Ileana Reyes Murillo, Facilitator
Ileana Reyes (fifth from the left, center row) with her brigade during a community celebration in Managua.
I began working with SEPA in 2004, as a facilitator. This experience allowed me to strengthen my personal growth as a neighbourhood community leader… I’m satisfied with the fact that the seed planted by SEPA at that time is still present in this neighbourhood, even though the project ended in 2007. For me, the most important change in one of our neighbourhoods has been the outreach achieved by children and teenagers in their SEPA work, since it has been proven successful in the households… The result of this was that the first peer monitoring between neighbourhoods found a decrease in the positivity index from 19% to 4%.
In another neighbourhood, I think that the most important change has been the way that leaders from different sectors of the neighbourhood have come together, and the total involvement of the political leadership with the SEPA brigade. This has helped them to better understand the population’s diverse problems through direct contact with the households.
Personally, working with children has let me know that each of them lives in a different world, and so I have learned to adapt to each of their needs. SEPA is a challenge for me; I’m always learning more and more; new things keep coming up to show me the way to follow and how to always keep a positive attitude.