OJO DE URACCAN

OJO DE URACCAN  is the editor's column.  Usually you will find here a few  tips on what's coming up in the UPDATE and/ or  personal comments about some inspiring point or  vexing concern.  And occasionally a guest article.

This edition is largely devoted to providing readers with the text of a just published introductory pamphlet intended for people new to  our institution.  Many of  our readers,  perhaps, will find little new in  this material.  However, it may still be useful to you given that it  offers a lot of  basic information about URACCAN  in a convenient form and  location.   The printed version is, of course, formated and augmented with photos and a map.

UU's editor, Felipe Stuart Courneyeur, will be moving to Canada at the end of the month to take up responsibilities as coordinator of the  York University-URACCAN Linkage Project.  He will also work for the Center for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC), based at York  University.

URACCAN and the Casa canadiense are planning a despedida for Felipe Stuart  to be held at the Casa canadiense  Saturday, July 18 from 7PM on.  The  Casa canadiense is located in Residential El Dorado, del Restaurante El  Dorado, 3 casas al lago, casa esquinera, #326.  The phone number at the  Casa canadiense is 249-5542.


 

HOT OFF THE PRESS

TWO NEW TITLES FROM URACCAN

URACCAN's publishing program took giant steps forward since March, with  the launching of two new books:

Cosmovision de los Pueblos de Tula Walpa: Segun relatos de los
sabios ancianos miskitos, by Avelino Cox
[The Tula Walpa Peoples' Cosmovison -- published with the support of the Austrian Development  Cooperation Association (CA) and the Regional Health Commission of the  RAAN Autonomous Council].

and

Un Mundo para Jugar y Cantar, by Albertina Garcia A. and Sagrario
Talavera G.
[A World for Playing and Singing - published with the support  of the Foundation for Atlantic Coast Autonomy and Development (FADCANIC)  and the Austrian Cooperation Development Service (OED)].

Both paperback editions, edited by Carlos Aleman Ocampo,  were beautifully designed and presented by Elizabeth Fonseca Bojorge. Some will not be able to resist them just for that.  "Cosmovision's" cover offers a color  reproduction of an oil painting by Costena artist Judith Kain. "Un Mundo"  comes with a cover design by Adilia Aleman Cunningham that will delight the child in all of us.  Its interior pages feature numerous drawings by Mauricio Solis taken from the El  Salvadoran Ministry of Culture's "Los juegos que jugamos".  [Games We Play].

Below we reprint (in translation) the prefaces to the two books and a sampling of author's remarks from their introductions.

PREFACE  TO  TULU WALPA

Never before has a study such as this been posed more dramatically -- a  study of the desires and ambitions of a people who want not just to survive, but to make progress, but to do so in response to their own ancestral impulses.

This study reveals a world unknown, but fundamental to setting in motion  any development program among the Miskito people, all the more so in the case of a health program.   But within our approach to diagnosing the health situation in the RAAN we consider it essential to know the thinking of the people who are to be the subjects of those programs.

This work by Avelino Cox concluded only recently.  We find in it a rich  social, religious, and medical content implying a profound knowledge of a millennial culture and all the right to offer opinions and get to know it more.

It's with that understanding that we approached outlining new health models for the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast.  We deeply hold that we cannot turn our backs on such an intense conception of life and death.  This book became indispensable for putting into practice new health models in the framework of multiethnic, regional autonomy.

Alta Hooker
President of the Health Commission
RAAN Regional Autonomous Council
March, 1998

From Avelino Cox's Introduction

I set out to write these lines in order to disinter from obscurity, from the night of times past, the parcel of ideas, dreams, aspirations, hopes, positive and negative knowledge -- all that we've been as a people.  What has determined the path of our existence, of our human feeling.

How many grand things?  How many forgotten practices?  How many elders who passed on knowledge to their best sons and daughters?  I invoke with nostalgia the long road I took to learn what I know leave as a precious heritage to the new generations.

Many are the difficulties that surface when trying to disinter our  peoples' concealed life.  Some have criticized our way of being, our millennial practices.  They've insulted and censured our love for ourselves.  They're persons or institutions that will never understand our wisdom;  our ways can only be measures with the age of time.

Expressing our Cosmovision is  difficult task and a dangerous idea.  The  archives only exist in the mind of the elders and in that of those who are learning from them.  These living archives are subject to memory's vicissitudes.  A related memory is not precise knowledge, nor are all elders knowledge guardians; only a few are selected, but from them we learned.
....

