Santa Clara, a community of Juigalpa. She and her seven children, her aunt, and two grandchildren share the home built from concrete with several rooms and running water. Only a short time ago, however, Bianca and her family were sharing a single room made from scraps of plastic and zinc and staying dry was a constant challenge. She longed for a house where she wouldn’t get wet, but she needed help.

Sunday morning I rushed from my hotel room, eager to get a good seat for the opportunity of a lifetime: A live speech from Muhammad Yunus. News of his and the Grameen Bank's award of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize came just in time for the 2006 Global Microcredit Summit, a gathering of 2,000 delegates from the field of microfinance representing over 100 countries. The opening ceremony began with a music video produced in honor of microfinance, followed by a fantastic live performance of african music and dance. The audience rose as a procession of distinguished guests, including Yunus and several foreign dignitaries, filed into the arena. As they took their seats, photographers swarmed Professor Yunus. I had become acquainted with a woman named Amy sitting beside me, who told me how her airline had lost her luggage. She was on the same flight as Yunus and she met him personally when they were filling out forms. Sure enough, he stood apart from the rest of the honored guests with his casual blue shirt and khaki pants.

WCCN is proud to announce the release of Better Futures: Voices from the Nicaraguan Credit Alternatives Fund (NICA Fund), an informational video, which details how microcredit, provided through the NICA Fund, has positively affected the lives of the working poor in Nicaragua.

Using a sustainable model, the NICA Fund helps alleviate poverty by channeling funds from socially responsible North American investors to Nicaraguan nongovernmental organizations (partner agencies) that specialize in lending to the poor. Through the NICA Fund model, small loans, typically 600 dollars or less, are issued to Nicaraguan entrepreneurs, farmers and households who are not served by commercial banks.