In July, 2024 four members of the DCPC community traveled to Nicaragua to connect with our partners in Kilambe. While there they visited the capital city of Managua, the town of Patasma, and the villages of Cenizabu, Maleconcito, Aguas Frias, and El Diamante. This video shares information and pictures from the trip and helps describe the richness of the ongoing partnership with CEPAD and the communities of Kilambe.
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Kilambe region of Nicaragua
How the partnership began...
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Our partnership in Nicaragua began in 2005. CEPAD – the Council of Protestant Churches in Nicaragua – facilitated our partnership with the region of Kilambe, a mountainous area in the northwestern part of the country near the border with Honduras. Seven communities were initially part of that partnership, but as new communities have been developed, they have been added to the partnership. The partnership committee in Kilambe is led by Juana Bidea and a representative board of community members.
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When the partnership was formed, DCPC proposed that we focus on preschool education and on encouraging older children to stay in school and finish high school. Since the beginning of the partnership, DCPC has provided funds to help build several preschools and has annually provided scholarships that enable parents to allow their children to remain in school. Currently we are providing scholarships for 59 students in K-12 or university. The funds are used to provide food for families, provide school uniforms, shoes, backpacks, and supplies, and to provide a stipend for some university students to help them with food and transportation costs.
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DCPC's Presbyterian Women were also instrumental in helping Juan Bidea start a sewing cooperative in the region as a means for the women to raise funds for their families.
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Our annual partnership trip – usually taken in June or July of each year - has given many of our youth and adults the opportunity to visit the communities of Kilambe, to help with school improvement projects (we have supported projects in 7 different communities), to teach, interact with, and build relationships with school children and their families. Our goal has always been to establish a long-term relationship that helps us all grow in faith and in faithfulness to God whether in Kilambe or Davidson.
CLICK HERE to see a video of the artist, Gerardo Arias, painting one of the partnership murals, and hear an explanation of why the murals are important to the partnership.
News From Nicaragua
2023 Summer Trip
Work crew building the foundation
In 2023 eight members of DCPC were able to make the trip to Nicaragua. The task for the group was to start work on a new preschool that was needed in a brand new community that was established by folks that had lost their homes in the hurricanes. The kids for the preschool were already meeting in the home of their teacher and it is hoped that they will be in the new school by the fall of 2023. DCPC provided a little more than half the funds needed to purchase building materials. In addition, the DCPC members were able to meet the scholarship kids and their families. CLICK HERE to read the reflections of a member of the 2023 mission group.
Work crew building the foundation
Kids who will attend the preschool
Women cooking in a typical Kilambe home
DCPC’s Hurricane Relief Support in Kilambe
At the end of 2020, two large hurricanes devastated Nicaragua and other Central American countries. Our partners in Kilambe were impacted. DCPC joined the effort to help support recovery. CLICK HERE to learn about how your support helped families impacted by the storms. Thank you for your ongoing support of our partnership.
