Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign on Volunteers

From the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign

c/o Red Rose Club,

129 Seven Sisters Road

, London N7 7QG

Dear Fran,

Thanks very much for copies of the two articles you have written: the overview of Nicaragua and Rachel's experiences of volunteering in Puerto Morazan.

Just a couple of points that I feel are misleading. Firstly, the NSC does NOT have a link person in Leon. It must have been the representative of the Oxford Leon Association, an organisation affiliated to NSC but, as is the case of the Bristol Link with Nicaragua, they work autonomously from us and in no way do we have any control over them or the actions of any of their representatives.

We get a lot of enquiries from students in Rachel's situation who are taking a year out between school and college. We are very clear that all we can offer are the month long environmental brigades. As you rightly point out we take a lot of care to make sure people going on these brigades are thoroughly prepared and our representative in Nicaragua is responsible for providing support while the groups are in Nicaragua. However, if people chose to stay on after the end of the brigade or go to Nicaragua independently, we do not have the capacity to provide support that is vital especially for people in Rachel's situation.

Secondly, it is unfortunate that by not naming the Bristol Link with Nicaragua and only the NSC you have implied that we are in some way to blame for what happened. From our experience of sending volunteers to work in Nicaragua on brigades we would never have encouraged her to go unless we felt we could provide adequate backup.

Yours sincerely

Helen Yuill

Brigades-Co-ordinator