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Hanover, N.H. – On December 11, the William Jewett Tucker Foundation's Cross Cultural Service and Education Program will send off its third team to Nicaragua to continue to build relationships with the community of Siuna and the University of the Autonomous Region of the Caribbean Cost of Nicaragua (URACCAN).
The program consists of three teams: medical, construction and agriculture. In total, the group consists of 21 undergraduates, 4 graduate students from the Thayer School of Engineering and Dartmouth Medical School, and 6 Dartmouth faculty and staff. The team will also be traveling with a Thayer undergraduate and graduate student from Dartmouth’s chapter of Engineers without Borders.
Sponsored by Dartmouth’s William Jewett Tucker Foundation, which supports the moral and spiritual work of the College, and by Bridges to Community, a national non-profit organization, the trip is part of a program of cross-cultural education and service projects at Dartmouth which seek to serve other communities, while immersing participants in another culture.
According to Dean Stuart Lord, the Cross Cultural Education and Service Program, creates opportunities for undergraduate and graduate Students to; create living, learning, and serving communities, with persons from different countries and different cultures. The program also hopes to encourage a life of self-examination and reflection as well as help students develop intercultural skills.
Building on the work of two previous CCESP teams that traveled to Siuna, Nicaragua in past years, this year the group will expand it’s focus to Santa Rosa, a small rural community located 20 kilometers northeast of Siuna. Working with the local URACCAN students, the construction and agriculture team will spend the majority of their time at the University farm in Sta. Rosa, working on community identified solutions to improve the quality of life. The construction team will be building latrines, and the agriculture team will be setting up communal gardens.
The medical team will be based out of the URACAAN campus in Siuna, providing workshops to the residents of that community. They will also travel out to Sta. Rosa to provide house visits and visit the rural medical facilities.
Two Engineers without Borders members will be based out of URACAAN conducting research into the possibility of a long-term water project. Their on-site research is tied to the 190/290 of Engineering courses. Undergraduates back in Hanover will then review the research and prepare a proposal for the long-term project.
The Cross Culture Education and Service Program is continuing to build on the efforts of the past two years to create a long-term commitment to Siuna, and the URACAAN. Through the partnerships with Thayer Engineering School, Engineers without Borders and Dartmouth Medical School, the program is slowly making its way towards receiving, reviewing and accepting a long-term project commitment.
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