(The following article is taken from the February 2006 issue of Brookline Magazine, with thanks!)

Brookline's Nicaraguan Sister City:
       The Passion of Helping in a Coastal Town

-- by Morgan Bettex

IN A SMALL NICARAGUAN VILLAGE NOT FAR FROM MANAGUA, a Patriots Super Bowl pendant adorns a nondescript cement wall. The wall belongs to the Mayor’s office in a town named Quezalguaque where the Mayor still awaits a pendant from last year’s Red Sox World Series sweep. Such enthusiasm is not misplaced—Quezalguaque has been Brookline’s sister city for nearly 20 years, and residents clearly understand the fervor and fanfare of Boston sports.

Upon initial glance, it seems unlikely that two universes could be so inextricably linked. Aside from overtly adverse climates, Brookline and Quezalguaque could not be more dissimilar. Brookline, the dense section of Boston known best as the birthplace of JFK, was incorporated in 1705. Its population of 57,000 includes families, students, professors and professionals. In contrast to Brookline’s privilege and diversity, Quezalguaque is a small village near the Pacific coast of Nicaragua that was settled by the Spanish in 1610. The majority of its 9,900 residents live in rural areas beyond the town’s central square, and nearly all live in poverty. Indeed, the only commonality between these two “cities” is a bilingual teacher from Brookline named Maxine Shaw who established the Brookline-Quezalguaque sister city connection in the mid-1980s and has nurtured it ever since.

As a native of Southern California living in Brookline, Shaw had been a Spanish teacher for several years when she first visited Nicaragua. In 1985, she traveled on a tour arranged by the Central American Solidarity Committee (CASA), an organization with a branch in Cambridge. It was on the tour that Shaw learned about the lack of teachers needed to implement the government’s new policy of universal free education. She recalls having philosophical discussions about the fundamentals of education that would never happen in the United States, including one about whether to give the few available crayons to first grade classes or give one box to each teacher regardless of the grade taught.

The trip inspired Shaw to leave Boston and embark on what she describes as the “best two years of my life.” From 1985 until 1987, she lived and taught as a volunteer in a one-room schoolhouse in the rural region of Quezalguaque. Conditions were hardly comfortable; there was no usable plumbing in the high school, no adequate health facilities existed, and few of Shaw’s students had access to fresh milk. After visiting Shaw, several friends from Boston organized an effort to send much-needed school and medical supplies to the village. The group even purchased a cow to provide milk to Shaw’s students.

What Shaw realized then and reiterates today, is that Americans really have no sense of the identity and history of Nicaragua, a country that has faced incessant struggle throughout the past century. The largest country in Central America, it is also one of the poorest due to massive unemployment and external debt. From the late 1930s until 1979,Nicaraguans experienced an unstable government under the oppressive dictatorship of the Somoza family. Shaw lived in Quezalguaque during a particularly tumultuous period following the civil war that brought the Sandinista National Liberation Front, a group of Marxist guerillas, to power in 1979. Because the U.S. did not support Sandinista tactics or the group’s aid to leftist rebels in El Salvador, the U.S. sponsored a contra war against the Sandinistas and shortages for basic supplies were widespread during the 1980s. The Sandinistas were defeated in free elections in 1990.

According to Shaw, it is not coincidental that so many New England cities, including Newton and Concord, have sister cities located in Nicaragua. During the Sandinista era, Shaw explained, forming sister cities was “our way of showing solidarity with the people in Nicaragua. ”Noting the progressive nature of New England, and Boston in particular, Shaw said that the 80s represented “a chance to fight for justice and something positive, instead of fighting against forces that limited justice.” It was the first time everyone worked together for universal healthcare and education in Nicaragua and results were noticeable. Shaw’s students were the first generation in their families to attend school and have unlimited access to free healthcare.

Brookline Resolution

DURING THE TWO YEARS Shaw lived in Quezalguaque, contributions to the village were ongoing and the support did not end upon her return to Boston. In 1987, a resolution was created to Brookline’s charter making Quezalguaque its official sister city. Shaw is President of the Brookline- Quezalguaque Sister City Project (BQSCP), which is an organization that provides aid to the city.The BQSCP is run by volunteers and funded entirely through private donations.

