JustHope

Dear Friends of JustHope,

Over the past few years JustHope activities have been in transition, working to transition from a North American based non-profit to a truly local Nicaraguan organization led by Nicaraguans, especially the micro-credit women in Chacraseca. This transition is now complete and JustHope will cease all US operations as of July 1, 2026.

We celebrate all that has been accomplished by partners and friends of JustHope. It has been a good 20 years and we give thanks for all who shared the journey with us. Many of us will continue to support women who need microcredit loans, and students who need scholarships to University. If you would like to be part of supporting these ongoing programs, please contact JustHope's Founder, Rev Leslie Penrose at [email protected].

There's still time to join us for a time of reimagining, creative discerning, and exploring where JustHope can go in 2023 and beyond: this Saturday, March 18, 10am–3pm. Some of us will gather in Tulsa (2900 S. Harvard Ave.), but you can join by Zoom, too. RSVP at JustHope.org/imagine

You are invited to a time of reimagining, creative discerning, and exploring where JustHope can go in 2023 and beyond: Saturday, March 18, 10am–3pm. Some of us will gather in Tulsa (2900 S. Harvard Ave.), but you can join by Zoom, too.

Read the entire letter from board president Kathy McCallie at http://ow.ly/AkCL50MPNmw

As we come to the end of an otherwise difficult year, we take this moment to celebrate the JustHope staff and thank them for their outstanding efforts. The strength of JustHope has always been our staff, who have not only kept offices and programs running but have been a voice and hands of compassion to partners in the U.S and Nicaragua alike.

It has been a gift to this network of partners to have a staff team that could lead us into the delicate work of establishing cross-cultural relationships, and we have all grown in our own understanding of JustHope’s values of solidarity, sustainability, mutuality, and collaboration through the ways that our staff team has embodied them.

For their faithful service, tireless efforts, and commitments to making this world a better place through their work with JustHope, please join us in thanking:
Elba Delgado
Julio Delgado
Francis González
Abimael Uriarte
Diana Montalván
Ali Hawkins
Phil Morice Brubaker

With deepest gratitude,
The Board of JustHope

Saraí is a student in Chacraseca, Nicaragua, where many families struggle to make ends meet. Providing school supplies can be a burden, especially during these times where the economic impacts of war and pandemic disease affect every household around the globe.

"My school is about half a kilometer away, I walk to school and my mom accompanies me since the school is by the road and a lot of heavy trucks pass by. In case she can't take me to school my brother takes me walking or on his bicycle. What I like about school is that I can study and learn more and I can also play with my friends during school break. My favorite subject is math because I love to count.

"The backpack scholarship is important because thanks to it we can attend school with our school supplies. I know that for my mom it was very difficult to choose who to purchase school supplies and backpack to attend school, but thanks to this scholarship my brother and I can both attend school."

For just $55 each, JustHope's Backpack Scholarship program provides supplies (as determined by our local partners) stuffed into a backpack that a scholar can use throughout the year. Though JustHope is winding down our operations, we are committed to completing this important annual campaign.

Give a backpack at JustHope.org/backpacks

Dear Friends of JustHope,

The JustHope Board of Directors has come to a difficult decision. We will be ending our current operations in Nicaragua effective December 31, 2022. This also means we will be laying off our staff in both Nicaragua and the United States. With sadness and deep gratitude, we thank them for their incredible commitment and effort on behalf of our partner communities.

US and Nicaraguan partners have weathered many challenges together in the past few years. Over the past several months, fundraising has not been enough to sustain our programs for the long-term in a way that lives into our values. To best honor those values, we are choosing to act now, with deliberation and in collaboration with our Nicaraguan partners.

We are in discernment with our staff and partners in Nicaragua about how best to close out our current programs in ways that are mutual, collaborative, and honor our commitments to one another. We are committed to completing specific 2022 initiatives in Chacraseca and La Flor, including promised microcredit loans, the Truck of Hope, a cemetery for La Flor, and our annual backpack scholarship drive. We are still receiving donations for the backpack drive.

We anticipate inviting supporters to join us in a conference call in the next few months to explore possible ways to continue JustHope's mission. If you would like to stay informed of that meeting, please respond to this simple form.

In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected] if you have any questions or concerns about our current situation and decision.

Many thanks for your solidarity and support.

