BURLINGTON/ BILWI SISTER CITY PROGRAM
      offering support for the following ongoing projects: COMMUNITY VIDEO PROJECT
     Since 2000 the Sister City Program has supported a video project based at URACCAN (the Rigional Autonomous University of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua),  assisting with both equipment and training. The mission of the project includes providing technical training for students, establishment of a visual component within the curriculum of URACCAN, documentation of life in Nicaragua's Northern Autonomous Region, and provision through cable television a vehicle for community discourse. While the Autonomy Law of 1987 acknowledges the diversity of ecologies, cultures and traditions of people living on the Atlantic Coast and gives them rights, the Autonomy Law has never been implemented in any meaningful way, with actual political and economic power residing with the Central Government in Managua. Because there are no local newspapers, and most television programming comes from outside, there have been limited vehicles for the expression and sharing of local viewpoints, and the perspectives of the peoples of the Atlantic Coast have been poorly represented.
     Students of the  video project  have produced hours of local video, conducting interviews, documenting life, and examining issues and events important to residents of the region. Jaime Ruiz of the local cable company has promoted the videos over local television. The video project impacts a broad spectrum of TV watchers in Bilwi, and videos made by the group have been shown on local Burlington Public Access television, informing residents of theBurlington community about life in their sister city.
    The Sister City Program is committed to supporting this very successful project, and seeks support for maintaining and upgrading equipment as well as training. For information on the Video Project contact Dan Higgins at <dhiggins@zoo.uvm.edu>

            VIDEO PROJECT REPORT/ may 2000       VIDEO PROJECT IMAGES      see VIDEO from the project

EQUIPMENT FOR BILWI FIRE DEPARTMENT
    Among the Sister City's ongoing relationships with Bilwi is the that of the firefighters from both communities. Since the mid 1990s the Burlington Fire Department has donated decommissioned equipment to the Sister City Program for transport to the fire department in Puerto Cabezas and the Sister City Program considers the relationship between our two firedepartments a top priority. In the summer of 1999 Carlos Largaespada, the fire chief of Puerto Cabezas, visited and trained for a week with the Burlington Fire Department, and in the sprinig of 2001 Captain Jim Hendry, of the Burlington Fire Department, spent time with his counterparts in Puerto Cabezas . In the spring of 2001 the Sister City Program raised funds for shipping several tons of equipment to the fire department in "Port".
    In 2002 firemen in Burlington located a fire truck for "Port" that was finally shipped to the Puerto Cabezas Fire Department and arrived in August, 2003.

TRADE SCHOOL and TRAINING PROJECT
     Since 1996 Charlie Delaney has made a trip each year to Bilwi, taking simple hand tools, working with local young men, and completing a small renovation project on some needy home in the community. With the job completed, he has left the tools with his helpers. These low impact projects have taught the young men building skills, repaired the structures of local houses, and given a sense of purpose in an area where employment opportunities are scarce.
     Charlie has a long-term vision for establishing a technical trade school for young people in Bilwi and has made progress toward that goal already. In 2001 Charlie leased six acres of land from Karata (one of the 10 indigenous communities in whose name all the land is owned) in the name of his non-profit organization, Waubunowin. He obtained from the Municipality certification of Waubunowin as a social cultual organizatiion. His vision for the future includes putting up a building for the school, obtaining tools and staffiing for the school, producing a curriculum, and getting recognition and certification from the Nicaraguan Department of Educatiion..
     For information about the project contact Charlie at (802)863-6002.

