The Vivir Juntos board started work in 2015 and in October of the year Astrid left for Nicaragua to start establishing the community home in Juigalpa.
In the course of 2016 the community home opened its doors. Sometimes it seems the start of the project was only yesterday, sometimes as if it was ages ago. So much has happened in the meantime.
It takes time for the community home and the activities centre to grow, particularly selecting residents for the home who of course need an introductory period. Selecting and training staff is not a straightforward process and Astrid and her colleagues have been surprised by unexpected staff departures for whom the job was too heavy after all. The family of one resident, Jose, took him away again. And who would have thought one year ago that Nicaragua would decline into a political depression and the worries that come with that?
In the meantime time moves on. We are now half way through the 2016-2020 period of Vivir Juntos’ financial support to the project. In a previous message I mentioned that a consultation is on-going with the board in Juigalpa about the best way to achieve independence after 2020. Last week we sent a letter with a concrete proposal to the Ruach board. In the next message of the (Vivir Juntos) board we will tell more about the proposals and the response from Juigalpa.
Jeroen Boggia,
Chairperson, Vivir Juntos board