Center for Development in Central America

Yesterday I neglected to give a plug to the Center for Development in Central America, which came to UNCC and a representative spoke to my Latin American Politics class on Wednesday. It is a very cool non-profit that focuses mostly on micro-enterprise projects in rural Nicaragua, with an emphasis on community development.

Part of their work involves production of a wide variety of things for sale/export, and so they set up a table in the university bookstore with all sorts of items for sale. One of the things I bought was a pound of Nicaraguan coffee grown by a local cooperative (and I am drinking it as I write). They worked to fulfill the requirements of being labeled “organic” and then looked to niche markets in the U.S.

Poverty in Nicaragua can seem so crushing, and what I really liked was the commitment to doing one project at a time, community by community, and not letting the big picture overwhelm them.