Cantera theater group performs at National Theater Festival

This past weekend, November 27-28^th, one of Cantera’s four theater groups in Ciudad Sandino, Panico de Risa (Laugh Attack), performed at the 13^th annual National Popular Theater Festival. The festival, which was put on by MOVITEP-SF (Popular Theater Movement Without Borders), brought 20 popular theater groups from around the country to perform in Matagalpa, a city near central Nicaragua. Popular Theater (or Theater of the Oppressed) is a type of performing that reveals an important social message according the reality of the audience in order to create a space for critical thinking and dialogue. Often times, popular theater groups will create their own plays based on a social justice issue like gender inequality or environmental destruction and perform in the streets so that everyone can have access to seeing and discussing them.

At this year’s festival, Panico de Risa, Cantera’s adult theater group, performed a self-written and directed play on the importance of recycling and taking care of the environment. The performance was received very well amongst fellow actors, organizers, and the communities of Matagalpa.

Cantera hosts IV annual Youth Gathering

On Sunday, November 21, Cantera Community Center in Ciudad Sandino hosted its fourth annual Convivencia de Jovenes (youth gathering) with the slogan, “I can and should make the difference to say no to violence.”  Every year, Cantera youth programs gather together in Ciudad Sandino for a day of expression, celebration, and formation. Coordinated and hosted by youth, the conviviencia creates a space for all Cantera expression groups to share their talents while joining together to discuss violence and create a culture of peace.

This year, youth from 4 Cantera community centers filled Ciudad Sandino’s main plaza to enjoy the day’s events of soccer, dance, karate, live music and theater. The day started with a soccer tournament for both men and women’s teams and ended with a concert put on by Cantera bands with all different styles of music. In between, the stage filled with spectators watching karate exhibitions, theatrical performances written, directed, and acted out by youth, and the many dance groups that performed folklore, Caribbean dances, and break dance. Emceed and run by Cantera Ciudad Sandino and MOJUV youth, the event’s theme of nonviolence and creating a culture of peace was a focal point of the day.

Cantera hosts 3rd Annual Cultural and Dance Festival

On Sunday, October 17^th, Cantera's dance program organized, hosted, and performed in the 3^rd Annual Cultural and Dance Festival, with the slogan, “Three years of galas and we continue leaving footprints on our culture. ” Dance performances ranged from traditional folklore to breakdance, including salsa, hip hop, and traditional dances from the Atlantic Coast, which have strong Caribbean and garifuna influences and roots. All of Cantera's dance groups as well as other local dance groups performed to a full audience in Ciudad Sandino's main plaza.

Cantera's dance program is run by Gema Gonzales, 30, who offers dance classes to children, teens, and adults, along with dance teachers Ali Calero, 21, and Marlon Saenz, 20. All three dance teachers began their dance careers at Cantera, learning at early ages and growing with the Cantera programs to begin their own dance groups. Cantera's dance program is rooted in Nicaraguan culture through the art of dance as well as promoting values like self-esteem, gender equality, and non-violent communication.  

Cantera hosts Ciudad Sandino's first annual Youth Concert

Celebrating the declaration of Ciudad Sandino as a municipality of and for youth, Cantera and MOJUV organized Ciudad Sandino's first youth concert with dance and music performed by Ciudad Sandino youth. With “Our voice can be heard” as the theme, more than 1,000 teens and young adults participated in the event as performers and/or spectators. Concert performances ranged from Nicaraguan folklore dance and music to breakdance, rock and reggeton bands. Many of the bands performed their own music, including music with social themes on gender and HIV/AIDS.

Among the participants were cabinet members of the mayor's office, who came to support their promises of making Ciudad Sandino a municipality for youth. Cantera, MOJUV, and many other organizations in Ciudad Sandino have been working together to encourage Ciudad Sandino's government to think and act more critically on the reality and rights of youth, teens, and young adults in the city. After months of work, a declaration from the mayor's office was created in which youth will have more participation in local government. Celebrating the declaration and taking the first steps of youth activism, the youth concert brought together teens and young adults from all different backgrounds, joining to better their municipality. Cantera believes in the strength and potential in youth, and that their participation is vital to maintaining a healthy and active municipality.

