Flavia Mendoza, Facilitator
Flavia Mendoza (centre) with brigadistas from her community in Managua.
For me, SEPA has meant an enrichment of my experience; it has been a life lesson. The truth is that one never stops learning. Each place I assist has had different dynamics, different worlds; in spite of being so close to each other they have been very diverse.
The most important change in one of the neighbourhoods has been changes in attitudes in some households towards dealing with their water containers. Positivity has evidently decreased. Regarding the brigade that works there, it’s top-notch. The leaders have admirable strengths: their level of organisation, their commitment, their capacity to mobilise people for any activity…
The other neighbourhood has definitely been a challenge, from discovering a very scattered sample and that two factions were at work within the same neighbourhood, but we have made progress and have been supported by both of them.
I believe that the most important change has been discovering the commitment of the youth in the brigade. It’s normal for the adults to show concern for their community; but when I see the youth involved with SEPA and various other activities in their neighbourhood I think that they will be taking over, it’s the future… it’s great that I’ve had the opportunity to meet them and share this with them.