Our people who have resisted for more than 500 years now present to other peoples: greatness, ingenuity, fraternity, sense of humanity, our moral outlook, our ancient religion, and our sense of life that in some way is ongoing in our daily doings.  We are a people loyal to our ancestors, this is part of our greatness.

We have developed our own sciences, different from western science. Because our reason for living is different.  They've tried to keep us  anonymous and have looked upon us as if we had an obscure, idle history; with neither codes nor laws of conduct, as if we were mere cave wall sketches: something dispersed in time that could waft away and disappear on the morning breeze.  And it comes to them that to be saved we have to let go what is ours and adopt what is alien.

On the contrary -- behind the memory extracted from oblivion we extract our truth.  Our word which has a different meaning, a message that today is being deciphered bit by bit in so far as we lean from our elders and are determined to press ahead with transmitting the knowledge of our ancestors.
 

PREFACE TO "... JUGAR Y CANTAR"

The first years of grade school are basic to the formation of human values and development of the imaginations; and to the formation of memories of happy childhood years.

The primary school teacher who teaches us how to read and who teaches us the enchantment of leaning through games and stories with much tenderness, often constitutes one of the deepest sentiments of the human being.

For various reasons many of these games, riddles, and stories have been
cosigned to oblivion.  That reality induced a group of students, and also
teachers, to undertake to research children's games and stories still
extant among teachers and kids in some Siuna barrios.  Many of these games and stories are known in other parts of the country and in other countries. But the students have only tried here to collect what is conserved in Siuna's memory.

The text was elaborated by two students of socio-linguistics, a course
offered by Professor Carlos Aleman Ocampo at URACCAN's Siuna campus.  It was made possible by the methodology promoted by URACCAN - theoretical formation of students through practical work in the social milieu where they developed and where the will later exercise their profession.
....

This work constitutes the first installment in an experimental process that will go on in different languages and communities with the support of URACCAN students and teachers who, as each day passes, are acquiring greater research experience.

Doris Kroll
OED- Austrian Cooperation Service for Development


 

GERONA COMES TO BLUEFIELDS

URACCAN-GERONA COOPERATION

By Pedro Chavarria Lezama
Bluefields URACCAN External Relations Coordinator

Beginning in January 1998 the University of Gerona (Spain - GU)
established cooperation relations with the Bluefields campus of URACCAN.  These relations are unfolding in the areas of fisheries, natural resources, and institutional strengthening.

To develop these activities we've counted heavily on the support of Dr.
Juan Luis Allegret, the GU's Director of International Cooperation.  He
visited our region in 1997 when he participated in an interuniversity course on "Autonomous Government" sponsored by URACCAN-ASDI-BICU. [BICU (Bluefields Indian University of the Caribbean) ASDI (Swedish
International Development Association).] He also gave a lecture on fisheries systems and natural resource conservation.

Dr. Alegret also gave a 15-day seminar on "The Social Dimension of
Fishing", to both URACCAN and BICU at the beginning of the 1997 academic semester.  It was intended for third and fourth year students of Fishery Engineering.  GU's cooperation with URACCAN has also included sending some of their best teachers to train those future professionals for our region.

We also had the pleasure of a visit from Dr. Carlos Pla who helped us to
revise the curriculum of the Fishery Engineering program and also to design a Biology lab for the campus.

In 1998 we had the honor of a visit to our region and campus by Dr. Jose
Maria Nadal, Rector of the University of Gerona.  During his stay, Nadal
held talks with our academic authorities intended to strengthen ties between out two institutions.

From March to May we had among us Albert Cuffi, a teacher invited to give classes to third and fourth year fishery engineering students in ichthyology, microbiology, and fish pathology.  His dedication and academic effort, together with the good relations established with students and teachers, created a good spirit in the university community.

Josepa Bru, director of GU's Environment Institute, visited us in February to help us design a curriculum for the diploma course in Environmental Management begun by URACCAN in June 1998.

The Environmental Institute (IREMADES) has a cooperation plan for 1998 and 1999 that will involve various organizations in Bluefields and across the region.

The two universities have shaken hands to form strong bonds of academic
cooperation and internationalism.  We've no doubt that these links will be
strengthened in the future because an interchange of students and teachers is now being discussed for the near future.


