Nicaragua Webinar Series

March 2, 2025: Webinar. Brian Willson: Veteran, Peace Activist, Nicaraguan Citizen

This webinar is an interview with S. Brian Willson, a longtime peace activist who is now a Nicaraguan citizen.  
Brian answered many audience questions, as well as the following queries:  What were the most important factors that changed your political viewpoint and impelled you to take action?  Why did you decide to move to Nicaragua, and what have you experienced and observed while living there?  What message do you have for other activists and potential activists?

With commentators:  Michelle Munjanattu, trade unionist and internationalist, Friends of the ATC (Association of Rural Workers), NYC; Petros Bein, Black Alliance for Peace Baltimore coordinating Team

May 18, 2025: Nicaraguan programs of maternal & child health: A cross-national comparison

Featured speakers describe the special programs that Nicaragua has put in place, such as the casas maternas (maternal wait homes) for women about to give birth, to protect and enhance the health of mothers and their children. Since 2007 Nicaragua has reduced maternal mortality by 79.8%, reduced neonatal mortality by 62.5% and reduced infant mortality rates by 58.6%. Becca Renk, originally from Idaho, has lived and worked in Nicaragua for 25 years and directs a health clinic in Ciudad Sandino outside of Managua.  Magda Lanuza is the program manager of Casa Arlen Siu, a casa materna in El Sauce, Department of Leon. Jameela Alexander, an active organizer in BAP & AAPRP from Baltimore, Maryland, visited Nicaragua for the first time in March as a member of the "Power & Protagonism: Women in Nicaragua" delegation. She is a worker/doula who previously studied village midwifery in Ecuador. Guest co-moderator: Natalia Burdynska

January 26, 2025: Sanctions: The Threat and the Promise for Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela

The US & its allies have long imposed harmful “sanctions,” economic coercive measures, on Cuba, Nicaragua, & Venezuela.  But struggle has brought activists for the three countries closer together, & YOU can join future collaboration. Speakers: Jill Clark-Gollub, Americas Without Sanctions, Sanctions Kill Coalition; Jennifer Atlee, Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition; Leonardo Flores, Venezuela Solidarity Network; Onyesonwu Chatoyer, National Network on Cuba (NNOC)

May 2023: The View from the Ground:  What We Experienced in Nicaragua in 2018

The four speakers lived through the attempted coup, April – July 2018, and describe how it has affected their current viewpoint and work. Featuring John Perry, Becca Renk, Nils McCune, Coleen Littlejohn.

April 13, 2025: Building Sustainable Communities:  Insights from Nicaragua

SarahJunkin Woodard shares a slideshow and insights from Ciudad Sandino, Nicaragua, describing "the amazing realities developing within Sandinista Nicaragua where both the social and political will are focused on helping the majority of the population, the poorest of the poor."  Sarah represents the work of the Jubilee House Community, a U.S. nonprofit she helped form in 1979.  She has spent the last 31 years in Nicaragua, with the project name Center for Development in Central America.  The JHC-CDCA continues to respond to local needs, helping the poor accomplish what they see as their priorities, particularly in the areas of sustainable economic development, organic agriculture, health care, and education.