First Project Done!

So, finally one of the big projects that I have been working on is done! For the first 5-6 months of my service, I had been working with a colleague, writing a sexual and reproductive health manual for adolescents. The organization with which I have been working, Horizonte3000, has been educating adolescents in Madriz for the last 3 years, on topics from Self Esteem and Gender Awareness to Pregnancy Prevention, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and HIV/AIDS. The projects funding runs out as of December 31, and so in an effort to make their work more sustainable, the organization has trained some adolescents to continue as health promoters in their communities once the funds are gone and work is done.

As part of this, Horizonte wanted a health manual, with information and ideas for educational activities that could be left behind with the kids throughout the department So, we decided to write a manual that was packed full of information, but also a little bit fun. What we came up with was a manual that is full of colors and pictures and takes some of its feel from a few Latin American Teen magazines.

In the end, it was far from what I envisioned in the beginning. The ideas that I had were a bit radical for a Nicaraguan project, and so the manual isn’t nearly as much of a Teen Magazine as I had originally wanted, and there were two of us working on the content and design, so the style had to be a combination of our ideas. And after making sure that everything was perfect, the printer messed up a lot of what I had spent endless hours designing. But, given that the project started and ended in a time period when my Spanish wasn’t great, when I wasn’t yet comfortable enough with my colleagues to negotiate well and I wasn’t yet familiar with Nicargua or Madriz, I consider it a success.

Now, its time to spend some time in transition. With the coming holidays and the leaving of my primary project partners, I am pretty sure that December and January will be slow months as I again try to get some projects off the ground, working with new counterparts and new organizations. Ive just started communicating with MINED (the department of education) about a possible project with teachers and health classes in secondary school, but we are a ways from that actually happening yet. But who knows.. we will see what the new year brings in terms of work!