FH Nicaragua promoters registering children in the CFCT program. (Photo by Food for the Hungry)
Nicaragua (FH/MNN) ― Nicaragua is the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, only exceeded by Haiti.
Food For The Hungry concentrates its assistance efforts there on improving education. Education helps equalize the distribution of resources.
When FH was just starting its project in Somotillo (about 6 km/ 3.7 miles from the Honduran border), FH staff realized that more than 45% of the kids in the community had no official identity,
As far as the government was concerned, those between the ages of 5 and 12 years of age living in Somotillo did not have a name and were not registered as citizens. FH began working with leaders, pastors, teachers, and the local government to address the issue. The impact: 95% of the children now have a document that validates their identity.
This is the newest are in which FH Nicaragua works. The region is known for drugs, migrant population, human trafficking, and a black market. It also has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS due to the constant migration from one country to another.
Official registration offers the children the right to education, to be legal citizens of the country, to have an identity, and to have access to services and jobs both inside and outside their community.
These children have a chance for a future that their parents do not. Many adults that were not registered upon birth to this day are deprived of the right to education, health services, decision making and honorable jobs. FH, through the local church, is also assisting the community adults to get registry and gain citizenship.
More than 200 children were registered in less than four days last month, allowing more than 500 children to be enrolled in the "Child-Focused Community Transformation" CFCT program.
This program drives home the goal and mission of FH. Compelled by the love of Christ, Food for the Hungry brings hope and help to children, families, and communities in the most impoverished countries around the world.
In this case, with the help of the local church, they could explain a little more fully Ephesians 2:19, which reads in part, "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of His household."
It's all about identity and hope for a future. Our Featured Links Section has more ways you can get involved.
