Small project with big potential

Mano Amiga is a great community project which supports the children and women in Balgüe on Ometepe in Nicaragua. Founded by expats in the area, it is now run by locals to be a self-sustainable and independent project. The library, daycare, playground, garden and nutrition program is aiming at the children of the community, while the clothing workshop offers women the possibility to work and meet, and the coffee roasting is working with local farms. Therefore, working with Mano Amiga has many opportunities to learn from and to develop further. The organizer Roberto is a very nice guy, who speaks well English, but otherwise Spanish knowledge is important. Motivation and ideas are very welcome to support the project and give the quiet, small town new input. The work, therefore, depends on one’s contribution and ambition, or can otherwise be boring due to the lack of the local’s creativity. With this, as well as enough time on site and in the neighborhood (min. 2 months), great things can be achieved. For this, self-sustainability should be aimed at. Host family and Spanish teacher can be found in the community, which is frequently visited by short-term tourists, but is otherwise very simple and typical Nicaraguan. From the harbor on the main land (San Jorge), it takes about 3 hours to Balgüe, where various nice projects are taking place, though mostly run by expats. Getting familiar with the surrounding is definitely a good idea to understand the community and help the locals to grow their community. During my time (winter 2016/17), some parts of the project were not running well or closed due to holidays or due to lack of money and motivated people.