by Marianna Levine
James Dwoskin, a commercial real estate developer and Sag Harbor resident, has just come back from another eight-day trip to Nicaragua. This voyage, like the ones before, weren’t motivated by sea and sun, but rather by a desire to make a difference in the Western Hemisphere’s second poorest country. Of the nation’s 5.6 million people, approximately four million live in poverty, according to Dwoskin, with a per capita GDP of only $1,123 annually in 2008 (NY State’s was $48,076 that year or over 42 times higher).
This time Dwoskin went specifically to find a village in great need that Sag Harbor might be able to adopt and support as a community. He is calling this project SHINE, short for Sag Harbor in Nicaragua Enterprise, and is hoping to get local residents and already established groups such as churches, synagogues, and schools interested in assisting this village. How Dwoskin came to be interested in Nicaragua is an interesting story.
“My college roommate and business partner Mark Sullivan comes from a philanthropic family, and he really studies these types of organizations, looking for the most bang for the buck. We didn’t want to just give money, we also wanted to make sure things got done,” Dwoskin explains.
Through this process Sullivan discovered an NGO called El Porvenir, that assists villages in Nicaragua to get practical things taken for granted in the U.S. such as clean water and working latrines. It works together with the local people to build wells, efficient wood burning stoves, latrines, and wash stations. A few years ago, Dwoskin and Sullivan started to travel down to select impoverished villages with El Porvenir, off-setting the organization’s travel costs by paying for the trips themselves.
Dwoskin explains, “El Porvenir only goes to towns that have actively solicited them. All the labor comes from the town, and they even get people to participate in re-forestation, something they also do.”
For Dwoskin, actually going down there and seeing the people and their living conditions has been a life changing experience. “The people really pulled at my heart strings. I made up my mind to make a difference.”
It was his personal interaction with the people and their communities, which really got Dwoskin interested in having other people from Sag Harbor not only donate money, but also donate their time, to go down and help the villagers of Monteverde, the village he selected to adopt. He feels a personal connection between the two communities would give a lot to both places.
As for the choice of Monteverde, it was an obvious one for Dwoskin who had visited other villages in the area.
“We were looking for a village of about the same size who had needs but ones that wouldn’t be too daunting for our community,” he said. “We got to Monteverde toward the end of our trip and realized the need was great there.”
Dwoskin explains, “For approximately six months of the year there is a total absence of water in Monteverde. The village has no functioning well. During the dry season, which lasts roughly six months, the residents must travel approximately 2-3 kilometers down and up the mountain to fetch water from a well or a tainted creek in one of the neighboring villages. The round trip journey for water takes about two hours.”
Dwoskin hopes that Sag Harbor may come together to raise money for a well and perhaps latrines for the village’s school which serves about 100 children. These seem like humble requests but ones that Dwoskin confirms will mean a lot to the village.
“Growing up in New York City, I had Hispanic friends, and felt a natural affinity for Latin America,” said Dwoskin. “I also thought the issues down there affect us here in Sag Harbor. People come here because of the poverty there. I thought through partnering up with Monteverde we could show some solidarity with our community’s silent (Hispanic) minority.”
For now, Dwoskin is putting together a presentation he’d like to show to various community organizations. He is hoping that the Sag Harbor school district may want to make Monteverde a service learning opportunity for high school students in the future, or that local organizations both religious and secular may want to join in and help Monteverde in some way. He has also come up with a few fun fundraising ideas such as T-shirts, a salsa night, or a Latin meets local jam session.
In the end Dwoskin states “when we give, be it time or money, without expectation of getting anything in return, we receive ten times the benefit. The community will be enhanced in ways we cannot predict.”
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