Initatives
Our initatives are developed with the help of Bridges to Community staff as well as recommendations from community members and leaders. Through these initiatives, we have gained mutually-beneficial relationships and ties. Because our focus is sustainability, our organization works with a specific community for approximately 3-5 years before moving on to another community. Last year, much of our work in Rosa Grande was learning more about the community and understanding their perspectives on their livelidhood.
Our interactiosn witht the community, our community discussions and individual converstions are what led to our initiative focuses. Our mission is to develop our initiatives of education, health and wellness, and environmental protection, foster dialogue between Rosa Grande and Pittsburgh, and bring positive social change through action and exchange.
Our group has developed five main initiatives; each initiative is planned with the input from each of the members of our group and our faculty advisor and conceived under the guidance of Bridges to Community. These initiatives will be worked on during the rest of the semester and implemented during our stay there from May 17 - May 27.
Art Initative
Our Pittsburgh-Nicaragua photography exchange, founded on interdisciplinary theory drawn from diverse fields of anthropology andcritical theory, attempts to cross international borders by connecting two communities despite barriers of language, culture, and geography. Working with the Homestead YMCA’s family support center in Pittsburgh and with a community school in Rosa Grande, Nicaragua, we hold art and photography workshops with a goal of engaging both groups of children in the same global dialogue.Photography is used as a tool to address general issues of community, family, and childhood. The children are asked to take pictures and, in addition, to tell stories, and write captions for their photos, sharing their life experiences through both visual imagery and text. These lessons of connection and global understanding are then made accessible to entire communities through gallery shows of the resulting photos—creating a connection that spans great distances and is open for all to take part in.
This participatory approach has three main goals: to enable individuals to record and reflect upon their own community and experiences; to promote critical dialogue within individual communities through large and small group reflection upon photographs resulting from the project; and to create cross-cultural ties between Nicaragua and Pittsburgh, encouraging individuals to reflect upon the similarities and differences between differing communities.
Education Initative
The Education system in Rosa Grande lags behind the country's urban school systems. Perhaps our initiative with the farthest-reaching goals, we work with the community to improve education in two areas:
• Community conversations on education determine where the community's opinions on education stand today and allow parents, teachers, and students to brainstorm methods of improving Amparo's education system over the next few years.
• PowerPoint and Excel courses that we taught this year.
Heath & Environment Initative
In the summer of 2011, the students in the health initiative developed and distributed a handout that illustrated everyday health practices. The students also led a community discussion surrounding the concepts of healthful practices and health concerns. The goal of this discussion was to understand the particular health issues that are present in Rosa Grande, and the information collected will be put to use in the health initiative’s future partnership with the education initiative.
In addition, our group collaborate with community members to build the following:
• Pro-respiratory stoves are an efficient way to decontaminate the air and use less firewood. By using sealed chimney systems that lead smoke and ash out of the kitchen, pro-respiratory stoves decrease respiratory problems and prevent potential blindness.
• Latrines are sanitary ways to prevent refuse from polluting the water source.
• Health workshops help show the community tangible steps they can take to improve the health of their families. Much of the Amparo community suffers from preventable diseases such as anemia. Through conversation on topics such as boiling cooking water and eating more vegetables, we initiate a dialogue within the community that helps combat these diseases.
Water Initative
Problem: Access to clean-drinking water is extremely limited in rural areas such as Rosa Grande. Work has been done by national and international governments as well as NGOs to improve water infrastructure in these regions, but many areas continue to suffer access to these developments.
Solution: We want to understand the historical and engineering context for potable water system development in the region prior to committing resources to the undertaking. Thus, a student in the group researched water development in the R.A.A.N. to serve as a basis for a future sustainable water initiative. Present-day, the group is looking to feasible, sustainable methods that can improve basic water needs in rural areas of Nicaragua.