San Sebastian de Yali, in northern Nicaragua, is a municipality of extreme poverty and anguish. The people of Yali needed a way to improve their economic situation in order to ensure their survival. To ameliorate the situation for its inhabitants, in 2008, ANF launched a housing project in four communities of Yali and providing them with animals for breeding will allow them to do so, transforming the lives of 200 families.

Each family received a new home, replacing the dirt and zinc shacks they lived in before. Their previous houses were made of taquezal (clay and grass) and were not fit for human habitation. More often than not, a family with more than 6 members share one house with only one room where the entire family would sleep crowded. 

Their new homes built by ANF are significant improvements to their quality of life, giving them a worthy home to live in. In addition, each home that was built was supplemented with a latrine and a new connection to the municipal water source. In addition, trees and gardens were planted around the homes as an effort toward reforestation and decorating the families’ plots.

An important aspect of this housing project of 200 homes is that the community members were highly involved in the construction process. The families that later received their finished home worked hard as unskilled labor, helping with whatever part of the process that they could. By doing so, the families later felt more empowered and entitled to their homes.

Select families in these four communities received extra components to the project designed to give them sustainable employment and a better means of living, such as goat and chicken farms. In addition, a clinic was set up to attend the residents of the communities, 

All in all, the housing project in San Sebastian de Yali, brought great relief to many impoverished families. No longer will their children be sleeping on dirt floors or getting wet during rainy nights. Combined with the access to clean drinking water and the goat and chicken farms that have been established in their communities, the inhabitants of Yali have witnessed a great increase in their opportunities in life, giving them the tools they need to break out of the devastating cycle of poverty.

Back to Housing