The Friends of CESESMA Charity, Ireland and Great Britain

What is the “Friends of CESESMA”?

“Friends of CESESMA” is a recognised charity formed as a limited company with its office in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The charity is registered directly with HM Revenue and Customs for tax purposes, pending the establishment of the new Northern Ireland Charities Commission in 2010 (Click here for information on the new NI Charities Commission). Friends of CESESMA was officially launched in Belfast on 13th May 2008.

The role of the Friends of CESESMA charity is simple:

• To receive donations from friends and supporters;

• In the case of UK donors, to claim Gift Aid tax relief on these, thus increasing their value by 28% (i.e. if you give £100, CESESMA will receive £128);

• About twice a year to wire the accumulated balance directly to CESESMA in Nicaragua, with maximum efficiency and minimum cost.

The administration of the charity is handled by chartered accountants Cleaver Black, who are waiving their normal professional fees, so we can guarantee that administration costs will be kept to an absolute minimum.

How to make a donation

Cheques payable to Friends of CESESMA, in either Sterling or Euro can be sent to:

Friends of CESESMA
Cleaver Black
Suite 5 Ormeau House
91-97 Ormeau Road
Belfast BT7 1SH

Donations in Sterling can also be paid direct to our account by internet or telephone banking:

Bank: Ulster Bank
Sort Code: 98-00-60
Account name: Friends of CESESMA
Account number: 10175784

If you are a UK taxpayer, please print out and fill in our Gift Aid declaration and send it with your donation so that we can claim tax relief.

Click here to download the Gift Aid form 

Please think about making a regular payment by standing order. You can use a single Gift Aid form to cover all donations until further notice.

And finally, don’t forget that every Pound or Euro you donate buys about five times as much in Nicaragua as it does in Britain or Ireland (with tax relief, six times as much). That makes it a very effective way to help. Remember also that CESESMA’s work is not about giving handouts to the needy. What we do is help them organise to defend their rights, leading to a better life for themselves and their families, and to the sustainable development of Nicaragua’s rural communities.

Friends of CESESMA is a charity registered in Northern Ireland, No. XT8739.

The Right to Play in Nicaragua

Friends of CESESMA’s first public appeal, “The Right to Play in Nicaragua”, was launched in December 2008, in partnership with Common Threads Consultancy and “Playwords” magazine

We chose this project because when we talk with children about the rights that they feel are important to them, the right to play and recreation always appears high on the list. But it doesn’t seem to interest the adults who make the decisions, either in local government or the voluntary sector. Health, education, food, prevention of violence, sexual abuse and HIV are all high priorities for the development programmes and aid agencies that operate here. But no one identifies the right to play as a priority for Nicaragua’s children, and we believe it is time they did.

There are tough barriers that deny the right to play to many Nicaraguan children. The first of these is the need for children to work. With most children in the area working on the coffee plantations from the age of six or seven, and also trying to find time to go to school, play-time is limited or non-existent.

Another big obstacle is adult attitudes. Very few parents recognise play as important for their children’s development. None recognise it as a right. Parents generally hold that children should be working or studying, and that playing is just time-wasting and causing trouble.

Finally, to paint a true picture of children’s play in Nicaragua, the issue of gender can’t be ignored. Boys have more free time and fewer restrictions than girls. This is because of a culture that assigns traditional gender roles to boys and girls (we call it “machismo”). Girls are expected to work in the house while their brothers go out to play, and girls are considered more vulnerable to sexual harassment and abuse when they stray too far from home. So defending the right to play in Nicaragua must start with a gender equality focus.

To read more, click here to download Harry Shier’s article “The Right to Play in Nicaragua” from Playwords.

Join the Friends of CESESMA mailing list

We maintain a “Friends of CESESMA” e-mail list. If your e-mail address is on the list, we’ll keep you up-to-date with news about CESESMA in Nicaragua, and the Friends of CESESMA charity in the UK and Ireland. Generally news will be posted on the CESESMA web-site, and we will alert our Friends whenever this happens.

The Friends of CESESMA e-mail list will not be shared or used for other purposes.

To join the list just e-mail harryshier@hotmail.com and ask me to add your email address to the list. To remove your e-mail from the list, do the opposite.