JustHope

As we come to the end of an otherwise difficult year, we take this moment to celebrate the JustHope staff and thank them for their outstanding efforts. The strength of JustHope has always been our staff, who have not only kept offices and programs running but have been a voice and hands of compassion to partners in the U.S and Nicaragua alike.

It has been a gift to this network of partners to have a staff team that could lead us into the delicate work of establishing cross-cultural relationships, and we have all grown in our own understanding of JustHope’s values of solidarity, sustainability, mutuality, and collaboration through the ways that our staff team has embodied them.

For their faithful service, tireless efforts, and commitments to making this world a better place through their work with JustHope, please join us in thanking:
Elba Delgado
Julio Delgado
Francis González
Abimael Uriarte
Diana Montalván
Ali Hawkins
Phil Morice Brubaker

With deepest gratitude,
The Board of JustHope

Dear Friends of JustHope,

The JustHope Board of Directors has come to a difficult decision. We will be ending our current operations in Nicaragua effective December 31, 2022. This also means we will be laying off our staff in both Nicaragua and the United States. With sadness and deep gratitude, we thank them for their incredible commitment and effort on behalf of our partner communities.

US and Nicaraguan partners have weathered many challenges together in the past few years. Over the past several months, fundraising has not been enough to sustain our programs for the long-term in a way that lives into our values. To best honor those values, we are choosing to act now, with deliberation and in collaboration with our Nicaraguan partners.

We are in discernment with our staff and partners in Nicaragua about how best to close out our current programs in ways that are mutual, collaborative, and honor our commitments to one another. We are committed to completing specific 2022 initiatives in Chacraseca and La Flor, including promised microcredit loans, the Truck of Hope, a cemetery for La Flor, and our annual backpack scholarship drive. We are still receiving donations for the backpack drive.

We anticipate inviting supporters to join us in a conference call in the next few months to explore possible ways to continue JustHope's mission. If you would like to stay informed of that meeting, please respond to this simple form.

In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected] if you have any questions or concerns about our current situation and decision.

Many thanks for your solidarity and support.

Miguel Ortega
Chair, Board of Directors

In October, JustHope provided funds for the "Food Bonus for families in extreme poverty” project of ACOPADES, our partners in Chacraseca. Here is what ACOPADES says about the project and the needs of this agricultural community.

The great economic crisis that has affected the country since the political crisis (2018), the pandemic, and now the war in Ukraine, has dealt severely punishing cost increases for basic inputs for our agricultural products. For example, we need two sacks of fertilizer to produce an acre of corn. Before, the cost was $20 per sack; now the price is $80 per sack.

All of the basic products have risen more than 70%. In the case of cooking oil, it used to cost $1.50; today it costs $4. Many heads of families have been sent to unemployment and production has plummeted. On top of all this, Hurricane Julia affected 60% of the remaining agricultural production. We can assure you that our community is one of the poorest in Nicaragua.

For the Food Bonus project, the subcommittee of each community sector evaluated and choose the families that most needed to acquire these food packages. The packages were delivered through the central offices of ACOPADES, overseen by General Coordinator Osmin Perez, to each sector leader so that they could make the delivery to the beneficiaries. Some elderly people who cannot walk and those sick with terminal cancer had it delivered directly to them.

Photos: Sebastian Munguia, sector leader from Mojon Sur 2, and supervisor at ACOPADES board of directors, distributes food packets.
JustHope.org/news/qn71

Wilmer Antonio Morales Díaz, a teacher at Nuevo Horizonte school in Chacraseca, won this year’s competition for Best Secondary Education Teacher at the municipal and departmental levels. This award is given by the Ministry of Education to a teacher who inspires with their pedagogical practice and generates skills and competencies in their students.

Wilmer is not the only award-winning teacher in Chacraseca. In 2020, Roxana Maribel Guido Hernández won Best Primary Education Teacher at the municipal level. And in 2021, Sandra Carolina Altamirano (in the photo with principal, Ilce Moran) won Best Early Education Teacher in the municipal and departmental contests.

JustHope.org/news/qn69