The past couple of weeks I have been working on my fundraising proposal. How did I want to raise money, but at the same time show people in other countries what a magnificent country Nicaragua was? I decided to make a book about life in Nicaragua. The book would contain pictures, stories of WFP beneficiaries, interviews with other interesting parties, poems and drawings. I am not going to explain the exact content of it yet, but it is going to be an interesting book which hopefully can raise a sufficient amount of money.
sophiegaarenstroom
First name:
Sophie
Last name:
Gaarenstroom
Biography:
Hai! My name is Sophie Gaarenstroom and I am 23 years old. I just finished my Masters in Marketing in Amsterdam at the Vrije Universiteit. In September I will go to Nicaragua for 6 months to do an internship for WFP. About myself, I grew up in Groningen and after my highschool I lived in Zambia and Namibia for six months, which was an amazing experience. Here, I first got into contact with WFP. I think the work that TNT and WFP conduct together is amazing and I am proud I can contribute to this. I am really looking forward to this internship and I will keep you posted on all my experiences in Nicaragua!!
History
- Member for
- 2 years 12 months
Latest blog items
Moving forward and the contribution of WFP
28 January 2011
sophiegaarenstroom
Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries of Latin America and half of the population lives below the national poverty line. Why are people so poor and why does the country not move forward in the way that other border countries do? Culture is a big cause of the huge poverty in Nicaragua. One example how culture affects the poverty rate are eating habits. People eat rice with beans and maize tortillas every day, often three times a day. They do not eat fruits or vegetables while there are available almost in all places in the country.
Improving eating habits
28 December 2010
sophiegaarenstroom
In mid December, Rutger and I went to a 2-day nutrition course in Managua which was really interesting. We learned a lot about malnutrition of children, the symptoms, the consequences and the needs for recovery which we can apply in our fieldwork for WFP. In Nicaragua, 49% of the women are obese, while desnutrition among children is a big problem as well. This seems very contradicting. However, when you look at the eating habits of the people of Nicaragua it is logical. People eat the same things every day and do not have a diverse diet.
The importance of water
10 December 2010
sophiegaarenstroom
This week, I went into the field twice and something new stroke me; the importance of water in a zone. Last Tuesday I went on a fieldtrip to Terrabona, a very dry zone in the North of Nicaragua. We visited several health centres to see if the fourth and last WFP distribution of this year went well by talking to the beneficiaries and coordinators. Afterwards I visited the mayor of the municipality for a market study we are currently conducting nationally. I talked to him about the main economic activities in Terrabona, the market prices and export products.
Empowering women and developing infrastructure
19 November 2010
sophiegaarenstroom
Last week, we went to visit different communities to see the progress in the Alimentos por Trabajo program there. Alimentos por Trabajao (AXT) is a program of the World Food Program that helps women to learn how to create and maintain a garden in which they can harvest fruits and vegetables. Five years ago, AXT started in different communities in Nicaragua and the program is very successful. Participating women now successfully grow oranges, tomatoes, onions, yucca, sweet lemon, maize, beans, malanga, chayote, ayote and paprika.