Below is a slideshow made by Cantera's communications team. Though it is in spanish, flip through to find great photos from the event!

Celebración DCSMJ

Cantera Karate School hosts and wins tournament

On Sunday, September 5, Cantera's Karate School, Kay-Kempo, hosted the second annual Karate-do National Championship with the theme as, “In order to have a better future, we must prepare ourselves today.” Using the basketball court of a local school, 7 Karate schools from all over Nicaragua participated, showing their skills to a crowd of about 500 people. With many MOJUV members helping to run the event, familes and friends came to watch Karate practiced by all ages, with both male and female categories for children, youth, teens and adults.

In the end, Kay-Kempo Cantera Ciudad Sandino won the tournament with 31 medals (second place coming in with 15), with 12 gold, 11 silver, and 8 bronze.

Along with Cantera's Karate school showing off their talents were three Cantera dance groups, performing dances for the crowd that ranged from traditional folklore to breakdance. Below you can find a slideshow about the event made by Cantera's communications team with tons of great photos from the event!

Cantera Karate School

Celebrating International Day of People with Disabilities

Yesterday, August 23, Cantera celebrated International Day of People with Disabilities (August 25) at El Guis, a home here in Ciudad Sandino for people with mental and physical disabilities. With spaces for music and dance, drawing and painting, and piñata-making, organizations, families, and friends came together to celebrate the creativity of disabled persons. 

Specifically, Mojuv, Cantera's youth movement here in Ciudad Sandino, organized the music area, bringing percussion instruments and a sound system and celebrating the day through music and dance. While children, teens and adults were given the opportunity to create rhythms with the instruments and participate in the many activities offered, families and friends of these disabled persons were able to celebrate their forms of expression and stand in solidarity with them.

The World Health Organization defines “disability” as “an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. An impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations.”*

Cantera will be acknowledging and reflecting on International Day of People with Disabilities throughout the week, celebrating the diversity of humanity and pushing to give disabled persons more rights within society. We here in Ciudad Sandino encourage our friends in different parts of the world to observe and celebrate International Day of Persons with Disabilities with us.

*http://www.who.int/topics/disabilities/en/

Flooding Crisis in Ciudad Sandino, August 19 and 20th

Heavy rains in Ciudad Sandino this week have caused a lot of destruction, and several families have lost their homes.  Members of our Youth Movement and Communications Team created this slideshow, which contains more information on the situation:
Afectacion Por Lluvias en Ciudad Sandino

Cantera hosts second annual Theater Festival

This past Sunday, August 8, Cantera hosted the second annual Theater Festival here in Ciudad Sandino. With five groups participating from Cantera and Movitep in Managua, the audience of around 250 enjoyed performances, written and performed by the groups themselves, on different themes such as adolescent pregnancy and sexual health, HIV/AIDS awareness, and the environment. People of all ages participated in the festival, whether performing or watching, with theater groups comprised of children, adolescents, teens, and adults.

The Theater Festival at Cantera and the groups that perform are based around Popular Theater, or Theater of the Oppressed, a methodology that uses theater as a means of delivering social messages to the audience according to their specific reality and creating a space for critical thinking, reflection, and dialogue.

 

Mural for a Clean, Green, Community

This week, we are finishing up the mural about environmental protection, and a clean and green municipality. The green part in the center is a map of Ciudad Sandino, with a recycling symbol, surrounded by some animals native to the region. The message of the mural is that together, we can live in harmony with nature and save our community. When we protect the environment, we promote our own well-being, and the well-being of future generations.

Creating Spaces for Personal Growth

Crecimiento Personal (Personal Growth) is a space created for each expression group at Cantera (theater, music, dance, environmental brigades, and the communications team) where members come together monthly to reflect, dialogue, and share different parts of their reality. In these spaces, youth and children share a common ground where they reflect on their reality, participate in activities that encourage critical thinking, and discuss different themes like self-esteem, sexuality and gender equality, and non-violence.

Cantera offers the youth of Ciudad Sandino courses in different forms of expression that include music, dance, theater, karate, an environmental group and a communications group. Within each group is the potential for youth to participate, learn a skill, and begin to realize their own potential. Following the popular education methodology of Paulo Freire, Crecimiento Personal offers the youth of these expression groups a space to reflect on their lived-reality, analyze root-causes of problems in their reality, and find ways to create change and social justice in an empowering way.

