Why Nicaragua Needs Help

Nicaragua has three major cities: Managua, Leon and Granada. Collectively, the population of these three cities is 1,378,000, leaving roughly 4 million people in rural areas of the country. The Nicaragua government cannot afford to provide adequate education, health care and infrastructure to its 5 million citizens – and the lack of adequate support is most severe in rural areas.

As the founders of NICA discovered, the moment a town learns of a forthcoming visit from potential supporters, hundreds of letters are written over candlelight requesting assistance. The fact is rural people have nowhere else to turn. Well-paying jobs are rare, and if a job is found, the wage is often about $100 dollars a month for 66 hours of work a week. The people living in rural Nicaragua need a chance – they need education, training and support to help them figure a way out of the extreme poverty they live in each day.

In rural communities, it is not uncommon to see teenage girls who are pregnant or nursing a newborn. When you visit a community school, you will find students sitting in broken desks, using books that have missing, ripped and marked-on pages. When entering or leaving the city, you’ll notice that the roads, telecommunication and water-delivery systems are either nonexistent or in severe need of repair.

Nicaragua has a bright future because the people there have a hunger to overcome their situation; they are fighters. With the help of NICA and its generous supporters, the rural population of Nicaragua has a chance to change its future.