I enjoyed hearing about Michael Boudreau’s involvement for Compas de Nicaragua in class. He seemed very happy with the work he did and was passionate about the mission statement of Compas: to promote cultural exchange and improve lives through service learning trips and sustainable community development. It was interesting listening to him about some of the obstacles that Compas de Nicaragua faces and their efforts to overcome them.
One of the obstacles that they face that is highly relevant to my own research in this class relates to the difficulty of securing money to fund their projects. He spoke about how Compas has supported micro-loans with small interest. Many of the projects he described seem like strong and worthy candidates of microfinance. These micro-loans allow individuals to invest in themselves and their communities. Not only do these transactions generate economic growth in the region, but they demonstrate positive social proof to the rest of the community. When people have the opportunity to take the initiative to improve their well being on their own accord, their example has a positive impact on any observers. Positive change creates benefits that cannot be measured by the economic bottom line and Compas de Nicaragua and the work the Michael does encourages this beneficial process.
I also enjoyed hearing about the measures that Compas has taken to reduce the effects of climate change. Their reforestation efforts involving Maya Nut trees are very beneficial to the community and the environment. I also liked learning about the diversification of crops and the variety that the plant” corn, yucca, plantains, beans, wheat, and rice. It was also interesting to hear about the organic coffee and the economic benefit of the sale of this coffee to the farmers in the area. Compas sells this coffee at a high price to the US for a profit. This is one of the positive effects of globalization. Free trade is vital to many countries’ economies and citizens should fight, now more than ever in light of the recent election, to keep trade among countries open and advantageous to all.
Overall, I believe the efforts on behalf of the service-learning organizations in Nicaragua and the ones that our class has interacted with generate a net benefit for society. People make arguments sometimes that these international service organizations causes more harm to the communities that they try to help, but I believe that, at least in the examples from this class, these organizations help the communities they are a part of.
