Since 2009, Fe y Alegría Nicaragua has been training young leaders with a commitment to social justice issues through the Fe y Alegría Nicaragua Communicators Network. The main objective of the network is to train Fe y Alegría students in communication subjects such as writing, audiovisual production, digital content, social media management and use, photography, voice-overs, among others, becoming young and leading communicators that energize, inform and influence the life of their schools and communities.
The network works at the local level in each one of the schools that participate, formed by a group of 10 to 15 secondary students, who during the school year are also trained in social justice issues such as leadership, gender equality, citizenship, citizen journalism, etc. The role of each network in the educational center is vital, because apart from organizing cultural activities, the student participants issue quarterly reports, in which the most relevant school events are reported in a newsletter; they also identify problems that may affect the educational community, developing proposals for intervention and advocacy through communication such as pop-up radio, movie forums, and awareness campaigns that contribute to social change.
For Rocío Guadalupe López Blandón, 15 years old, student at the Immaculate Conception School Fe y Alegría, located in the northern Nicaragua, the experience in the network has been very significant in her personal growth and full of many life lessons:
“Being part of the network of communicators has been one of the best experiences I have had, thanks to which I have been able to participate in different training sessions that have facilitated my work as a communicator within my educational center and the community. Being part of the network of communicators has been very important because it has changed my life, it has allowed me to know what Fe y Alegría does, to know more about the realities of my community and better yet to be able to influence them to improve them through communication”, she said.
From 2009 to 2018 many generations have been part of the network, students who once were leaders in their schools, in their neighborhoods, in their community and now have a commitment from their professional work, many of the alumni that were part of this initiative are now journalists, others decided to study another career, but the philosophy that unites them as former communicators of Fe y Alegría, is that wherever they are they will always have something to contribute to the transformation of a society for one that is fair and equal.
