August 2011: Rural and urban children join forces to create a child-friendly version of the recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
Children from San Ramón, La Dalia and the urban barrios of Matagalpa are taking on the role of expert consultants to help CODENI (the Nicaraguan Coordinating Council of NGOs working with children and young people) prepare a child-friendly version of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s 97 recommendations to the government of Nicaragua. Supported by CESESMA and the Amistad Association, the children are putting together their own easier-to-understand version of the recommendations, which can be used by children and young people throughout Nicaragua in the push for compliance.

July 2011: Children and young people learn improvisation, mime and circus skills
In July 30 children and young people from five districts gathered in San Ramón for a four-day workshop run by the Nicaraguan School of Comedy and Mime from Granada. The young participants developed their skills in communication, cooperation and self-expression, and learned new skills in juggling and acrobatics. This experiential learning programme also contributed to their overall development and integrated education.

July 2010: Launch of campaign “How cool not to be sexist”
On 17 June, CESESMA, in coordination with the Masculinity Network (RedMAS), World Vision and San Ramón’s “Youth Voice” programme, launched the national campaign “¡Que Tuani no ser Machista!” (roughly translated “How cool not to be sexist”). The campaign, aimed at boys and young men from 10-15, aims to help change cultural patterns of sexism, so that boys can find ways to be men based on relations of equality and respect.

July 2011: March for the right to education, and to live without violence
Children and young people, teachers, parents and community leaders took part in a march to launch a local festival for the right to education and to live without violence in the community of La Lima in Yasica Sur district. The festival was organised by CESESMA in coordination with the Youth Voice programme and the local office of the Ministry of Education.

June 2011: Members of the CESESMA team at conference in Costa Rica
Three members of the CESESMA team, Amy Arauz, Marisol Hernández and Martha Lidia Padilla, participated in the first international conference on “Gender, feminism and diversity” organised by the Institute for Women’s Studies of the National University of Costa Rica in San José from 20 to 23 June. The experience brought them important learning, both at a personal level and in relation to their work with CESESMA, where we are seeking to increase understanding of these issues with young men and women.

June 2011: CESESMA in global project to improve evaluation of children’s participation
CESESMA is participating in an international project coordinated by Save the Children UK to develop and field-test a new framework for the monitoring and evaluation of children and young people’s participation. Representatives of the 14 organisations who will be participating in the pilot programme met in Nairobi in June to launch the project. The project partners include 12 African and Asian projects, with Latin America represented by CESESMA y Plan Guatemala.

June 2011: Child consultants train teachers on action-research
Young consultants from Samulalí and La Dalia reversed the usual scheme of things when they gave expert presentations to the teachers on CESESMA’s “Safe Quality Schools” diploma course in San Ramón and La Dalia. The young people were invited to teach the teachers about “Action-research form the child’s perspective”. Officers of Save the Children Nicaragua and CESESMA’s management team also attended the children’s presentation and declared themselves impressed by the young people’s expertise.

June 2011: Children and young people celebrate International Children’s Day
Children and young people from rural and urban communities of San Ramón joined in a march and cultural festival to celebrate International Children’s Day on 1st June. After a parade through the streets of San Ramón, they gathered in the town’s sports centre for a Municipal Festival of Children’s Rights, with games, competitions, cultural and artistic activities.

May 2011: CESESMA team learns about prevention of corporal punishment and treating children with respect
All the CESESMA team participated in a four-day workshop on treating children and young people with respect, with emphasis on the alternatives to physical and humiliating punishments. Corporal punishment is already banned in schools in Nicaragua, but in many homes the “hit them so they’ll learn their lesson” attitude can still be found. Because of this, understanding and actively promoting alternatives is a priority for the CESESMA team, most of whom are parents ourselves.

May 2011: International research report acknowledges the contribution of child researchers from Samulalí
The Netherlands-based Bernard Van Leer Foundation has published the important global research study “Children’s right to play: An examination of the importance of play in the lives of children worldwide” (available in both English and Spanish from the Foundation’s website by clicking here). The only children to be Included amongst the international experts on the topic acknowledged in the report are the child researchers from Samulalí who investigated the right to play in their community in 2009.

