La Semilla Ministries…..serving the economically disadvantaged in Carazo, Nicaragua.
Felicita Aragon lives in San Jose de Masatepe. This is a community near where our base of operations has it’s storage facilities and processing plant. Sounds impressive, right – processing plant! 
Felicita works for us as an occasional laborer sorting beans. All the seed we produce gets inspected and selected for defects by hand. The current crop has had LOTS of rain damage, and so Felicita and other ladies work 10 hour days, manually removing damaged grains so we have a marketable product. Pains-taking labour! But Felicita is thankful for the work, since it’s the only part-time job she has. She feels the pressure of providing for her family of 6, and work in Carazo province is scarce. Unofficial unemployment rates run about 25-35% in rural Nicaragua. Pay is based on the number of lbs cleaned, 300 lbs daily nets a pay of $10.
La Semilla Ministries adds value to the local economy by being a viable, honest purchaser and providing jobs to folks like Felicita, and providing a higher return for local producers.
