You are interested in bringing a delegation to volunteer with the Center for Development in Central America? Great! We work in the areas of sustainable economic development, sustainable agriculture, health care, appropriate technology, construction projects, and community development.
We want you to know that life here is different and
stressful. We have an International Training Facility to house our
increasing number of delegations, but it is a basic living space with
very little privacy, although it does have separate men's and women's
restrooms. We appreciate open, flexible people. In Nicaragua,
the main characteristic that people need to function is flexibility.
We expect all volunteers on delegations to:
Because our
donations are for project support, we need you to contribute to your
costs. Besides paying your travel down and back, we ask that the
short-term volunteer delegations contribute $65.00 per day per person
for room, board, and in-country transportation. Included in the
transportation, your delegation is entitled to use our small yellow
school bus which holds 22 people and driver to get to the work site, to
go on a tour of Managua, and for one vacation day at a place such as
the beach or the Masaya volcano, although your group will have to pay
for entertainment costs at these places. We really wish that we could
absorb these costs on our own, but feel that until our Nicaraguan staff
are paid good wages and until all our U.S. staff are paid salaries and
have health insurance, we can't, in good conscience, absorb these extra
costs. Nicaragua is one of the most expensive countries in Central
America in which to live if one uses electricity, cars, and imported
commodities. We will be more than happy to give you ideas on how to do
fundraising on your own to help cover your delegation's costs.
When groups come,
we expect them to work on our projects. The projects of the CDCA arise
out of the needs of the Nicaraguan community and are a cooperative
effort between the people of the community and the CDCA. For those
reasons and because our funds are already delegated to our current
projects, we cannot create special projects for visiting delegations. We
also request that your group raise some money to apply to the costs of
whatever project they are working on.
We consider working with Nicaraguans to be one of the most important parts of the volunteer experience. It is imperative that your group members come prepared to work alongside Nicaraguans and that they understand that they are here to help the Nicaraguan project workers, because it is they who will carry on the work when your group goes back to the U.S. or elsewhere.
Most
delegations come for a length of stay between one and two weeks. Due to
a sharp increase in our number of delegations since Hurricane Mitch,
please expect to be flexible when working with us on setting dates for
your group's stay at the CDCA. We are only able to host one delegation
per month. We are especially busy during the months of January,
February, and March, when many U.S. universities have their winter and
spring breaks. The CDCA is closed to delegations from 20 Dec to 6 Jan
to spend time with our family during the holidays. We also do not take
delegations during Holy Week – the entire country shuts down to
celebrate, which makes it impossible to organize delegation activities.
We expect delegation leaders to prepare their own groups for the experience and to handle group process while in Nicaragua. We value our contact with visiting delegations and are always happy to answer questions and provide information, but we are simply too busy to deal with intra-group situations. We will provide your group with a schedule, so you should advise us of your group’s preferences and of any special requests with plenty of time in advance [click to see sample schedule]. We will do our best to accommodate group priorities.
Guidelines for your potential delegation members:
If you are still interested, then we ask you to write us a letter (preferably by email). We hate forms but would like to know some things about you to begin a dialogue.
We hope to hear from you and thank you for being interested in this work. We always need all the help we can get!