Project Chacocente

News from our Chacocente team!

We had a great time meeting and reconnecting with the families...toured Chacocente and got to see a lot of families growing new crops that they will be able to sell. Most of day one was working on the first classroom of the High School. All of us are doing great and thank you for your prayers! As we begin day two we arrived at Chacocente around 9 AM after the half hour drive on a dirt road...in a school bus. Today we are holding VBS for some of the children in the area as this is their summer break...they will start school in February...the beginning of their school year. Others are continuing to work on classroom one and getting ready to start putting the walls up for classroom two. It's great to watch the Miracle Offering being put to work! God is good!

Grace and Peace, VUMC 2011 Chacocente Team

Team Members:  John Shaver, Rahel Yoo, Deb Manahan, John Adam, Chelsea Ghasserani, Barry Pontius, Brian Young, David and Nancy Neill, Michelle Andrews, Kellie Wood, Taylor Wood, Catherine Stebbins, Kathleen Rutherford, Renato Romero, Jan Broneer, Rigo Rosales, Damian Jones, Mike Nibarger, and Brently Young.

For more photos:  High School, Library, At Work, At Work 2 Sign, Work Site, Work, VBS2, VBS3, VBS4, Dump, Dump2, Dump3, Dump4, Children

About Project Chacocente ...

Project Chacocente rescues families who live in the garbage dump of Managua, Nicaragua and teaches them the life skills necessary to be self-sufficient. At the city dump thousands of people scavenge for food along with vultures and stray dogs. Many of the children suffer from lead poisoning, parasites and malnutrition and if they aren’t careful will be crushed by the fast moving garbage trucks.

Project Chacocente is located in rural Masaya where the clean air and fertile soil are the perfect place for the families to heal their bodies and learn life changing skills. The families sign a contract to participate in the program for five years and when they graduate they will receive the house that they built and two acres of land.

Becoming literate is mandatory and all of the adults attempt to graduate from sixth grade and many go on to high school or vocational training. The adults learn construction and farming skills and each family opens a small business before they go out on their own. In addition, the women learn how to make crafts for the increasing tourist trade.

Nicaragua is the second poorest country in Latin America. Fifty percent of the population lives in extreme poverty which means that they don’t know if they’ll have any food today. Project Chacocente is dedicated to helping the families change their lives so that they can be a part of society again and help change the cycle of poverty.

For more information please check out the website www.outofthedump.org for more information and feel free to email or call the church office.

Below is a picture of VUMC's 2010 Chacocente Team.

UMCOR

Through our monetary contributions, our church supports the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) and missionaries in the United States and 43 countries. UMCOR works worldwide in the areas of refuge ministries, disaster response and hunger ministries.