The Nagarote-Wesleyan Partnership recently became the University’s second recipient of a Kathryn Wasserman Davis 100 Projects for Peace grant, receiving $10,000 in funding that it will use this summer to develop a community center in the Nagarote, Nicaragua. The Partnership, a student group that volunteers in community development projects, includes Aggi Baik ’09, Sean Corlett ’07, Lorena Estrella ’10, Nelson Norsworthy ’10, Rishabh Phukan ’10, Sadie Robinson ’09, and Jessica French Smith ’09.
“We’re really excited to have this opportunity, and excited for the potential of the center,” Smith said. “This new center is definitely going to take the organization to new heights and increase the potential for positive change within the community.”
Philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis created 100 Projects for Peace in February, to mark her centennial birthday. She pledged to give $1 million to 100 individual peace-building grassroots projects, each to receive a $10,000 grant. The program was open to undergraduate students enrolled at the 76 American colleges and universities that belong to the Davis United World College Scholars Program. Earlier this semester, each member institution chose one finalist from its pool of student proposals, as well as alternate proposals to be eligible for the 24 remaining grants.
In February, the University chose Kudakwashe Ngogodo ’08 out of 45 submitted proposals. With his proposal, the “Hope-Water Project,” Ngogodo plans to sink at least two boreholes, deep ground shafts, in his native Mberengwa, Zimbabwe, to provide the community with clean water.
The University committee that reviewed Projects for Peace proposals, composed of seven faculty and staff members, chose the “Nagarote-Wesleyan Partnership” as an alternate candidate. The Davis United World College Scholars Program later accepted it as one of the 24 final recipients.
According to Smith, the University’s involvement in Nagarote began in 2004, when Sean Cortlett ’07 began a partnership with the Norwalk/Nagarote Sister City Project (N/NSCP), a non-profit organization that has worked toward sustainable community development in Nagarote since 1986. As reported in the Wesleyan Connection, the community needs specific attention because of low literacy and graduation rates, low wages and poverty, poor working conditions, poor health care, high crime rates, and high drug use.
“We sought out [N/NSCP] because of their emphasis on sustainability and community input as well as their potential for growth as an organization,” Smith said. “[They] are continually developing new projects.”
The N/NSCP Board of Directors is based in Norwalk, Conn., and works in conjunction with a partner Directiva, or board, in Nagarote. Smith is currently a member of the board in Norwalk.
While University participants were last in Nagarote over spring break in March, according to Smith, the project is constantly advancing.
“The partnership has been a collaborative effort all along,” she said. “We are in touch constantly with the Field Director, who lives there, as well as the Directiva and youth project participants.”
Corlett, Estrella, Norsworthy, and Smith will return to Nagarote in June for two weeks. Smith explained the efficiency that such a short stay provides.
“A lot of the planning can be done pre-departure and, in order to put the most money directly into the project, it makes sense that it be a shorter trip.”
According to Smith, the total cost for the community center is estimate at slightly less than $40,000. The N/NSCP raised $30,000 to purchase land and a building. However, the need for major renovations called for further funding, which the Project for Peace grant will now supply.
“It wouldn’t be possible without the Projects for Peace grant,” Smith said.
Once completed, the center will serve as a multi-space use for several groups, including high school students in the Jeronimo-Lopez Youth Outreach and Development Project, a sub-project of the N/NSCP, scholarship students, teachers, and members of the Directiva. Facilities may include a homework help program and classes in computer, music, and photography.
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