Joanna Furtado worked with three rural communities in Nicaragua that relied on agriculture. She lived with a host family and worked with her Nicaraguan counterpart, César, who is a trained photographer. Joanna created and delivered a 10-week business and leadership course for young people in the communities. She helped the youth create business plans to pitch for funding and find mentors. Her favorite project was helping a young man named Oscar start a chicken farm business. The highlight of Joanna's placement was a community awareness day about rubbish that brought the whole community together.

1. ICS-E Placement Summer
2014
Joanna Furtado

2. Brief Introduction
 I was working between 3
communities just outside of
Estelí, a town in the north of
Nicaragua. They were all rural
and relied on agriculture
(mostly crops of maize and
beans) for their income.
 I was living with a wonderful
host family. My host mother,
Mirna, is a single mother who
works as a seamstress to earn
her living. She has 3 children
who still live at home- Alvaro,
Dayana and Antonio. I am still
in touch with the family, who
made me feel so welcome.

3. My Nicaraguan counterpart
 My Nicaraguan counterpart is called César. He is a trained
photographer, and used to work for a newspaper. He wants to start
his own media business, to overcome some of the political barriers he
has in Nicaragua, and gained many useful skills for this from his ICS
placement.
 He became like a brother to me! We still talk all the time on Facebook
and WhatsApp.

4. What did I do on my ICS-E
placement?
 Create, develop, and deliver a 10 week
course on business and leadership to
young people in the community.
 Help young people to create business
plans to pitch to partner charities for
funding
 Find mentors
 Work with the community on action and
awareness days, and help to organise
youth forums
 Carry out market research
 This is only this phase: in next phase the
volunteers are helping to make the
business plans a reality…!

5. An example project
 My favourite business was with Oscar, a young entrepreneur who
wanted to start a chicken farm, which sold both eggs and chicken meat-foods
which are only eaten sparingly in these communities as there is a
lack of supply. He created a plan for 60 chickens, including
infrastructure and budget.
 Oscar was very hard working, and already knew a lot about chicken
care from prior experience, and was also a well-liked member of the
community.
 He called his business ‘Don Pollo’ (Mr Chicken).

6. How ICS-E helps YOU
A LOT of transferable skills, even if you aren’t interested in business:
 Teamwork and leadership
 Creativity and problem solving
 Hard work/ working under pressure
 Communication skills and cross cultural awareness
 Interest in the world and international development
 Events management- both in the community and for your action at
home
 Public speaking and teaching
 Language skills
 Business skills

7. My highlight of the 10 weeks
 Community awareness day on rubbish- we had the whole
community turn up! We played lots of games, a sociodrama, some
Nicaraguan traditional food, lots of dancing, laughing and some
education too!