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Nicaraguan Sister delegates leave their mark

by Laren Rusin

There's a saying that if you're in Nicuragua for a week, you can write a novel. If you're there for a year, you can write a page. Over Winter Term six Oberlin students went to Nicuragua as delegates of the Nicuraguan Sister Collective to learn about the Oberlin Student Co-operative Association's (OSCA) sister co-op, to whom the organization regularly gives money. While they might not return to Nicaragua themselves, one of the student's post-trip goals is to make the program continue for others.

With funding from OSCA, the Student Finance Committee, the President's office and private sources, the students went to observe and participate in the Nicaraguan cooperative life, which is different from that in America.

The main municipality is in Limay, and 13 smaller collectives are based in smaller communities. Students stayed with families and met the people OSCA gives money to.

OSCA gives money to a rotating loan fund run by the women's section of UNAC (National Union of Agricultural Workers and Cattle Ranchers), which helps fund the collectives.

Senior Matt Yarrow, sophomore Rachel Dannefer, sophomore Rachael Keast, first-year Claudia VonVacano, sophomore Jesse Robinson and sophomore Magda Gianola went after applying last spring. Knowledge of Spanish was a requirement, although fluency was not.

All who went consider exchange programs important learning experiences. "First-hand experience is crucial in understanding a different place," Yarrow said.

This was the fifth delegation from Oberlin to go to Nicuragua, but it's not an annual affair. Last year, two women from the Nicuraguan collective came here. Gianola said that a couple of the members swam in a river where legend says that if one swims in it, they will return.

The group went to four locations in Nicuragua. The first two weeks of Winter Term were spent in the capital of Managua learning about different issues important to the country. There the group formed a "diagnostico" to get a general idea of how the communities were doing and what their concerns were. The delegates then wrote up an evaluation to give to the women's section the UNAC.

"It was an evaluation of the program as we saw it," Keast said.

They also visited some experimental farms that practiced alternative methods of agriculture such as hydroponic.

The coops and collectives are different than those in the United States. "There's no assumed ideology," said Gianola. "It's more personal and essential." Members of collectives don't live and eat together, but they receive financial independence. They also get the opportunity to take part in the collective-run programs and meet other women.

"It's survival oriented," said Dannefer. "[The collectives] have a much bigger impact on these women's lives."

Nicuraguan cooperatives are recognized by the government and get financial support, tax breaks and seats on government councils. Collectives are more informal, but easier to form.

There are two different loan programs for collective members, one to give loans for families to buy chickens, the other to buy cows. These loan programs are the only way for women to receive credit that they couldn't otherwise obtain.

"Being organized into a collective allows families to buy a cow, or a chicken," said Dannefer. Main ideas behind the collective are that a group of people are more powerful than a single person. The collective, acting as a credit union, allows for women to be financially independent and gives them a sense of confidence and self esteem.

Many of the women's male partners did not encourage their joining, but the collectives have gained greater acceptance among the men. Contrary to what some expected, the collectives are not feminist in nature. Women and men still play traditional gender roles.

Many members showed their appreciation of the delegates' visit, but Gianola said the group got the impression that "the communities changed face to recieve us." Delegates said that they were served food that the members could not normally afford, and they had two dance parties for the group. "It was hard to camouflage ourselves," said Yarrow.

Before they left the main collective in Limay the delegates and the members worked together to make a mural. "We debated over whether to do it," said Robinson. "We didn't want to impose."

Members of the collective were involved as a couple of the adults helped with the design, and a sculptor in the collective was one of the painters.

VonVacano and the group took videos and photographs as tangible things to bring back to Oberlin. Though they still have a lot of planning to do, they want to give talks about their experiences and make at least two videos, one in English, one in Spanish. "It's kind of our goal that this type of thing be continued," said Keast.


Photo:
During Winter Term, Oberlin students took the month opportunity to learn about an existence unlike their own. While acting as delegates to the Nicaraguan Sister Collective they learned about the collective way of life in Limay, Nicaragua, which was different than American collective and cooperative organizations. As an after-trip project, the delegates plan on giving a series of talks about their trip, as well as writing about it and making videotapes in both Spanish and English about the collective.

(Clockwise from top): photo one: Rachael Keast helps prepare a meal. Unlike many coops in America, members of the sister collective did not live together and share meals. photo two: Rachael Keast, Rachel Dannefer and Jesse Robinson (right) pose with one of the children of a women's collective member. Each Oberlin student lived with a collective member family. photo three: Community members helped with the mural that the delegates and community designed as a reminder of their visit.

(Photos courtesy of Rachel Dannefer)


Oberlin

Copyright © 1997, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 13; Febrauary 7, 1997

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