Miguel Ortega
Chair, Board of Directors

Urania, a student in JustHope’s University Scholarship program, has completed her coursework in Education and is on the cusp of receiving her degree. She is writing her thesis, and after she defends it, her university work will be complete.

She spends her community service hours at the Salomón Ibarra School in Chacraseca’s Boca de Cántaro sector, assisting the teacher with instruction, classroom arrangements, cleaning, and whatever else needs to be done. She gets valuable experience in her field while making an impact on her community.

In addition to pursuing her education career, Urania recently completed a course in the basics of first aid nursing. Though her dream is to teach, having some basic nursing skills increases her value to future employers, and it allows her to provide some basic care to her family. For instance, her grandmother receives daily injections for osteoporosis. Now, rather than paying a nurse to give the injections, Urania can do it herself, saving the family funds during tight economic times.

[In the photo, Urania visits with JustHope board president Miguel Ortega.]
JustHope.org/news/qn72

In October, JustHope provided funds for the "Food Bonus for families in extreme poverty” project of ACOPADES, our partners in Chacraseca. Here is what ACOPADES says about the project and the needs of this agricultural community.

The great economic crisis that has affected the country since the political crisis (2018), the pandemic, and now the war in Ukraine, has dealt severely punishing cost increases for basic inputs for our agricultural products. For example, we need two sacks of fertilizer to produce an acre of corn. Before, the cost was $20 per sack; now the price is $80 per sack.

All of the basic products have risen more than 70%. In the case of cooking oil, it used to cost $1.50; today it costs $4. Many heads of families have been sent to unemployment and production has plummeted. On top of all this, Hurricane Julia affected 60% of the remaining agricultural production. We can assure you that our community is one of the poorest in Nicaragua.

For the Food Bonus project, the subcommittee of each community sector evaluated and choose the families that most needed to acquire these food packages. The packages were delivered through the central offices of ACOPADES, overseen by General Coordinator Osmin Perez, to each sector leader so that they could make the delivery to the beneficiaries. Some elderly people who cannot walk and those sick with terminal cancer had it delivered directly to them.

Photos: Sebastian Munguia, sector leader from Mojon Sur 2, and supervisor at ACOPADES board of directors, distributes food packets.
JustHope.org/news/qn71

Patricia Jimenez is a student in JustHope’s University Scholarship program, in her first year studying English. Each student in the program gives back to the community through a volunteer placement during their years at university.

Last month, she began teaching English classes to 15 students ages 9-11, to help them succeed in their school-based English class and reinforce their learning. Abimael, JustHope's Cultural Center coordinator, asked her to take this on, as a way to connect her volunteer hours more directly to her field of study while filling a need for English enrichment among the youth. The class meets three times each week, learning and having a snack, at no cost to the students. This class will continue meeting until early December.

If Patricia’s name sounds familiar, it’s because she was involved in the Cultural Center’s music programs throughout her youth. She keeps giving back to the community and programs that formed her.
JustHope.org/news/qn70

Wilmer Antonio Morales Díaz, a teacher at Nuevo Horizonte school in Chacraseca, won this year’s competition for Best Secondary Education Teacher at the municipal and departmental levels. This award is given by the Ministry of Education to a teacher who inspires with their pedagogical practice and generates skills and competencies in their students.

Wilmer is not the only award-winning teacher in Chacraseca. In 2020, Roxana Maribel Guido Hernández won Best Primary Education Teacher at the municipal level. And in 2021, Sandra Carolina Altamirano (in the photo with principal, Ilce Moran) won Best Early Education Teacher in the municipal and departmental contests.

JustHope.org/news/qn69

Fifteen women in La Flor recently completed a class in sewing, sponsored by the municipality of San Ramón which provided the teacher and sewing machines for the duration of the course. Over the course of four months, two days a week, the women learned how to operate the machines, cut the fabric, and put it all together in the outfits seen in the photo.

With these new skills, the women are in a position to contribute even more to their household economy, through making and repairing clothes for the family or even offering their services throughout the area. That dream is closer to being fulfilled, but will still be deferred until the women are able to acquire sewing machines of their own.

Though JustHope was not a part of this sewing course, we share the women’s happiness at learning new skills, and look forward to where our partnership might take us in supporting them to fulfill their dreams.
JustHope.org/news/qn68