From “Children of the Dump” to College Graduates - An American Success Story

Global American Series
24 September 2010

In 1998 a group of Rotarians traveled to Nicaragua to help deliver aid after Hurricane Mitch had devastated the country. Mitch was so huge that if it had hit Texas that there would have been hurricane force winds in Amarillo – over 500 miles from the coast! While there, they discovered eight hundred children living in a dump, even eating their meals there. That’s when the story changed from hurricane relief to something much bigger.

Today, over 90% of those children are in school. Some have graduated from high school and are in college. Some have graduated from college and are giving back to their community. How this happened is a role model of what America should be doing both inside America and in our aid to other countries.

In 1998, Nicaragua had returned to democracy, after eleven years under Communism. All of the landowners, businesses and educated people had been driven out. No one had any money or job skills. Unemployment was 75% (and we think 9.6% is bad!) But within a few years of help from Rotarians, people were building their own houses, planting gardens that led to profits and food supply on a sustainable basis.

(Keep in mind that the HAMAS charter specifically describes Rotary as an “evil” organization, which means it must be doing the right things).

In this week’s Global American radio series, I interview a key member of the Rotary team that has been involved in this project that has been an incredible success, but only because of the way it was handled.

For more details on how they made this project work in village after village – to the point that the government asked them to help it get its own projects right, tune in Saturday at 9 am to Business 1110 AM, which will be streamed online at www.Business1110KTEK.com. It will also be available online 24/7 at www.GlobalAmerican.org

Michael Fjetland
Global American Series
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