Background story

This is a fundraising blog for Iveth and Joselin Betancour, my former host sisters in the town of La Unión, Nicaragua. Iveth is 24 years old, and Joselin is 22. Over the course of the last nine years, our friends and family members have joined together to raise close to $10,000 to help send Iveth (and now Joselin) to school. Now a student at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Nicaragua (UNAN), Iveth is working on a social work degree, and Joselin is pursuing a degree in nursing. This is a blog dedicated to helping them achieve their goals.

The background: In the summer of 2001, I spent a summer working with community-based health initiatives in a hurricane resettlement town in rural Nicaragua. During that time, I lived with the family of Marlene and Marvin Cortez-Ramos and their three children, and grew close to all members of the family.

In 2003, I returned twice to visit the ever-expanding Cortez-Ramos family and see the progression of the town. La Unión (so-named because it's a union of politically and geographically disparate hurricane victims) is a town of between 500 and 600 people. In recent years (which were economically bad ones for the country as a whole), many of the men of the town have taken to spending seasons as undocumented agricultural workers in Costa Rica to make ends meet.

Iveth and Joselin are special in a town where few people—and fewer women— attend school past fifth or sixth grade. Their family has emotionally supported their ambitious educational plans but has been unable to provide the financial means to do so.

Over the last few years, our family and friends have contributed to an education fund that enabled Iveth to continue her education. This year we are hoping to raise enough money to help Iveth and Joselin continue their journey.

Public schooling in Nicaragua is actually free of charge, but the daily transportation needs and costs associated with attending school in the city have become too great a burden for their family.

Below you can read her breakdown of costs. Annually, it costs around $1500 to send them to school. Please consider donating to this cause by clicking on the Dwolla donation button.



Thursday, March 1, 2007

Iveth's first email

! Hola Timo ¿ como estas? espero que haygas pasado una feliz navidad junto a tu familia y un prospero año nuevo perdoname por no haberte escrito antes pero es que hasta ahora inicie mis clases de cuarto año de la secundaria y se me esta hasiendo muy difisil continuar por falta de dinero pero asi sigo adelante quiro que tu me ayudes de la siguiente manera: quiero que busques auna persona que tenga posibilidades economicas y le digas que nesecito de su ayuda o sea que me busques un pradrino que me auyude economicamente con un poco de dinero. GRASIAS te queremos mucho ATT la familia de marlene

Hi Tim! How are you? I hope you are spending a happy Easter together with your family, and having a prosperous new year. Excuse me for not having written, but my fourth year of high school classes have just started, and I am having a lot of difficulty continuing because of lack of money. But, I continue forward. I want your help in the following manner: I want you to look for someone who has economic means, and tell them that I need their help. Or, possibly you could look for a “godfather” that could help me economically with a little bit of money. THANK YOU. We love you a lot. Love, Marlene’s family.

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