 

Bluefields:
One Step at a Time - a road for  URACCAN
Donna Hammond, Bluefields III  Year Sociology Student

Finally getting up to the Bluefields URACCAN campus has ceased to be a major problem for the university community.  Despite the rainy season, the work is now some 65% completed.  The first part of the work (820 meters of  roadway), which will allow access to the campus, will be completed by the end of July.  At the beginning of the year we had hoped completion would occur much sooner, but the job encountered a number of funding and execution problems - delaying it into the rainy season, a factor that brought on other complications.

However those difficulties have now been met by some very good news.

The Canadian Agency for International Development (CIDA) , acting through  the Canada-Nicaragua Countervalue Fund, has approved a second phase of the  project -  to bring the road right into the campus, up to the basket ball  court.  This is great news for Bluefields and cause for celebration in the URACCAN family.

The road construction is being carried out by a local firm.  This is the first time they have handled such an important project, but this too has a fortunate side because this firm generates local employment and is known
for quality work.  Funding for the project comes 70% from the Countervalue Fund and 30% from local contributors -URACCAN, the City, the Regional government, and BICU [the project also included repairing the road to the campus of the Bluefields Indian Caribbean University, the first part of the project to be completed].  Managing the project has offered an important [and in some ways unprecedented] experience for those involved  -- a mixed team of people from beneficiaries, to project owners, and funders has had to do diligent follow-up and evaluation work.  Local and national authorities have noted that this process has provided positive lessons for our community.

Here on the Bluefields campus there is a spirit of celebration.  At the next anniversary of the University in October we're going to be holding a regional Afro-Caribbean conference called "Joining minds, hands and hearts".   We just know it's going to be a big success!


 

URACCAN IN THE WINDY CITY

CHICAGO CONFERENCE HOSTS URACCAN

June 13 is a memorable day for URACCAN and many of its supporters in the  United States...a day when folks assembled in Chicago to hold their second national conference of URACCAN supporters and support groups.  URACCAN UPDATE has not yet received any written reports from participants in the conference, but from various comments coming our way we gather it was very successful.

URACCAN was represented their by its General and Academic Secretary, Amanda Puhiera; and by its former General Secretary, Francisco Campbell  who formally represented the URACCAN Association.

In a brief interview Amanda had with the editor of URACCAN UPDATE she noted that an important element of the conference was that URACCAN is now in much better direct contact with each of the local committees.  Many conference participants signaled the importance of such direct contact, given that each is independent and has its own agenda, priorities, and varied commitments.  The conference enables groups to come together and exchange experiences, discuss issues, and define areas where coordination will be of general benefit.  But it does not speak on behalf of local groups and no coordinating center represents them.

URACCAN was able to communicate its current and ongoing needs in a
concrete way -- and participants were able to relate their interests to that in specific areas such as communication, scholarships, construction brigades/volunteers, and helping with URACCAN outreach in North America. Likewise, both Francisco and Amanda had an opportunity to learn about various issues regarding current events in Nicaragua and in our Autonomous Regions that participants wanted to discuss and clarify.  That part of the URACCAN supporters conference benefited from the participation of members of the Nicaragua Network who later broke off to proceed with their own agenda.

Below we carry an edited version of Amanda Puhiera's greetings and opening remarks to the conference.
 

Excerpt: Opening Remarks of Amanda Puhiera
Second National Conference of URACCAN Supporters and Support Groups, Chicago, June 13, 1998

Greetings everyone:

On behalf of Doctor Myrna Cunningham, our student body, faculty, staff,
and myself I  salute and thank you for your ongoing solidarity and efforts to support the growth and development of the vision that we call URACCAN.

As a member of URACCAN's staff I am here to express our sincere
appreciation for your work and support in helping us build our university
within the context culture and language diversity.  Our Autonomy process
is the indispensable first step to eliminate misery and poverty through construction of a society that responds to the hopes and dreams of all its
people.

As you know, URACCAN has three campuses located in Bilwi, Bluefields, and Siuna.  Besides the regular five-year degree programs that you know of, each campus carries out extension programs to satisfy the concrete needs of our autonomous regions.

Thus, Bilwi has an extension program in Waspam (on the Rio Coco) that offers a five-year degree in Agroforesty Engineering, a three-year program in Forestry, and a degree program in Education.

Bluefields has an extension program in Education in Pearl Lagoon.

Siuna has extension programs in Rosita and Bonanza, offering three-year
programs in Education and Accounting.

A liaison office operates in Managua, carrying out management, administrative, and communications duties.  It also oversees the newly
constituted Nueva Guinea branch, created in response to an interest in that community to have an URACCAN extension program.  In 1997 our university began to offer five-year degree programs in Agroforestry Engineering, Education, and Business Management.