April 2011: Teacher training in Waslala and Rancho Grande
Thirty-one teachers from Rancho Grande and Waslala districts are participating in a training course on “The active role of the child in his or her learning” organised by CESESMA. The aim of the course is to help teachers recognise and respect the child as an active subject in his or her own learning, using this awareness to change the nature of relationships between teachers and learners in the classroom.

April 2011: Children and young people share experiences in “Right to Play” forum
More than 40 child researchers from three districts gathered in San Ramón in April, supported by six teenage promotores/as to take part in Nicaragua’s first children’s forum on the right to play. They shared their experiences of researching this topic last year, and analysed the factors that prevent them enjoying this right. These included negative attitudes of adults, including their own parents, the heavy burden of farm work, domestic work and school work, and discrimination against girls. They went home keen to share what they had learnt with other children in their villages, and to try and make parents and teachers more aware of the importance of play for children’s healthy development.

May 2011: CESESMA launches new project to promote child workers’ participation in the prevention of economic exploitation
This new Project, supported by Save the Children Nicaragua, aims to support child and adolescent workers in exercising their right to participate as citizens, so they can transform the reality of their lives and gain access to decent jobs without risk to their health or development. CESESMA will carry out the project from 2011 until 2016 in fifteen communities in the districts of Tuma-La Dalia and Rancho Grande.

April 2011: Young men and women carry out appraisals of attitudes on sexual and reproductive rights
Young promotores who have been participating in CESESMA’s Masculinity programme and promotoras from the girls’ and young women’s groups took part in separate workshops in Matagalpa to develop attitude appraisals on sexual and reproductive rights and related action plans from their respective gender perspectives. CESESMA is now reviewing the results with a view to integrating the young people’s ideas and proposals into our ongoing work with young men and women on these topics.

March 2011: New courses for promotores/as on sustainable agriculture and food security
This year CESESMA is running two training programmes for young promotores/as on sustainable agriculture and food security in El Tuma-La Dalia. In our Casas Blancas Community Learning Centre the 24 young people who completed last year’s course are participating in a second year of training to further develop their knowledge and skills and strengthen their role as local community education volunteers. At the same time we are launching a new course with 24 primary school students from communities in the Peñas Blancas Natural Reserve protected area, who will share their knowledge and practical skills to promote environmentally-friendly agriculture in five schools in this area.

March 2011: CESESMA’s new diploma for teachers accredited by University of the North of Nicaragua
CESESMA’s new diploma course “Safe quality schools through children and young people exercising their citizenship” started in March. The course, which aims to help rural primary teachers develop and implement a model of safe quality schools, improving the quality of education using a human-rights-based approach, is accredited by the University of the North of Nicaragua (UNN). There are two courses, one in La Dalia supported by Save the Children, and one in San Ramón supported by the Irish Catholic Development Agency, Trócaire, with 26 local teachers participating in each course.

March 2011: CESESMA and Save the Children develop a new approach to training on children’s participation
CESESMA is working in partnership with Save the Children Nicaragua to develop a new training programme for adults working with children and young people. The project, “Participation of Children and Young People in the Real World”, is in the pilot phase, with short courses facilitated by CESESMA in Managua, La Dalia and San Ramón.

March 2011: Teachers’ manuals on health and environmental education now on-line
CESESMA’s primary teacher’s manuals on health and environmental education are available for the first time in PDF format. They provide ideas and resources for educators to work on these subjects with children in or out of school, promoting active learning and participation in the classroom.

All five can be downloaded from our Document Centre (Spanish only)

Welcome to new members of the CESESMA team

Julio Cesar Escobar Álvarez

Originally from Managua, came to CESESMA in 2011 as driver of one of our pickup trucks.

Juan Carlos Granados

Lives in the community of Santa Carmela, El Tuma-La Dalia, and since 2011 runs CESESMA's "New Opportunities for Educational Participation" project in El Tuma-La Dalia. Juan Carlos is completing his final year of secondary school at the Saturday school at the Secondary Institute in El Tuma.