After the devastation of Hurricane Mitch in 1998, amidst the cries for aid and assistance, a plea was made on behalf of Nicaragua's abandoned children with disabilities. Mustard Seed Communities once again answered the call and proceeded into their first Central American Spanish-speaking country.
Two members of Mustard Seed's Jamaican staff, Michelle Graham and Carlton Rowe, became missionaries and embarked upon the formation of Mustard Seed Communities Nicaragua.
The home, which was officially opened by Archbishop Clarke in September 2000, will accommodate 50 children and will operate under the same mission and vision of Mustard Seed Communities Jamaica.
The tested and proven ministries of caring, sharing and training, and the various innovative outreach activities that were developed in French speaking Haiti, will also be adopted in Nicaragua.
The idea to locate in the second poorest country in the world, Nicaragua came about after Fr Gregory Ramkissoon, founder of Mustard Seed Communities visited the country.
During Fr Gregory's visit he was introduced to two Nicaraguan Priests, Mons. Luis Amado Peña Rojas and Mons. Silvio Fonseca who both showed interest in one of Mustard Seed Communities caring aspects, abandoned handicapped children. Based upon their interest Fr Gregory invited them to Jamaica. Having done so, the interest of the two Priests became a vision for Nicaragua.
Having returned to their home country, Mons. Peña sought through the Ministry of Families a suitable location for four buildings to create a home for abandoned handicapped children. Mustard Seed Communities was just about to enter Nicaragua when Hurricane Mitch hit. The launch of the project was postponed but Mustard Seed attempted to alleviate the terrible situation by sending two containers to help the victims of the hurricane.
In October 1999, Mustard Seed arrived in Nicaragua. The two missionaries sent found that the four buildings expected were no longer available. Another location was identified with four buildings made of wood, but it was in a deplorable condition. This new location was leased to the Catholic Church for 20 years to host the Mustard Seed project.
In April 2000 another Jamaican, Loretta Wilson-Ennis joined. The three worked in areas they had never worked in before, such as cutting trees, doing carpentry work and painting buildings. These three missionaries decided that they would do whatever it took to fulfill the purpose for which they went to Nicaragua. The Jamaican staff had no previous knowledge of Spanish, the native language of the Nicaguaran people.
Hogar Belén opened its doors on September 4th, 2000. The event was a success, making Hogar Belen Mustard Seed Communities' second international project.
The home can accommodate a maximum of 30 children. The objective of this project is to create a caring, loving environment for the sometimes forgotten members of the society, the abandoned handicapped. Therefore, Mustard Seed pledges to love, care and train these children into men and women of standard, value, integrity and hopefully integrate them into society at large.
Currently, Nicaragua is one of poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, due in part to poor government decisions made over the past decade. Both overall GDP and GDP per capita have fallen significantly from their early 1980s levels. The government has, however, recently attempted to reform the economy, primarily by stabilizing the currency and implementing basic structural adjustment measures. These reforms have been successful to some extent, but there has been very little economic growth. Unemployment still exceeds 50 per cent in some areas, and the country still has a chronic gap in its balance of payments.
Nicaragua - Demographics
Ethnic Composition: Mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 69%; Caucasian 17%; Black (Jamaican origin) 9%; Amerindian 5%.
Languages Spoken: Spanish (official), English, indigenous languages.
Education and Literacy: While schooling is free and compulsory between the ages of 6 and 13, the completion rate of primary school is only 20 per cent. Adult literacy is 77 per cent.
Labor Force: Total: 1,500,000. By occupation: services 45 per cent, agriculture 37 per cent, and industry 18 per cent. Unemployment stands at 22 per cent.
Currency: The currency of Nicaragua is the Nicaraguan Gold Cordoba (C$).
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