Egdelina was born and raised in the countryside near Esteli. She always wanted to go to school and she finished high school in Esteli. Coming of age in the seventies, she began to learn about the struggle of the FSLN (Sandinista Front for National Liberation) against the Somoza government, the injustices that prompted it and the values that the FSLN promoted. When she married her husband Luis in 1975, they joined the FSLN as collaborators. Egdelina worked in a rural community making clothes and food for the guerrilla fighters and raising her three children, while her husband left home to fight. Egdelina says it was a dangerous time, but beautiful to be doing something that they felt was just and right.
After the revolution succeeded in overthrowing the Somoza government in 1979, Egdelina began work as a schoolteacher, while her husband worked as a radio technician. Throughout the 1980's, Egdelina was active in social service, joining literacy campaigns, security militias, and the national women's organization (AMNLAE). She was chosen to work at the Spanish school Escuela Nica, which worked to educate people from around the world in the Spanish language, Nicaraguan culture, and the ideals of the revolutionary Sandinista government. She worked for seven years at the Escuela Nica as a teacher and director, while also studying biology. The school closed after the victory of the Chamorro government in 1990, and Egdelina continued to teach private Spanish lessons to support herself and her family. She soon decided that, with her experience, contacts, and passion for community involvement, she should start a new school.
Horizonte Spanish School was founded on August 23, 1991, to create employment for local women, to educate people from around the world on Nicaraguan culture, politics, and history, to help small community projects, and to connect students with local organizations. The school was formally registered with the Ministry of Education in the year 1998, making it the only officially registered Spanish school in Esteli.
In the 1990's, Egdelina joined a micro-credit union, which allowed her to create and expand her school. An offshoot of this union was a technical training cooperative, where Egdelina learned the business skills to make her school successful, while paying back to the cooperative to help other women. In 2000, Egdelina remodeled the first floor of her home with a micro-credit loan, in order to move the school there.
Since then, Egdelina has also co-founded the Esteli Business Women - an alternative to the conservative and male-dominated local Chamber of Commerce - and the Business Women's Investment Fund - another credit union that continues to grow quickly as it finances women's economic advancement.
Egdelina's dreams for the future are to start a nutrition project in the rural community of El Limon (where she has recently purchased property) in order to train local women in marketable skills and provide needed nutrition to the children. On her property in El Limon she dreams of building a rural Spanish school, as a peaceful alternative to studying in the city, and an opportunity for students to experience rural community life. She wants the rural Spanish school to provide jobs for local teachers and income for local host families. Another dream of Egdelina's is to initiate a program to train and support young adults in operating a tour company for students and tourists.
Egdelina's message to you: "Thank you, and how great it is that people like you exist, with open hearts, who know that there are people in need. Thank you for your moral support. Your gestures and concern help just as your dollars do." |
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