Consistent with our mission statement, we have strengthened short-term
courses offered through community extension programs targeting the working population needing to improve their technical skills. URACCAN's special interest us to build a pool of qualified workers, eliminating our Autonomous Regions' dependency with respect to the Pacific.

Even though improvements have occurred in our  infrastructural expansion, government budget allocation, we still need your support  and
solidarity.

Our growing student population is now 2500.

Our faculty consists of 200 teachers.  Sixty others are engaged in administrative and support work, meaning that some 260 households in both autonomous regions are benefiting from jobs created by URACCAN.

URACCAN began to receive government funding in 1996 when it was recognized by the National Council of Universities (CNU).  This meant it could be a full participant in the 6%-national-budget formula. The CNU is the legal entity that regulates Nicaragua's higher education system.

It should be noted, however, that the CNU has a policy of resource distribution heavily favoring older members.  New participants  such as URACCAN are at a disadvantage.  That's why URACCAN only received 8 of the 11 million Cordobas we requested in our 1988 budget [11 million Cordobas then exchanged around 1.1 million US dollars - editor].

Given an increasing demand for academic services and the ongoing challenge to modernize, URACCAN's weak spots remain: 1) infrastructure: we need to expand; 2) transportation: we lack adequate and sufficient capacity; 3) equipment: we need to update.

Likewise, lack of laboratories in the natural sciences, agroforestry, and languages hinders students ability to apply acquired theoretical knowledge.

This problem requires our urgent attention.

Specialized cooperation is needed to strengthen our faculty in fields such
as fishery engineering, computer sciences, bilingual and intercultural education.  This can be accomplished through faculty exchanges or visiting volunteer teachers for periods ranging from two to six months, depending on the subject matter.

Although URACCAN tuition is very low, our target population is being
confronted by extreme poverty that erodes the desire for academic improvement and achievement.  This means we have to expand URACCAN's scholarship fund.  The Bluefields campus currently runs a US$1600 monthly scholarship-fund deficit.

So your help to beef up the fund is of vital importance to us.

If each solidarity group were to contribute just US$100 monthly to our scholarship fund, the Bluefields deficit would disappear and other needy
students could also benefit.

We are making available to you a variety of documents that we hope will
serve to guide and focus your support work, making it more effective and
efficient.

Once again, thank you very much. We deeply appreciate what you have done for us and for our people; and we hope we can continue to count on your support and solidarity now, and in the future.

Thank you very much!

Amanda Puhiera
General Secretary
URACCAN


 

PAMPHLET ISSUED IN ENGLISH

GETTING TO KNOW URACCAN

The following is the unformatted text version of a recently published brochure offering basic information about the university.

UU readers involved in URACCAN support and cooperation projects may find this brochure useful as a convenient source of facts and figures.
 

UNIVERSITY OF THE AUTONOMOUS REGIONS OF THE CARIBBEAN COAST OF NICARAGUA: URACCAN

Campuses in Bilwi * Siuna * Bluefields
Extension courses in Rosita * Bonanza* Waspam * Pearl Lagoon * Orinoco * Nueva Guinea

2500 students in 1998 academic year
Staff of two hundred teachers

Indigenous, Afrocaribbean, multhietnic, community-based and participatory

THE URACCAN TEAM

Chancellor and Rector          Dr. Myrna Cunningham Kain

President of the Board         Dr. Henninsgton Omier

Vice Rectors

• Bilwi               Albert St. Clair
• Bluefields       Miguel Gonzalez P.
• Siuna                Thelma Sanchez

Academic Secretary     Amanda Puhiera
 

THE URACCAN ASSOCIATION
 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President - Dr. Henningston Omier

Vice-Presidents - Dr. Alfredo Arana, Dr. Roberto Hodgson
 

SECRETARIAT

Miriam Hooker
Daisy George
Jose Mairena
 

TREASURER

Rev. Merlin Forbes
 

MEMBERS

Francisco Campbell
Dr. Ray Hooker
Cyril Omier
Dr. Alfredo Cordero
Dr. Myrna Cunningham
Albert St. Clair
Hugo Sujo
Fernando Espinoza
Oscar Rios
Carmen Gomez
Alicia Slate
Celia Aguilar
Sandra Hooker
Adolfo castrillo
Alta Hooker
Amanda Puhiera
Rodrigo Larrave
Rev. Allan Budier
Thalia Coe
Eugenio Pao
Fidencio davis
Deborah Hodgson
STUDENT REP
TEACHER REP

UNITY IN DIVERSITY:
WHY AUTONOMY?

