Hola amigos! Its Katelyn and Alex and we are back at it again, reporting live from Nicaragua! We enjoyed the city of Managua so much, we decided to dedicate this blog post to our time there and fill you in on all the amazing activities we completed and a few organizations that we visited. 
The LGBTQ community here in Nicaragua is small and those who choose to associate with it tend to not be accepted by society. Often times, when an individual identifies with the LGBTQ community, a community that has a very negative stigma within society, they often face a large amount of discrimination. They can also be subjected to violence, exiled from their families, or even forced to hide their true identities. While in Managua, we had the opportunity to meet with Juanita, a person who identifies as a transgendered woman, but presents a masculine physical appearance for reasons of safety. Juanita came out to her family at the early age of 11. She had a quinceañera, went to prom, and graduated high school, all with a feminine physical appearance. Over the years, she learned that her safety was at risk due to the heavy stigma surrounding the transgendered community that she is a part of. We appereciate her meeting with us and being so open while telling her story. By doing so, she has become an inspiration to us and those in her community.
Another speaker we had the opportunity to hear while in Managua, was Julio Cesar Mena. Julio was infected with HIV at the age of 17, while fighting in the revolutionary war by blood transfusion. He did not discover he was infected until over a decide later. He was also very open with us and shared his trials and tribulations. Julio gave perspective on what life is like living with HIV/AID, in a country that stigmatizes and discriminates against individuals who have the disease. For example, he told us how the people in the community will come by the organization and yell various slurs and throw trash at the building. Despite those incidents he continues to be proactive in the community and educating people on HIV/AIDS.
While in Managua, we also paid a visit to Casa Alianza, an organization that focuses on the well-being of homeless adolescents and young adults ranging from ages 13-25, that have faced violence, sexual assault, or other troubles within their family. The unique aspect of Casa Alianza is that they specifically work with teenagers that have a drug addiction. The organization provides a 3 phase program that focuses on treating the drug addiction of the teens and helping families work through tough issues. The organization accomplishes this by providing many forms of therapy, dorms for living, physical education and many other things for the teens accepted into the program. Each teenager accepted into the program works with the staff to develop a treatment plan and to discuss future goals and aspirations. This program has really helped give people another perspective on life and helped many teens unlock their full potential.
We had the chance to visit a Christian based school located in the Nueva Vida community, which is right outside of Managua. Nueva Vida is proverb shed and located next to the garbage dump. The community was developed by giving homes to individuals who were living on the dump. The school was both an elementary and high school, hosting younger students in the mornings and older students in the afternoon. Something special about this school is that they actually had a class teaching the students about the Bible, which is something that we had not seen before here in Nicaragua. While we were receiving a tour of the school, we got to participate in some unexpected service for the kids. We had the opportunity to help serve the students lunch which was an honor and so humbling!
Closing out our time in Managua, we met with Gonzalo, a general human rights activist in Nicaragua. He and his organization, CENIDH, are highly respected in the community. Often times people will report any issues to CENIDH, before reporting them to the police or other government authorities. People in Managua feel more comfortable working with CENIDH because of the amount of trust they have in the organization and how well they do their jobs. The government on the other hand, despises CENIDH. Overall, Gonzalo was a great speaker – he was funny, open, honest, and genuinely cared about or visit with his organization. He was able to paint an extraordinary picture for us about the way the government functions and explained the deeply rooted corruption that is experienced within the Nicaraguran government. Even though the government does not approve of CENIDH, they fight for the rights of so many Nicaraguran citizens. In our opinion it was a perfect way to end our time in Managua.
Stick around for blog #3 coming soon!
Hasta Luego,
Catalina y Alejandria