FUNDRAISING FOR MAUREEN COURTNEY SCHOOL
    The Maureen Cortney Special Education Center sits on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic Coast, at the edge of Puerto Cabezas/Bilwi. Started in 1991with a handful of teachers and 42 students, the school now serves 200 students and employs more than a dozen teachers.
    Sister Katie Schilling, of the Sisters of St. Ines in Wisconsin, has weathered the challenges of educating children and young adults with disabilities on a meager budget. Some students have speech and hearing problems, while others suffer from malnutrition or abuse or have learning and behavoiral problems. At Maureen Courtney, the only school of its kind in the region, girls and boys learn reading, writing, and math along with sewing, baking and carpentry. They learn the principles of the Catholic faith; kindness, tolerance and respect for human and religious differences.Maureen Courtney also boasts a winning baseball team.
    During 2002 the Sister City Program chose the Maureen Courtney School as recipient for fundraising efforts. We were able to raise funds for the meals program there and for helping with teacher salaries.

SPORTS
Because Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast is major stop in the drug trade route from Columbia to the United States, the people of Puerto Cabezas, particularly the youth, suffer from alcoholism and drug abuse. Sports programs have been identified as a positive way to keep kids away from drugs. The Sister City Program has made small steps to support youth empowerment and anti drug efforts on the coast.  In the summer of 1998 the Program hosted a member of Port's anti drug commission, Jose Rossman, and a young baseball player, Richard Omier Bendles, in Burlington. While Jose learned more about youth programs at the King Street Youth Center, Richard connected with kids from the little league and starred as a bat-boy for the Vermont Expos, inspiring the Sister City Program's ongoing drive to collect sports equipment for youth teams in Puerto Cabezas. Anyone able to donate baseball, basketball, or soccer uniforms or equipment for girls' and boys' teams in Puerto Cabezas please contact the Sister City Program.

     In April, 2001,  a delegation of 13 Little League baseball players from Burlington, along with nine parents, traveled to Puerto Cabezas for a week of baseball games with young baseball players from the region. In August the Vermonters reciprocated, bringing a delegation of young Nicaraguan baseball players to Burlington to play baseball in Vermont.

ANTI-DRUG EFFORTS
During the summer of 2000 Sister City Board member David Hutchinson arranged for  scholarships through the Institute for Addiction Studies to bring five Nicaraguans to Connecticut for a week long Institute workshop on drug counselling. David continues as a member of the Institute, which is considering other more long term projects that might involve exchange with residents of Puerto Cabezas. For information on Institute activity contact David   <hutchind@badger.jsc.vsc.edu>.

MUNICIPAL COMPUTER CENTER
In 1995 Jose Chaparro, a student at the University of Vermont, persuaded the UVM computer center to donate several outdated computers that he took to Puerto Cabezas. With the support of the Mayor's Office in Port a computer /Center was established offering low-cost computer training for people in the community. UVM contributed several more computers during 1999, as did  TECSCHANGE in Boston; Puerto Cabezas'Sister city in Spain also donated several computers to the center, and in March 1999 the Puerto Cabezas Computer center celebrates its first graduating class of 40 students. The Sister City Program continues to support the Computer center and requests that any organization or individual upgrading computer equipment consider donating their older equipment.
The Sister City program continues to accept moderately recent computers and see that they are given useful homes in offices and schools in Puerto Cabezas.

VIVERO COMUNAL TREE NURSERY
With the help of the Sister City Program, The Vivero Comunal was initiated in 1990 to promote ecological restoration and food self-sufficiency on the Atlantic Coast. The Vivero began to produce tree seedlings for families in and around Puerto Cabezas, for planting as a food source, for firewood, and for reforestation. Located on 80 acres of land, the Vivero has since established a wide variety of tree and shrub species, including pineapple, orange, cashew, avocado and lemon, as well as firewood species. The Vivero contributes to the restoration of the region's environment and strives to educate and train community leaders in the areas of Agroforestry and sustainable food production that can help recover the region's soils.
    Because Puerto Cabezas has virtually no garbage collection program that separates inorganic from organic wastes, the Sister City Program has encouraged the development at the vivero of a municipal organic compost production program to then be replicated in the communities. The status of the vivero curfrently is unclear, and there is talk of integrating it into the curriculuum of URACCAN's agro-forestry program.
 

HOW YOU CAN HELP

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