ICS-E Placement Summer 2014

Joanna Furtado

Brief Introduction I was working between 3

communities just outside of Estelí, a town in the north of Nicaragua. They were all rural and relied on agriculture (mostly crops of maize and beans) for their income.

I was living with a wonderful host family. My host mother, Mirna, is a single mother who works as a seamstress to earn her living. She has 3 children who still live at home- Alvaro, Dayana and Antonio. I am still in touch with the family, who made me feel so welcome.

My Nicaraguan counterpart My Nicaraguan counterpart is called César. He is a trained

photographer, and used to work for a newspaper. He wants to start his own media business, to overcome some of the political barriers he has in Nicaragua, and gained many useful skills for this from his ICS placement.

He became like a brother to me! We still talk all the time on Facebook and WhatsApp.

What did I do on my ICS-E placement? Create, develop, and deliver a 10 week

course on business and leadership to young people in the community.

Help young people to create business plans to pitch to partner charities for funding

Find mentors Work with the community on action and

awareness days, and help to organise youth forums

Carry out market research This is only this phase: in next phase the

volunteers are helping to make the business plans a reality…!

An example project My favourite business was with Oscar, a young entrepreneur who

wanted to start a chicken farm, which sold both eggs and chicken meat- foods which are only eaten sparingly in these communities as there is a lack of supply. He created a plan for 60 chickens, including infrastructure and budget.

Oscar was very hard working, and already knew a lot about chicken care from prior experience, and was also a well-liked member of the community.

He called his business ‘Don Pollo’ (Mr Chicken).

How ICS-E helps YOU

A LOT of transferable skills, even if you aren’t interested in business:

Teamwork and leadership Creativity and problem solving Hard work/ working under pressure Communication skills and cross cultural awareness Interest in the world and international development Events management- both in the community and for your action at

home Public speaking and teaching Language skills Business skills

My highlight of the 10 weeks

Community awareness day on rubbish- we had the whole community turn up! We played lots of games, a sociodrama, some Nicaraguan traditional food, lots of dancing, laughing and some education too!