The ‘Trees for Life’ project at the school in El Pochote, Masaya

Masaya is a mid-sized city in the Central American country of Nicaragua, and is a lively place famous for its folklore and handicrafts.  Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, and although Masaya is one of the most prosperous (or least poor) parts of the country the rural area surrounding it has many varied needs.

In the UK, the Leicester Masaya Link Group (LMLG) works to promote links between the two cities (and the two countries), to help towards sustainable development in Masaya and to use the experience of the group’s 25-year link in providing development education in the Leicester area.

In Masaya, a local NGO called ADIC (Asociación de Desarrollo Integral y Comunitario) has a range of projects, mainly in the rural areas, some of which LMLG supports and on which I work voluntarily.

During 2014, the active projects are:

• Proyecto Sol which installs solar electricity for farming households remote from the electricity grid
• Vista Alegre, which works with small farms around the edge of the Masaya lagoon to develop organic farming practices
• Agrosolar, a project financed by the British Embassy to install a solar-powered irrigation system for eight farming families in El Timal.

The Vista Alegre project is financed jointly with our sister organisation in Nijmegen in the Netherlands, which is also twinned with Masaya. You can read about their work here.

Up-to-date posts on all the projects appear on these pages.

Bulletins on earlier projects can be found on the LMLG project pages.  Inside Housing had a feature article and photos about Proyecto Sol in 2009 which explains the background.

If you would like to donate to the project work, you can do so here.