This past Sunday, November 27th, MOJUV, Cantera's youth movement in Ciudad Sandino, organized and celebrated their annual “Dia de Convivencia,” or Day of Fellowship. Held in Ciuadad Sandino's main plaza, the all-day event attracted crowds who came to watch and participate in the day's activities. With the theme, “I can, should, and want to make the difference to say no violence,” MOJUV organized the activities around statistics and information about youth violence and violence against women that were shared throughout the day. 
The event was full of music, dancing, karate and judo exhibitions, and soccer tournaments, all based around the theme of non-violence. Youth from other Cantera community centers in Managua participated as well as other youth organizations in Ciudad Sandino and, CJN, the Nicaraguan Youth Council, which works with youth movements on a national level. MOJUV, which recognizes the importance of communal sharing and uses their many expression groups as alternatives to violence, were very happy with the events and activities of the day. 
The event lasted the entire day with participants from ages 4 to 20 competing in different sparring and technique competitions. In the end, Kay-Kempo Cantera Ciudad Sandino won the tournament in almost all age brackets for both males and females. We are very proud of our Karate school here at Cantera, for their hard work and sportsmanship. 
This past month Ciudad Sandino Cantera's youth movement, MOJUV, organized their 7th Annual Forum on HIV/AIDS in the municipality. The event was held at the mayor's office in Ciudad Sandino with the participation of 10 other youth and/or health organizations in the community as well as students from different schools around the area. The event was full of different speakers, videos, group discussions, and private HIV testing.
The event is a big deal for MOJUV because it is an opportunity to work with many different organizations and institutions within Ciudad Sandino to organize on a municipal level. The event is also important because HIV/AIDS is a growing situation not only in the community but specifically amongst the youth populations here. MOJUV works to organize themselves around important causes that affect them as youth and their community and be agents of change in their reality. 
A major thank you to Saint Joseph's Academy and all of the students, families, and staff that helped bring the girls to Nicaragua and who continue to grow in their friendships with Cantera and Cantera youth!
Kay Kempo Cantera currently trains 135 children, adolescents, and teens in karate and many important life skills like self-discipline, leadership, and gender equality. These values are, for them and for Cantera, essential to personal and communal growth as well as co-existing with the earth and with others. To learn more about the Cantera's Karate School, check them out on facebook under Escuela Nicaraguense Kay Kempo. 
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. 
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'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 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. 
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.
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. 