Purpose of trip

What’s the Purpose?

Hello!
My name is Liisa. I recently graduated from Winthrop with a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology, concentrating in Criminology. I also minored in Spanish.

In January, I will be traveling with another recent graduate, Amber, to Nicaragua. The purpose of our trip will be to study two rural communities and gather data in order to assess what is needed and what is available for economic development.

We will be living in Matagalpa, a larger city and then once a week traveling to these two towns to stay for two or three days. La Rocha and Tierra Blanca are rural towns with approximately 200 people between the both of them. Tierra Blanca has only two houses with electricity.

We will be staying in La Rocha at a family’s house. When we go to La Rocha, we will be helping to organize community meetings, such as organizing an agenda and the minutes to a meeting. The people in these towns are interested in getting set up in the market to sell their crops, yet they are not quite organized to do this. So, setting up these meetings will allow them to coordinate and work together to do this. Amber and I will also get to know the families and collect data within the two towns. Once returning to Matagalpa, we will be analyzing data gathered and writing reports.

This internship will begin with the two of us. Winthrop University is planning to send at least two students per year to these towns in order to maintain a constant presence. One professor has already taken students to these two towns, yet they have not remained in the town for more than a few weeks. The previous trips have involved the building of a new school as well as introducing certain hygiene practices.

The money we will be raising toward this trip will go toward the groceries we will buy for the family we will live with in La Rocha. The money also will go toward our transportation to and from La Rocha. We will be independently raising 750 dollars. If you would like to make a donation, I would greatly appreciate any assistance. Contributions can be made online at http://liisa.chipin.com/community-planning-in-nicaragua. Our trip will end some time around the end of May. I am strongly looking forward to meeting the members of these communities and helping out in any way possible!

Many thanks,

Liisa

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