MPP ever more professional

MPowering People is proud to present the very first digital edition of our newsletter – in Dutch and English! Thanks to the generous contribution of Webgenerator, also official sponsors of the MPP website, we are now able to publish the newsletter on a quarterly basis, keeping you up to date and informed about our projects and the progress of our children right around the year.

We are working hard on various fronts to professionalize our organization. In Nicaragua, clearer, more effective administrative systems are being established and we have strengthened the Nicaraguan management team with the appointment of a European project manager.

Back home, our Dutch team of volunteers is busy organising all kinds of special fundraising events, while our fund-raising committee continues to explore new ways to ensure the future of our empowerment programme and the development of new projects.

Back to school

In Nicaragua, the school year kicked off to a new start in January. Our children were all kitted out and ready to attend classes in their new school uniforms and with a bag full of school supplies.

Like every year, a lot of work had gone in to getting this far – selecting new pupils, buying school supplies, drawing up contracts for the children and their parents to sign. For the mentors, it meant the start of the chaotic ritual of helping the children try on their new uniforms, searching the market for new shoes and, afterwards, all dressed and ready, seeing how proud and happy the children all were.

Champions in the making

Among all MPP students, Pedro, Roxana, Lester and Susana especially stand out among their peers. In addition to the unasked for time and effort they dedicate to improving things for their community, they are just as inspired to go after dreams of their own. The MPP board recently voted to help these special young individuals realise their goals.

In principle, all those who participate in the MPP programme attend a technical training geared towards the labour market. But because Pedra, Roxana, Lester (picture) and Susan serve as such important role models, the board have decided to make an exception and raise the funds to ensure all four receive an academic education.

Pedro is currently doing community work in his neighbourhood under the guidance of other NGO's in the city. He is a computer whiz kid and often helps our team when we have computer problems. Pedro dreams of becoming a software developer or microbiologist.

Roxana is chairman of the students' council in Tamarindo. She is training to be an electrician and enjoys it so much that when she broke her leg last year she insisted on going to school even though it meant her fellow students had to carry her the two kilometres there and back on their backs!
Roxana wants to continue her studies and go on to become an engineer.

Lester works as a volunteer for HIV, drugs and young people’s rights awareness programmes. He wants to make this his profession and would like to study to become a social worker.

Susana works for various development organizations as well as giving dancing lessons to children. Her dream is to become a dentist.

Hope for doña Blanca Nieves

One mother who has been with us from the very beginning is doña Blanca Nieves (yes - her real name is Snow White) from Tamarindo. Blanca is of great value to our work, she not only motivates everyone but also keeps a very critical eye on the proceedings. Two of Blanca’s four children were taking part in our project when she became seriously ill and had to stop work. There is no money for an operation.

During Dorien’s visit to Nicaragua in January, Blanca asked her if her other two children could also join the project, because she said, “When I die, I want to be sure that my children will have a better future.” It was not a hard decision for Dorien to make.
Doña Blanca Nieves last hopes are now with the team of doctors who are due to arrive from Wisconsin. And in God. In the meantime her children are doing well at school. We all hope she will survive.

New: Parent financial contribution policy

As of this school year (2010), all parents with children participating in our programme will pay a financial contribution of $ 1 a quarter. This was decided by the Nicaraguan team in consultation with the parents' committees.

The level of the contribution was also jointly decided by the Nicaraguan team and the parents. It will be up to the parents and children’s councils how the accumulated funds will be spent each year but in return, the parents will be expected to meet all their commitments to mentors and participate in all activities.

Dorien: “The new system will not only help parents learn how to save money but it will also make their commitment more binding. To my surprise, everyone is participating – in two neighbourhoods they even considered the amount too low and raised it to $ 1 a month!”

Empowerment versus aid addiction
The financial contribution will ensure parents don’t become dependent on us. Aid addiction, a big problem all over the world, is no less prevalent in poverty-stricken Nicaragua. People frequently few things they get for free – and that includes aid -to be of less value. When aid is offered casually, people are less inclined to take responsibility themselves. It is the goal of Mpowering People to empower them.