In 2002, the organization received IRS recognition as a 501C3 charity with taxexempt status. The group meets once a month to discuss goals, ongoing projects and upcoming visits (also known as construction brigades) to Quezalguaque. Board members include attorneys who complete pro bono work for the organization and even an architect who helped design the town library, also for free. Hundreds of Brookline residents have volunteered for the Sister City Project over the years, including high school students, couples and seniors. Shaw describes the “bizarre identity” of the organization today; most of its current volunteers are individuals younger than 30 and older than 50.

If past projects provide any indication, the BQSCP will not stop at anything less than significantly improving the quality of life for the residents of Quezalguaque.The scope of projects depends on fundraising, which Shaw and her colleagues typically complete in a “goal-oriented” fashion. In 1989, they raised money to build a new health center for the village after they were told that a medical facility was the town’s primary need. A volunteer construction crew from Brookline traveled to Quezalguaque to assist with construction. The health center is staffed 24 hours each day to provide free public healthcare to residents. Nicaragua’s Ministry of Health funds the health center although the Brookline group contributes funds and other supplies.Recent donations included a blood chemistry machine, a mosquito sprayer to prevent malaria and dental chairs donated by a local dentist who was upgrading his practice.Because of Quezalguaque’s proximity to volcanoes with increased activity, as well as the prominence of stove cooking in the region, upper respiratory disease is a major problem.The BQSCP has responded by donating a dozen nebulizers (medicated sprayers). Over the years, Massachusetts General Hospital has donated nurse scrubs.

In 2003, the BQSCP funded and built the town’s first library. Like the health center, a volunteer crew from Brookline assisted with the construction process.Volunteers throughout Brookline, including a group of students from Brookline High School, collected new and used books to be shipped to the new library, which now contains 7,000 volumes. In 2004, a grant from the Brookline Rotary Club,written in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Léon, a town near Quezalguaque,provided nearly $30,000 to furnish most of the library and purchase a dozen computers. The BQSCP has agreed to pay the salaries of two librarians for five years, a commitment made possible through the pledges of approximately 20 Brookline residents.

Because Quezalguaque is located in a region prone to natural disasters, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, landslides and volcanoes, the town has demonstrated a need for extensive disaster relief that other poverty-stricken global regions may not. The BQSCP has responded following several natural disasters that devastated its sister city. When Hurricane Joan struck Nicaragua in 1988, damages were extensive. Following a meeting with a U.N. mission arranged by the Nicaraguan Delegation to the United Nations, the BQSCP committed to providing significant aid to Quezalguaque. The group spent weeks collecting donations in order to send a 20-ton container with relief supplies, including 31,000 pounds of powdered milk. Funds for the project were raised through mass mailings, house parties and flyers taped to telephone poles. The effort was so successful that “you couldn’t find a box of powdered milk anywhere in any store in Brookline,” Shaw recalled.

In 1998, Hurricane Mitch struck the area and once again devastated the country’s already fragile economy. “Mitch destroyed everything,” Shaw noted as she described Quezalguaque today. Private farms suffered from the decreased water table, and people could no longer swim in the river that flows through the town because it became too shallow. After raising $47,000, the BQSCP shipped another container of relief supplies to Quezalguaque. The group also paid for roofing materials to repair the homes of dozens of families. In addition to powdered milk and food items, supplies included school uniforms, shoes and backpacks for 160 students whose families could not afford these items, which are required for children to attend school.

