My Nonprofit Reviews

I will always remember with fondness my first encounter with the Hester J Hodgdon Libraries For All Program in San Juan del Sur. For our first visit to that town, friends of ours in our hometown of Newton, MA, had recommended we stay at the Hotel Villa Isabel. Of course soon after arriving to the hotel we met Jane Mirandette, whose vivacious manner and enthusiasm for action hinted at what we soon came to learn was a "joie de vivre" shared by numerous others in this blessed coastal town. Details escape me but I am almost certain Jane told us about the library in the very first hours of our stay, and soon afterwards we made a visit to the building. During that same trip, several of us volunteered to help with the impressive Biblioteca Mobile program.

Since those days, over 10 years ago now, I have made annual treks to San Juan del Sur, often twice a year, with friends, family, and students of mine from Brandeis University. Every visit has included a stop-in at the HJH library, where the staff always give a kind welcome. My partner and I now co-own a small house in town, with our own WiFi connection, but before deciding on a place to live, I often relied on the free WiFi of the library. Most recently, I have decided to retire from teaching and live most of the year in San Juan del Sur. When friends back in the US wonder at my choice of location for my retirement years, so distant from the comfortable Boston suburbs where I have been living, or the Michigan and Wisconsin towns where I grew up, the HJH library is always part of my explanation. “One of the only lending libraries in the whole country is right there, 15 minute walk from the house!” I exclaim, as if that should suffice as proof that I’m making a wise choice. It very nearly does, to my mind. When the COVID situation settles down, and I reside more full-time in Nicaragua, I look forward to years of visiting the library, borrowing books and donating and volunteering as my resources and time allow. May this unique library continue to receive the support it deserves, and continue to enrich the lives of San Juan del Sur's people, both resident and expat.

EcoLogic is an organization I know better than any other environment/development group I support. They have hosted my students as interns, and some members of their staff have participated as invited speakers in my courses here at Brandeis. I have attended their fund raisers and sought out their staff for advice on my own project ideas in Nicaragua. One of my former students is full time there, and her experience there, now keeping in touch with me as a true insider, has only strengthened my impressions: EcoLogic has strong leadership, the morale and skill set of the staff make for an effective and enthusiastic team, and the culture of the organization is such that they are consistent in approach to the projects they choose to take on.

I studied ecology for decades in Costa Rica and lived there for over 2 years, and I often now travel to Nicaragua, so I am somewhat familiar with the kinds of environments and challenges and communities that EcoLogic has chosen to focus on. Their approach of working with in-country groups on projects that link social benefits to local environmental services (water, carbon, forests, biodiversity, among others) is not just a good approach among several options, it is the only way we know truly works over the long term.

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