Post date: Nov 6, 2013 10:55:53 PM
Tuesday we went to the Nicaragua office of Fe y Alegría, a Jesuit organization that directly supports primary and secondary education in Latin America. In January they lost one million dollars annual funding from the government of Spain and had to severely cut back many of their programs in Nicaragua.
Last winter I visited one of their schools, in the very poor suburb of Ciudad Sandino. I also had an audience with Ferdinando Cardenal at his residence at University of Central America, in Managua. This visit he looked a bit more frail, but is planning a trip to Seattle University later this Fall. He is the most enthusiastic promoter of education in Nicaragua, having been Minister of Education under an earlier Sandanista government, together with his brother Ernesto, who was Minister of Culture.
This time we are trying to improve their ability to raise awareness and funds from North America, partly by translating their web site into English, and partly by making it easier for donors to contribute money. (Currently this requires a wire transfer to a bank that is not in the ACH - Automated Clearing House - an awkward process at best.)
Other organizations simply use PayPal, which takes direct payments from 'members' or uses credit cards from others. Very simple for the giver. This method is being adopted by some churches as a method to collect the weekly tithe. This is certainly a more efficient method than writing a paper check, tallying the checks, depositing the checks, and manually sending a 'thank you' at the end of the year for tax purposes.
Back to Fe y Alegría. They not only run schools, but provide continuing education for teachers around the country. This education is requested by the teachers and is not required by the government for maintaining a teaching certificate - as in the USA. The enthusiasm of teachers for on-going training is a credit to both the dedication of the teachers and the quality of the programs at Fe y Alegría.