What friends are for

We would all like to donate money to all our favourite charities, but the reality is more often that we have to make a choice. Well, what could be more rewarding than to choose a charity you know well - even personally? As friend of MPowering People you know us and our work. Will you help us? Tell your friends, colleagues, family members, neighbours and everyone else you know about us and ask them to support MPowering People. You know how important the work we do is and with just € 5 or € 10 per month we can do so much more.

Moonwalk

Please make a note of this date in your diary:

The night of Saturday, June 19 to Sunday, June 20 2010!

Enjoy a unique experience walking along the beach from Hoek van Holland to Scheveningen on one of the shortest nights of the year.

Organised for the 35th time by the Buurt- en Speeltuinwerk Rotterdam (Neighbourhood and Playground Association Rotterdam) and rambling association Botu, this year’s night-time walk on the beach will also support MPowering People!

We will have our own MPowering People participants with our own cool fluorescent print t-shirts to give the walk an extra festive touch! If you would rather, you can also make your contributions to Mpowering People directly.

For participants from the Haarlem area, we will be putting together special travel arrangements. Preparations are well under way and we will keep you informed via our website and email!

An efficient and cost-effective organisation

MPowering People has moved past the pioneering phase and we are working hard at our professionalisation. A crucial part of that is to increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the administrative organisation. For this reason at the end of 2009 we had an audit carried out of our Nicaraguan operations. Unfortunately, the audit revealed serious problems with both our managerial and bookkeeping systems.

Together with the auditors, we immediately implemented a step-by-step plan to rectify the situation, as a result of which we are now able to inform you that MPowering People has transformed into a transparent organization that meets all its (accounting) obligations. From now on, an external audit will be carried out each year and an internal audit three times a year in consultation with representatives of each of the parents' committees.

At the moment we are looking for a company to check our books and advise us where necessary. Crisanto, a former participant in our programme, has now been trained to do the daily bookkeeping. Crisanto is a second-year student at the university where he is studying at his own expense to be an auditor.

Developments in Team Nicaragua

The outcome of the audit has resulted in the appointment of Sayda Carmona as new managing director. Sayda, a qualified psycho-educationalist, has been working in our team for five years in the capacity as mentor. We are delighted at Sayda’s new appointment, we see her as a true tower of strength for our team.

Sayda is assisted by the newly appointed project manager Ana Cima Martínez and together they form MPowering People’s new management team. Ana has final responsibility for the homework project and will also be responsible for developing new projects. Ana is a professional who knows the ropes and has a great sense of responsibility and the team is already getting along well with this high-spirited Basque.

We also appointed a new mentor to fill the gap left by Sayda. Gioconda del Socorro Tórrez Prado (picture) takes care of the 49 children and teenagers that form the El Tamarindo neighbourhood. She has years of experience in agricultural and social development projects, and is a graduate in both fields. She has two children of her own, aged 11 and 8 years old.

Newsflash

We are pleased to announce that MPowering people has been granted status as an Institution for General Benefit. This means that your gifts and donations to MPowering People are now income tax-deductible.

Our website is now on-line in English and Spanish. With many thanks to the translators: The English translation team: Barbara van der Horst (co-ordinator), Judie Ellington (editor and web master), Inge Bellingwoud, Merilee Dranow, Monique van Brandenburg and Kathy Kaiser. The Spanish translation team: Floor Crouzen (co-ordinator), María Cristina Galibert and Patricia Alguiar.

Mid-March two trainees from Germany will arrive in Nicaragua. Both are Social Studies students and in our next newsletter we will tell you more about their work.

We are currently also working on formulating KPI's (key performance indicators) to make the effectiveness of our work more visible.indicators) to make the effectiveness of our work visible. We are working on formulating KPI's (key performance indicators) to make the effectiveness of our work visible.