NICARAGUA

[Guest]

.

[Natasha]

Amnesty International Report 2007: Nicaragua

Attachment: one page word document- Amnesty International Report 2007 (Nicaragua)
www.amnesty.org

[Claus-Peter]

Nicaragua's remote Miskito Cays were once a popular pirate hideout. Today tourists arrive to see shoreline mangrove forests and extensive coral reefs.






Traditional Dance of Nicaragua





Grenada

[P, B and J]

By chance I recently came upon a very nicely done and interesting website for youth and teachers!

Réseau In-Terre-Actif homepage (French and English site): http://www.in-terre-actif.com/english/index.php

Info and link to youth-friendly country fact sheets below (There is also a Teacher's Guide)

The Country Fact Sheets are presented to you by the Réseau In-Terre-Actif, and were created in collaboration with the Canadian Government through the Canadian International Development Agency.

The Country Fact Sheets were created for students in their final year of primary school, and is composed of 10 educational guides that each explore a developing nation.

The guides embody an educational approach that encourages action, interaction, and engagement on the part of students as they explore the challenges of international development.

Furthermore, the guides develop in students an awareness of global challenges that encourages critical thinking, and students’ participation in their community.

Note that teachers and educational presenters are free to use the guides in their entirety, or to select and employ sections of the guides to meet their educational objectives.

* http://www.in-terre-actif.com/english/show.php?id=4795

Countries listed:

Benin
Cameroon
Cuba
Haiti
Honduras
Mali
Nicaragua
Rwanda
Senegal
Vietnam

* Each link to a country brings up a colourful and interesting PDF file.  There are also games/activities!  (I'm not sure that I should link directly to the PDF files, but by going to the link marked by the * in the quote above, you will see all 10 countries listed on the same page.  Each country name brings up the respective PDF.)

[wind5001]

Not sure where to post this, but I think it fits here:

This is from Dr. Kendall Mau's blog, the CFO/COO of Prisma Nicaragua:

"In Nicaragua, we are still slogging along.  Doing business there is very difficult right now as the government is supporting the idea that micro-credit organizations are no better than modern day usurers.  Some cheaper subsidized funds have entered the country via Chavez-Venezuela.  There is a new Anti-Repayment Movement forming which has the backing of the government.  We are re-evaluating our business model and will make some major changes and decisions in the coming months.  We expect delinquencies to start climbing."

Doesn't sound very encouraging and might be useful to know for future loans to Nicaragua in general...

http://microfinancetravels.typepad.com/microfinance_travels/2009/01/happy-new-year-2009.html   

[charity]

Oli- That is very crazy!  Not long ago I was shocked to read about "microfinance institutions" (NOT Kiva related) in Mexico that were charging borrowers 80-100% +, with not very transparent terms (like just telling people the weekly payment amount, not the rate, or overall amount to be paid back, etc).  I would most definitely agree that those types of institutions are usurers.  I am wondering if similar things are happening in Nicaragua?  It is unfortunate that the government would take such an approach, rather than somehow try to regulate the MFIs better.  This is definitely why I prefer working with Kiva under the zero interest to lenders approach;  I don't want interest rates to borrowers to be unnecessarily increased with the excuse that capital costs are high.