It is not difficult finding potential candidates for the position of on-site field representative in Nicaragua, which calls for a person with sophisticated skills willing to volunteer, they said. The non-profit organization Berkshire Amistad started in 1985 ran an ad in the Peace Corps Newsletter and said they received many inquiries. Many candidates, however, turn the job down because of its compensation, which consists of money for living expenses and use of office space and a vehicle, they said. Many candidates, faced with student loan debt, say they would like to take the job but can’t afford to,
Berkshire Amistad aims to return to its roots with new field representative
- August, 29 2002
A local group that works to improve living conditions in the city of Malpaisillo, Nicaragua is hoping that their newly hired on-site field representative can steer the program back to its original educational mission.
The non-profit organization Berkshire Amistad started in 1985 when a “couple dozen people” began meeting to learn more about the culture and standard of living in the poverty-stricken nations of Central America, according to Jim Moran, a member of the group’s steering committee. During the last 17 years, the group has sent large quantities of various supplies to the region, developed loan programs to help spur economic activity, and worked to improve water treatment and housing facilities.
In an interview Sunday, Moran and Susan Gordon, another member of the steering committee, said they want the group’s fourth field representative, Maya Lechowick, to develop education programs by working in the community, talking to people, making connections, getting people involved in the exchange, and sharing what she learns with the community there and in Berkshire County.
“We need to remind ourselves of how we got started,” Moran said. Throughout the years the group has sent clothes, school supplies, and medical supplies and equipment to a number of Central American countries. In the early 1990s, however, the Berkshire Amistad began to focus its attention on Nicaragua. In 1992 the group began to focus its attention even more specifically, on the Nicaraguan city Malpaisillo, which officially became a sister city of Pittsfield that year.
Pittsfield is part of a sister-city consortium, which Moran simply called “The Consortium,” with Amherst and Norwalk, Conn. Amherst’s Nicaraguan sister city is 20 minutes from Malpaisillo, Moran said. Lechowick is the field representative for all three cities of The Consortium. Together they had established a search committee to find a worthy candidate and had interviewed Lechowick by phone, Moran said. He said he and Gordon met her in Pittsfield shortly after Memorial Day weekend.
After being hired, Lechowick participated in a five-week transitional period with the previous field representative in Nicaragua before starting on her own on July 1. Gordon and Moran took a trip to Nicaragua in mid-July to show their support for Lechowick, they said. During their four days in Nicaragua, they said they talked with their new field representative about the role she will play in the community. They also met with a Malpaisillo committee to assure its members that Lechowick has no agenda of her own and has mutual goals with the committee, they said.
Lechowick initially made a one-year commitment to the position, which was filled for three years by each of the other representatives, Gordon said. She and Moran said they hope Lechowick will stay in the position for at least two years. Gordon and Moran communicate weekly with Lechowick, mostly via e-mail, they said. She writes e-mails from the city of Leon, which is the capital of the department that includes Malpaisillo, a department being the Nicaraguan version of a state or region, they said. Leon has very quick Internet connections, which is something Malpaisillo has been hoping to achieve since it became Internet-ready last year, they said.
During her tenure, Lechowick will return to Pittsfield for a month each year, they said. During this time, she will share her experiences with the community by visiting schools, doing interviews with newspapers and morning radio programs, and talking to the local Rotary Clubs, which together raised a large sum of money to support a bicycle loan program in Malpaisillo, they said. It will also be a time for Lechowick to meet with members of the Berkshire Amistad to discuss issues and problems and to brainstorm new ideas, they said.
The job of field representative is difficult, Gordon said, mostly because she has to report to six bosses, one for each of the three cities in The Consortium and their three Nicaraguan sister cities. She said the position is rewarding, however, because whoever fills it has an impact on the lives of Nicaraguans. “There’s an enormous amount of potential,” she said.
It is not difficult finding potential candidates for the position, which calls for a person with sophisticated skills willing to volunteer, they said. Gordon and Moran ran an ad in the Peace Corps Newsletter and said they received many inquiries. Many candidates, however, turn the job down because of its compensation, which consists of money for living expenses and use of office space and a vehicle, they said. Many candidates, faced with student loan debt, say they would like to take the job but can’t afford to, Gordon and Moran said.
