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Hope for the coffee refugees at last

After four long years living under black plastic, the displaced former coffee workers living at the community of La Palmerita at last see signs of progress with the division of their land into lots. Following a lengthy legal process to secure the land for the 153 beneficiary families, Nuevas Esperanzas has completed surveys and installed boundary posts.  Each family will have a plot around their house, and another in the agricultural land belonging to the community.  The lots are numbered and the families have now moved into temporary shelters on their own land.  It has been a huge encouragement to the community to have their own land after such a long semi-nomadic existence and they can at last see where their new houses will be.

The application to the government social housing fund has just been submitted but there may be a long way to go before it is approved.  Maps, budgets and architectural plans have all been prepared as well as a comprehensive census of all the beneficiary families.  Recent work has focussed on collecting all the necessary information but this is no easy task!  Our team have spent long days at the site and made several trips to Matagalpa in the north of Nicaragua where the coffee workers come from scanning copies of identity cards, checking birth certificates and completing all the details on the necessary forms.

Work has also been completed on a detailed design for water supply, sanitation and drainage, and an application for funds for this component of the project is currently being prepared.

Nuevas Esperanzas is working with several other organisations on this integrated community development project, but our main focus is on housing, water and sanitation.  We are very grateful for the support of the Peace and Hope Trust (UK) for the funding of this project.

12/06/06