Several BQSCP efforts have become annual traditions. Every fall, the BQSCP ships a container filled with supplies to Quezalguaque. Space in the container is shared with other Boston-area cities that also ship items to their sister cities. Shipped items include donated furniture, clothing and books. The group usually sends a delegate to Quezalguaque to ensure proper distribution. Every February, the BQSCP arranges a trip to Quezalguaque, during which it uses its limited time, designed to coincide with school vacation in the Boston area, to complete a specific project. Brookline volunteers pay for their own airline tickets and stay with host families for the week. This year, approximately ten volunteers will travel to Quezalguaque to paint the exterior of the library. Of course, there will be some downtime. The week the BQSCP representatives will be in Quezalguaque corresponds with “Nuestra Señora de los Remedios,” a weeklong festival that honors the town’s patron saint. “It’s fabulous,” Shaw exclaimed as she described the festival and how residents carry the Virgin Mary statue and parade through the streets. “It’s just like they do here in the North End.”

Habitat for Humanity Project

DURING THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS, the BQSCP has sought ways to expand its support. With a health center and library located in the town center, the group is eager to extend aid to the rural areas where most of the town’s population resides. This year the group arranged for Habitat for Humanity to build houses in Quezalguaque and agreed to pay for one out of every five houses constructed. Brookline volunteers traveled to Quezalguaque to assist with the construction of ten houses in February, and again over the summer when another five homes were built.

One of the group’s main challenges has been to develop ways to strengthen the Quezalguaque economy, an effort that requires truly creative thinking. In February, the BQSCP granted a local pastor several hundred dollars in “seed money” to produce special cook stoves called “ecofogones” that are designed to vent to the exterior of a house, thereby decreasing inhalation of smoke that causes upper respiratory disease. The stoves can be purchased for $35, including payment plans of $1 per month, and the BQSCP is collecting donations to purchase stoves for Quezalguaque residents who cannot afford them. In addition to providing health benefits to an area plagued with upper respiratory disease, the project has provided stable employment for the Quezalguaque residents who build the stoves. A nearby town in Nicaragua recently submitted an order for 150 stoves. “We really just hope the project will take off on its own, similar to the health center,” Shaw said. Because the stove project teaches residents how to take care of themselves, it represents exactly the type of self-sustaining economic activity that the BQSCP strives to instill in the region.

Perhaps one of the most important projects has been organizing the secession of Shaw by Carol Caro later this year when Shaw retires and moves to Florida with her family. The two women are currently copresidents of the organization, a partnership design that the group intends to maintain in the future. “This is really a learning period [for the BQSCP],” Caro said as she reflected on how the organiza tion will change in Shaw’s absence. Working alongside Shaw, Caro has observed the diverse skills that are needed to run the organization. Requirements include excellent Spanish, the ability to negotiate with different political groups and officials, coordinating fundraising efforts and organizing mailings, meetings and brigade trips. The thing about Maxine,” Caro explained,“is that she knows everyone [in Quezalguaque] and not having her there will be a real loss.” Shaw is convinced it is nothing Caro cannot handle.

At times, the presidency has resembled a full-time job. In addition to her job as a teacher in Jamaica Plain, Shaw does something BQSCP-related nearly every day, whether it involves sending email, translating documents, campaigning for donations, convincing people to join brigades or taking inventory of all shipped items for customs. Over the years, Shaw’s biggest challenge has not pertained to any personal skills, but rather, it has involved navigating cultural differences, what she called “getting people here to understand how things are done down there and vice versa.” She also finds it difficult to handle her frustration when Quezalguaque sometimes assumes that Brookline is “a bottomless pit of support.”

Shaw will depart with only positive memories, however. One of her favorites acquired over the past 20 years involves Félipe, the former Mayor of Quezalguaque and a Patriots and Red Sox fan. Shaw recalled how after a grueling day of construction in Quezalguaque, Félipe gave a dinner toast to the group. He admitted that the BQSCP was the town’s favorite group because unlike other aid groups whose members typically visit for one day and sleep in distant hotels, BQSCP volunteers always come for a while, bring their children and stay with host families with whom they form private and personal attachments.

Reflecting on moments like these, Shaw admitted it will be difficult to leave the project that has been her life for 20 years. “It is going to be very hard to let go because, you know, it’s been my baby,” she said. She knows, however, that the BQSCP will survive because so many people are involved who genuinely care about the project’s success. “But, then again,” she sighed with a smile, “it’s been everyone’s baby.”