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Let me answer that again. You probably have seen it.
Wisconsin/Nicaragua Partners of the Americas is a not-for-profit, non-political organization working to enhance
quality of life in both Wisconsin and Nicaragua, by people-to-people programs promoting cultural awareness and sustainable community development
Yes, they do actually work. And at the beginning when you say that we are a partner to partner organization.
In order for us to function we need to get cities that are willing to be involved with us in both countries and in both states, in Nicaragua and Wisconsin.
And the only way that we make that happen is by working together and that’s why I think, working together we make a difference.
And we have to feel that we are actually making a difference. The only that we do see that we are making a difference is not necessarily by us going to any city and have a new projects;
but we want to build relationships, and that’s what Partners are. We are building relationships with the idea that at some point these cities are going to become self-sufficient.
We are heading towards that it will be a never ending project
Going back again, to the 10 percent, which is a really important point. I mean, as Lucy said, this may not be popular. But it is something that people need to be aware of.
Definitely, in order for us to do anything, they are our expenses and the expenses have to be clear to people. Especially when people are giving us money.
They need to know that a part of the money they give, we have to take some money off. Not because we are taking that off as benefits
but to support what we do, and we understand the projects are what is important for them. If you can move on to the next slide:
We do activities year around. WE do have a lot of challenges. The biggest challenge that we have, like everyone else, is raising funds.
And we need those funds so that we can implement projects. And the projects, as you can see, we try to get as much funds as we can for the partner cities involved.
As you can see that we link this by the Bike and Hike with Nicaragua as well. We link people here and down in Nicaragua, which is 2300 miles apart, the distance between Wisconsin and Nicaragua.
We created this event to create awareness and at the same time, to build funds. We also had to involve our communities back in Nicaragua to give them the opportunity to donate money.
It is not just the North giving to the south, but also, as I mentioned in the beginning, it is in order to create self-sustaining projects.
These opportunities will allow them to be able to do things as well, with our help and their help.
We have to find sponsors, and we do that in any way we can. Getting sponsors is also a way to get components for activities such as the golf activity.
This is a way for people who don’t know a lot about Nicaragua to get involved. We also have a number of sponsors in Wisconsin and also in Nicaragua.
As you can see, Wisconsin/Nicaragua Compañeros send students. We had to get the school involved. This helped raise funds and get more people to know about it.
Again, the way to create awareness it is very important to get people involved. Because if you just put together a show, it doesn’t create the numbers we are looking for.
Sometimes even the people down there, as we talked about, the partnerships have to be involved. Even sometimes when they can’t raise money.
It is not necessarily about how much money they can raise, but also to create a sense of ownership in the cities and communities that we go.
Again, it’s not the idea that we go to the south and give them what they need when they ask, but they have to be involved.
And the youth dress the same as they do in Nicaragua. Youth, schools, they have the same needs and the same wants.
By doing this, we create cultural activities, and this is one of them. They have the shirts. As you can see, they feel proud of it as well and they become involved.
This is ownership, they take care of some of the financial needs that the project has. there is a picture of some of the students involved.
And those students that you can see there, when you talk about building relationships, these students are able to participate not just in this event but in other events.
Often times when we go down there we need youth to help us with translations and other logistics about the project and they become involved.
And they like it because they also want to have a sense of ownership and be able to learn about the world outside of Nicaragua. Next..
And here we go. That is Judy, nice picture. We try to use the media as much as we can to make sure that we are going to get exposure.
This is one of the prizes, a bicycle, for one of the participants in the bike and Hike program. Exposure is very important.