Doña Virgina Chavez

Doña Virgina Chavez is a 35year old mother of 4. She has lived in La Chureca for 10 years. Previously she lived in the La Primavera neighbourhood on the northern outskirts of the capital city (Managua). La Primavera is one of the largest squatter neighbourhoods in Central America and the Nicaraguan government has declared it a level red zone for violence and crime. Doña Virgina decided to leave La Primavera because of the constant turf wars and crime. Her mother in law, who has lived for 15 years in La Chureca, invited her to live in her home which was a bit safer from youth gangs.

Doña Virginia proceeded to raise her 4 children in the La Chureca community. Ana, her eldest, is about to turn 16. She has a partner and is pregnant. Jose Ramon is 14 years old, Cristofer is 12 years old and Fernando is 5 years old. Her sons live with her in the same shack next door to the father of her children who works as a security guard.

“I am a lucky woman” says Doña Virginia, “I seize life and make the most of every day. I get up very early and prepare breakfast for my husband and sons, making sure they are ready for school. I leave the house at 8am and go to work on the dump. I collect glass, aluminium or what I can find to sell to support my home. At 11.30am I return to the house to cook lunch for my children. In the afternoon I go to the Juntos Contigo centre for my Pachamama Workshop classes. Here they have taught me a lot like how to make paper paste, paper and cards.

“My dream is that the workshop turns into a business where I can have the opportunity to work with dignity, with a stable job so I do not have to go to La Chureca. I have hope that this dream will become reality because it is not just my dream but also that of many of the girls taking part in the workshop.

“I feel very happy with EEP because they have supported me and through some tough times too. They also give me a monthly food and household provisions packet for participating in the workshop. This helps my family a little with our needs.

“My life is quite hard where finances are concerned. I want to work hard to provide my sons with better opportunities for their lives. I want them to be well educated and prepared for a better life, so that they can be professionals, working in another place that is not a rubbish dump.

“Sometimes I go to ‘Churequear’ and I don’t find anything and that means I have wasted a day. But that is what working in La Chureca is like; there are good days and there are bad days. What helps me is that my husband has a stable job, he doesn’t earn that much but at least we know what we can count on having to support the family.

“I first heard about the EEP paper workshop because I was at Juntos Contigo participating in another workshop and I saw some women I knew arriving to work there and I asked what they were doing and if I could sign up. The teacher said I could and ever since then I have been attending the workshop.

“I have learnt a lot here. Above all else they have taught us how important it is to recycle. I didn’t know this before. I feel very thankful because through studying with the workshop I have developed skills and also I have developed personally, emotionally. I feel very happy in the workshop because we have a welcoming warmth and harmony there.

“My experience in La Chureca has been a little sad because I had to start with my children living in a small outhouse house made of mixed scraps like cardboard until I managed to build a house out of plastic. Then this year my house was flooded and I had to move my family by myself to a new spot, salvaging what we could.

“I would like to thank the Juntos Contigo centre and Earth Education Project because they helped me with zinc and plastic to put a roof over my home.”

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