This photo is from a recent Personal Growth space with children, facilitated by Anabell (R) and Oscar of the Technical Team of the center here and Jesuit Volunteer, Lauren (L).  The focus of the session was on identifying positive values the children hope to live out.

What's Your Ecological Footprint?

With the Youth Movement in recent weeks, we've had workshops with youth leaders to talk about how we can best educate others in the community about preserving the environment by correctly disposing of trash. Trash dumping in Ciudad Sandino, and Nicaragua in general, is a big problem. Many people burn trash, which contributes to air pollution and public health issues, or dump trash into water.

Many visitors to Nicaragua are appalled to see people throw plastic bags out of buses or cans on the ground--a problem that desperately needs to be addressed, and which some groups, including the Youth Movement are working to change.

In other countries, like the U.S., sometimes pollution is less visible (less trash on the streets in many places), but the overall environmental impact of people's lifestyles are much greater.  If everyone were to live like the average American, we would need more than 4 worlds to support us all!  If we all lived like the average Nicaraguan, we would need less than 0.21 worlds!

The Youth Movement is concerned with lessening our ecological footprint, to preserve the plant for the future.

What's your ecological footprint?  How can you make changes in your life to live more sustainably?

Take a short quiz to check our your Ecological Footprint

And see some Tips on How to Reduce your Ecological Footprint 

Nicaragua: Facts at a Glance, from Witness for Peace (2008)

Nica at a Glance 2008

Visits from St. Joseph Academy in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

This past month, we've had the pleasure of hosting three delegations from St. Joseph's Academy, a Catholic girl's school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  The school is affiliated with the Sisters of Saint Joseph, of which Sister Dianne Fanguy (who has accompanied us in Ciudad Sandino for over 16 years) is a member.  Sister Dianne is currently part of the national team of Cantera, and was guide for the delegations during their time here in Nicaragua.

Two of the groups from St. Joseph's focused on learning about the reality and history of Nicaragua, witnessing community-led efforts in Ciudad Sandino and other territories of Cantera, and having interchanges with members of the Youth Movement to learn from one another.  The girls used the opportunity to reflect on their lives in the U.S. and changes they can make to live more sustainably in the U.S. and work for a more peaceful and just world.

One of the groups was from the Technology Department, and brought donations of laptops, cameras, and technical equipment for use in training youth for their personal growth in new skills (and skills that can help them to find jobs in the future, or have greater access to educational tools), and for use in the Communication's Team's projects of community organizing and education.  The girls, several of whom are technical experts in computers, taught youth how to dismantle, fix, and reassemble laptops, helped research useful tools for this blog and social networking, among other things.  The youth were very excited to learn new skills, and look forward to learning more in the future!

We are very grateful for all of the groups' friendship, willingness to learn from our reality and share their hopes and dreams with us, and for their solidarity.  As several of the Youth Movement expressed, even though you are all far away, you are in our hearts and welcomed back any time!

Environment Week 2010

Fourth Annual Environmental March, 2010

For a Green, Clean, and Healthy Municipality!

Sunday, June 6th, we held the fourth annual Environmental March in Ciudad Sandino.  More than 300 people participated with the Youth Movement, including representatives from other community organizations, the local police and municipal government.  We encouraged people in the local community to conserve natural resources, to dispose of trash properly, and that it is up to everyone to protect the environment.

Public Demonstration for the Environment

Nicaragua with a Green Heart: Let's Recycle, Conserve, Plant, Care for and Protect the Environment! 

June 4th, we held a demonstration to promote environmental protection along with youth from San Judas, Jorge Demitrov, and Mateare (the other urban communities supported by Cantera).  More than 300 young people participated in the campaign to raise awareness of the need to build better habits of environmental conservation, held down town in Managua at the Rotunda de Metrocentro, a commercial center.

Community Environmental Clean-up Campaign 

May 29th, 50 members of the Youth Movement participated in an environmental clean-up campaign in Ciudad Sandino around the Cantera Center to demonstrate the necessity of citizens coming together to improve the community and protect public health and natural resources.