Nicaragua
Cooking workshop for moms
Giving moms in Nicaragua the opportunity to learn a skill and earn income
Education & Training
The Need
The plummet of Nicaragua’s economy has had a devastating impact to families already living in poverty. Before the global pandemic, it was estimated that 131,000 people had fallen into poverty during the crisis and 250,000 people had lost their jobs. This crisis was only made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused thousands more people to fall into poverty and put even more pressure on families who were already struggling. In many households, fathers abandoned their families, leaving mothers and their children without any financial support. Single mothers in Nicaragua often have trouble providing basic necessities such as nutritious food for their families. It is not uncommon for children to eat a single piece of bread for dinner.
Compassion’s Survival Program supports the holistic development and essential needs of babies during their first year of life, while also offering education and support for the mother or primary caregiver. Many of the mothers enrolled in Compassion’s Survival Program are single and desperately needed to learn skills that could help them support their families. However, the high cost of classes means these moms cannot afford them. Access to these classes is also a challenge, as there are no workshops offered in their rural communities. Without help, the cycle of poverty will continue for many Nicaraguan families.
Our Response
To help 40 women from four different Survival programs in Nicaragua, Compassion partnered with local churches to provide cooking workshops and business seminars to moms in need. This initiative was launched in September 2019. Churches purchased kitchen equipment, hired instructors and began running self-esteem workshops. Participants were also able to attend a few cooking classes at the local churches before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Due to the pandemic and the related public health measures and restrictions, all in-person programming was cancelled starting in March 2020. Classes were set to resume in April 2021, but due to COVID-19 restrictions at three centres and delays receiving the required paperwork, classes were pushed back again and did not resume in July 2022.
Once classes resumed, several of the original participants were unable to return—some now had work commitments or their children had exited the Survival program. Although all 40 participants were able to attend at least three workshops on entrepreneurship, budgeting, self-esteem, hygiene and the value of women, the two-year break due to the pandemic and other challenges impacted attendance. Out of 40 participants, 17 mothers in the Survival program remained in the program until graduation.
The 17 women who completed the program were provided with additional economic and hygiene seminars and comprehensive cooking classes. Classes resumed on July 18, 2022 and were led by a professional instructor. One of the participating churches has also formed an alliance with a training school called MINED to provide the cooking lessons. They also partnered with the national technological institute INATEC, which provided the 17 graduating moms with formal certifications after they completed their training.
Near the end of the program, a cooking fair was held where the participating women showcased and sold the food that they had made to church and community members. At the fair, the moms were able to generate at least 50% of the seed money they had received. A graduation ceremony was held at the end of February 2023, where 17 graduates obtained their certifications from INATEC.
Activities
Cooking fair: Participants prepared their food for the cooking fair. Churches and community members were invited to attend the fair to support the mothers in their businesses.
Creating meals: Caregivers learned to cook a wide variety of nutritious foods, including lasagna with a side of garlic bread.
Graduation: Caregivers attended their graduation ceremony in February 2023. Participants were allowed to bring one guest to join them during the ceremony. During graduation, the participants received their certificates from INATEC, which are recognized throughout Nicaragua.
Monitoring: Centre directors and staff monitored the mothers throughout this intervention and provided support and encouragement.
Empowered women: Moms feel confident knowing they have gained skills to not only prepare nutritious traditional meals for their families but also to open their own businesses to generate income and help lift their families out of poverty.
Your Gift Provides...
Your gift provided business and self-esteem training for 40 women from four different Survival programs and cooking workshops for 17 women, including:
· Kitchen equipment:
o Pots, pans, blenders, strainers, ladles, utensils, cups, etc.
o 4 stoves and gas tanks
o 3 pressure cooker pots
o 2 semi-industrial blenders
o 2 electric mills
o Class materials
· Professional training by qualified instructors
· 40 uniforms for mothers including hats, aprons and gloves
· Power, water and cleaning materials
· Capital seed money for business start-up at the food exhibition
· Graduation ceremony and certificate
· 4 seminars on entrepreneurship, budgeting, management, hygiene, self-esteem and the value of women in God’s eyes
ReportA message from those your gift helped
Before taking the cooking class I didn’t know how to cook the way I do today. I couldn’t look for a job in local eateries because they always asked me if I had any experience in food preparation. For that reason, I didn’t have a job or job opportunity and my economic situation was not good.
Thanks go to God, the donors and the frontline church partners that offered the cooking classes. Now I have enough knowledge to be able to apply for a job in a kitchen. Since I have had this training, I can even have my own business. My life and my family’s lives have changed a lot thanks to this opportunity.
The training I received is of great relevance and is very valuable to me and my family. It can open doors for me to be able to have a job or even have my own business and this will help us as a family to have a better quality of life.
I have learned to fight to get ahead and be able to get my daughters ahead, to teach them that I can improve myself and fight for them and to show them that God is good and He is the one who helps us get ahead, because nothing is easy but we can achieve anything with the help of God. At the beginning, it was difficult for me because I felt a little frustrated, but the teacher supported me a lot. She encouraged me to fight and today I give thanks for everything I learned in the course.
I am very grateful to the donors who contributed so that we, the mothers, can improve ourselves and have a tool that helps us generate income. I thank the Lord, who touched their hearts.
ReportThank you for your generosity
Thanks to your generous gift, 17 mothers in Nicaragua have completed extensive cooking workshops and have received certifications that will allow them to find stable jobs and provide nutritious food for their families.
Although this intervention faced extensive challenges due to the timing of the COVID-19 pandemic and other delays, 40 women in the Survival program attended at least some cooking classes and three seminars on budgeting, management, hygiene and self-esteem—providing them with vital information and skills that they can use to help themselves and their families.
Thanks to your support, this intervention has had a profound impact on the women who participated. One Compassion centre director said he can see that the session about values and self-esteem strongly impacted the lives of women, who now take better care of themselves and have a greater understanding of self-care and hygiene. One mom, Suleyka, expresses that this intervention has been very important to her as she learned to cook new dishes and use proper food-preparing methods—she has even been inspired to start her own food business. Some mothers expressed that they didn’t know how to cook well for their families before the intervention, but now they are already cooking a variety of nutritious meals at home and have been inspired to start their own businesses or find similar work. This intervention has opened doors for these women to generate income and improve their own lives and those of their children.
Because of your generosity, 40 women have received essential training on both business management and self-care and 17 women have completed cooking courses and earned certificates. These women will be able to use what they’ve learned to improve their own lives and the lives of their children. They have valuable skills that will allow them to start their own businesses or find stable jobs, helping them break generational cycles of poverty and provide hope for their children’s futures. Thanks to you, they now have hope for the future!
ReportA message from a centre director
The change has been noticeable in the lives of the women who decided to take up the challenge of enrolling in the cooking classes and it has been a great blessing for their lives and their families. It can be seen in each one of them that they want to improve themselves by learning to improve their financial stability to be able to offer their children a better quality of life. In the course they completed they were certified by INTEC and their certificate is recognized throughout Nicaragua. This document will open doors for them and provide job stability.
This intervention has benefited and impacted the community. By getting a job, the women will improve their quality of life and be examples for other women.
This was a very good experience; it helped us to encourage women through the Word of God. We talked to them about the Word and taught them that God is faithful and that He wants us to be able to thrive using the tools that He has for us.
I would like to thank you infinitely for blessing the lives of the mothers who benefited from this intervention. I want to ask you to always keep them in your hearts and continue supporting those most in need. May the grace of God abound in your lives and families. We are very grateful for this help. It was a great blessing here because many of these women didn’t have the means to train in a cooking course before this intervention.