Founded
in 1984, the Wisconsin Coordinating Council on Nicaragua (WCCN) is an independent, nation-wide, non-profit, membership-supported
organization based in Madison, Wisconsin.
WCCN Staff & Board
Mission
The Wisconsin Coordinating Council on Nicaragua (WCCN) fights poverty by partnering with Nicaraguans to build sustainable economic alternatives for the working poor. Utilizing the powerful tool of microcredit, WCCN provides low-income Nicaraguan entrepreneurs and small farmers access to financing so they can grow their operations and work their way out of poverty. WCCN also promotes fair trade, women’s empowerment, and housing improvement initiatives and fosters greater understanding, goodwill, and peace through people-to-people exchanges.
Vision
WCCN envisions a world where access to financial services and economic resources is not the privilege of a few, but instead an opportunity for many. Based on principles of economic and social justice and citizen diplomacy, WCCN’s projects strive to break down barriers of exclusion, thereby empowering Nicaragua’s working poor to actively participate in their own economic decision-making and provide better futures for themselves, their families, and their communities.
What WCCN Does
- Sustainable Development: We work in partnership with
socially responsible investors in the United States, and Nicaraguan
organizations involved in alternative credit programs with the
aim of promoting a sustainable model of financing Nicaraguan families
who lack access to other sources of credit. Through the Nicaraguan
Credit Alternatives Fund (NICA Fund), WCCN channels investments
from socially responsible investors in the United States to those
alternative credit organizations in Nicaragua, through loans at
affordable interest rates. We also encourage U.S. citizens to
support alternative economic projects that enable Nicaraguans
to improve their standards of life, such as fair trade coffee.
- Social Justice: We work in solidarity with Nicaraguan
individuals and social organizations through the U.S.-Nicaragua
Women's Empowerment Project and the Housing and Property Rights
Project.
- Public Education: Through WCCN's publications and educational
events, we help inform people in the United States about the current
social and political situation in Nicaragua and about the historical
relationship between our countries.
- Citizen diplomacy: We support the Madison-Managua Sister
City relationship and other connections between Nicaraguans and
Americans that promote grassroots understanding, goodwill and
peace. To build people-to-people connections, WCCN sponsors study
tours of Nicaragua, as well as bringing Nicaraguan speakers
to the United States.
