Mission Statement

The mission of Developing Communities, Inc. is to improve the quality of life for people in Nicaragua, one community at a time. Through sustainable community development projects we provide people with new opportunities and resources enabling them to make better choices about their own lives.

What is Sustainable Development?

True development enables a community to exist, grow and profit long after we are gone.
Sustainable development meets the present needs and improves the quality of human life of community members without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Developing Communities, Inc. encourages community initiated growth that is locally run and managed. Our vision includes building a healthy community in which there are opportunities for the people to educate themselves and build their economy through small enterprise. This sometimes takes training people on how to develop a business plan, or it might require raising money to invest in a start-up business, or it could be running computer classes or vaccination clinics.

Our goal is to empower individuals and communities to ultimately find their own resources and build their own future without depending on local government or international foreign aid. With more knowledge and opportunities, every person can lead a fuller, richer life.

Why one community at a time?

We specialize not in one type of project, but in the growth of a community.
Every community’s needs are different. Long term sustainable development requires time and effort in a single community working on several projects. Working in one community allows us to leverage community resources on a broad scale, forming lasting relationships with community members. While a continual presence inspires individuals and provides a new measure of hope, community members do most of the work thereby learning new skills that can transfer to their personal life and future.

How do we choose our projects?

Developing Communities, Inc. and locals choose together.
Developing Communities, Inc. identifies small under-developed communities that have a desire to better their lives but have little or no opportunity to do so. We work with smaller communities that do not receive a lot of help from other institutions. We only work in communities that have invited us to work with them and only in those communities who are willing to participate in the planning, implementation, and ongoing maintenance of the projects.

The community itself and the Developing Communities, Inc.'s Board of Directors together generate a list of potential projects. We then analyze the impact, costs, resources available, and the maintenance of the project over time. Developing Communities, Inc. together with the locals decide on projects based on the criteria that each project ultimately be run by locals, that it have community benefits, and that is the best use of resources.

In addition, all projects benefit a community rather than an individual. All projects have no religious or political association. Our work is not to increase the wealth of people, but increase their options in life.

After generations of loss, Nicaragua has no infrastructure in place for its people.
Nicaragua has been a land of much turmoil in the past several decades. The succession of revolutions and political upheaval has made its way through the ranks to affect the daily life of every person in the country. Nicaragua is one of the hemisphere’s poorest countries, with low per capita income, massive unemployment and huge external debt. The distribution of income is one of the most unequal in the world. After so many years of struggle and oppression, people have little or no reason to believe that they can change their economic situation. Long term, repeated successful ventures are a great way to re-energize a community, to mitigate the negative effects of poverty, and to instill hope and confidence in the lives of Nicaraguans.

Read more statistics and demographics on our Nicaragua page.