Building Something Betterr
From a young age, Oneyda experienced the challenges of rural life in Nicaragua firsthand. As a teenager, she worked alongside her family harvesting coffee to help meet their basic needs. Years later, after starting her own family, the challenges continued. Limited income and few opportunities kept her family in a situation of vulnerability and uncertainty.
Oneyda started participating in the Nicaragua Boaco Camoapa program and began strengthening her knowledge of nutrition, resource management, savings, and community organization. She later expanded her skills in agricultural production and entrepreneurship, learning about seed production, the management of crops including bell peppers, tomatoes, squash, cucumber, and maize, as well as agricultural diversification.
Together, her family began transforming the land around their home into a productive plot. After years of hard work and savings, they achieved something that once seemed out of reach: they purchased one manzana (1.74 acres) of their own land. For Oneyda’s family, purchasing land marked a transition from working primarily to meet immediate needs to investing in an asset that can generate opportunities for the future.
Strengthening their savings culture was an important part of this process. Oneyda used part of her savings to purchase a freezer, which allowed her to start a small community business selling chicken, drinks, and frozen treats.
At the same time, the family diversified their farm by raising pigs and chickens and cultivating different crops. This combination of activities helped reduce their dependence on a single source of income and gradually strengthened the household’s economic security.
“The greatest change has been learning to save and believing that we could build something better for our family,” Oneyda shares. “I feel grateful to God… today I can proudly say that it is possible to transform our lives.”
Nicaragua Boaco Camoapa is led by World Renew