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by VJ Vitkowsky | Mar 12, 2007 10:26 am

(1) Comment | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Arts

SosteNica-%20Boardroom.JPG There is at least one boardroom in North America where no one is planning a coup now that former Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega has been re-elected president of Nicaragua. Actually, it was the lobby, not the boardroom, of The Community Foundation of Greater New Haven where plots were hatched about micro-lending instead.

Lee%20Cruz%20and%20Manuel.JPG Lee Cruz (pictured) was on the first delegation to New Haven’s Sister City, Leon, Nicaragua, and worked as a staff person there for 12 years. He translated a presentation Saturday from Miguel Gonzalez (pictured with Cruz), who came to New Haven asking for loans to help small businesses in Leon. He addressed 20 local activist investors, many who have known each other since the 1980s, when they began a solidarity campaign to counter U.S foreign policy in Central America.

They were called together by Allan Wright, founder of SosteNica, a “Sustainable Developement Fund,” which manages small loans from North Americans to Nicaraguans.

In 1979, The Frente Sandinista de Liberaci√É¬≥n Nacional (FSLN), commonly referred to as the Sandanistas, overthrew Anastasio Somoza Debayle’s government, part of a U.S.-backed dynasty of dictatorships that held power since the 1930s. Under the leadership of Daniel Ortega, the FSLN instituted sweeping changes: they set up general elections, land redistribution, and health care. Some New Haveners saw the birth of a new world in the changes taking place. Other internationalist minded activists throughout Europe and North America were also inspired by the Sandinistas. Manos Unidos, a prominent non-government organization (or NGO) in Spain, started in the 1980s as a Nicaragua solidarity comittee.

But the Sanianista victory also made powerful enemies in the United States, including the Central Intelligence Agency. It sponsored the counter-insurgency Contras, and a full-scale civil war followed.

SosteNica-family%20reuinion.jpg “This is about forging a foreign policy between the people of New Haven and the people of Leon,” said long-time activist Shelly Altman (at left in photo).

Altman collected over 1,000 used bicycles from churches, schools, and individuals in the city throughout the 1990s. Through the New Haven/Leon Sister City project, he sent them to teachers who could not get to school otherwise, he said.

“SosteNica is not a charity,” Wright said. “It is a socially responsible investment. The expectation is that your money will be returned.”

Through his involvement with the Sister City project as a Yale student, Wright (pictured in the center) eventually began a pilot micro-lending program. His partners in the project include Leon, Nicaragua-based Center for the Promotion of Local Economic Developement (CPRODEL, in its Spanish initials) and the Spanish government.

One credit receiver, depicted in a film produced by SosteNica, runs a concrete company. He said he donates some of the concrete to women, who then build their houses by hand. Two uniform shops, an organic bean farmer, a cattle rancher, and an organic bee keeper were also depicted in the film.

Wright said when he returned to Leon he saw a family living in a textile shop that was out of commission.

“‘Why don’t you work these looms?’ I asked. And they said they couldn’t afford fabric,” Wright recalled. “I asked them how much it would cost to get the looms repaired and buy enough fabric to get the shop running again. They said the could do it with $500.”

Wright said he loaned the money to the family. After Ortega was voted out of office in 1990, Nicaragua’s new leaders made privatizing the banks a priority. Wright said this process made it impossible for smaller businesses to get small loans.

Lee Cruz, who is the senior philanthropic officer for the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven, said the presentation was a learning experience for the city.

“In closing, I want to thank you all,” Wright said. “Que viva la revolucion, que viva Leon.”

Comment

posted by: Bill on March 13, 2007 5:57pm

This is great! I never knew such a thing existed! Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

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