We Nicaraguan Costenos occupy a unique place and time in today's  globalized world.  We've reached a point where we must consolidate our regional, multiethnic institutions in an autonomous framework distinct from mono-ethnic models.  Only in this way can we win respect for our cultural-ethnic diversity, conservation and rational use of our natural resources, and solidarity among our people enabling us to bring about
interchange and a flourishing of our cultures.

With each passing day the possibilities for integral and sustainable development depend more and more on access to scientific knowledge.
Indigenous communities and peoples must have the means to gain access to and integrate such  knowledge into their world outlook and particular cosmovision.

URACCAN intends to facilitate this process without reproducing past
schemes involving acritical transfer of knowledge not relevant to our reality.  We hope with this approach to also help reduce the "brain drain"
from our region to the world educational market.
 

A U T O N O M Y

WHAT IT IS FOR US
Autonomy is a process of national liberation, of national reconciliation. The divine sparks trapped in each alienated Costeno, in each demeaned Nicaraguan, must be re-animated and redeemed through a successful
autonomous process.  Our moral imperative is to build a better Atlantic Coast, to build a better Nicaragua.

WHAT IT IS NOT
Autonomy is not a movement for independence; it is not a separatist endeavor.  We Costenos are committed to consolidating the National Unity of Nicaragua through strengthening indigenous peoples and ethnic communities of the Nicaraguan Caribbean area, just as we are committed to Central American reunification and Latin American unity.
 

OUR VISION

URACCAN seeks to infuse the human resources of indigenous peoples and  ethnic communities of the Nicaraguan Caribbean coast with technical, intellectual, and moral capacities that empower us, enable us to self-management skills, and to become full participants in our regional
multiethnic autonomy process.
 

OUR MISSION

URACCAN's mission is to help fortify the Autonomy Process on the
Nicaraguan Caribbean coast through training and professionalizing of human resources.
 

OUR AREAS OF WORK

ACADEMIC COURSE WORK FOR BOTH STUDENTS AND OUR TEACHERS

EXTENSION COURSES IN COLLABORATION WITH COMMUNITY GROUPS

RESEARCH -- VIA OUR OWN INSTITUTES AND GENERAL STUDENT  RESEARCH

MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATIVE STUDIES AND PRACTICUM WORK

REGIONAL, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

CONTINENTAL NETWORKING WITH INDIGENOUS INITIATIVES

NETWORKING AROUND THE CARIBBEAN BASIN AND ISLANDS
 

PROGRAMMATIC ORIENTATIONS

I:  ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE: Creating clear parameters for academic excellence and implementing  new educational paradigms for forming professional and technical human resources with people able to formulate and apply adequate methods and policies for managing natural resources and sustainable development.

II:  CULTURAL IDENTITY: Helping to strengthen the ethnic and cultural identity of each Indigenous people and ethnic community; to develop capacities to assure the full exercise of their autonomous rights (economic, social, cultural, juridical, ecological, religious, and political).

III: LOCAL LEADERSHIP:  Create opportunities for traditional leaders and empirically-trained persons to acquire professional and technical
training, assuring an appropriate gender, ethnic, and generation balance
among such students.

IV:  INSTITUTIONAL CONSOLIDATION: Ongoing and sustained increase in URACCAN's institutional capacities - management, academic, research, technical cooperation, and mobilization of resources - to assure
appropriate and adequate administration and sustainability of URACCAN
programs, projects, and initiatives.

V:   INTERCULTUAL EDUCATION:  Serving as an international and national beacon and academic reference point for intercultural and plurilingual education anchored in human development based on Indigenous and Afro-Caribbean rights, sustainable resource utilization, and our own models for self-management and autonomy.
 

URACCAN RESEARCH INSTITUTES

URACCAN HAS FOUR RESEARCH INSTITUTES WHICH OPERATE AUTONOMOUSLY AND ARE BASED ON URACCAN's  LOCAL CAMPUSES
 

INSTITUTE FOR LINGUISTIC RESEARCH AND CULTURAL RECOVERY (IPILC)

DIRECTOR:  GUILLERMO McCLEAN

IPILC is based on all three URACCAN campuses.  It has carried out studies about the linguistic situation of students of higher education in the
Caribbean Coast and about the educational situation faced by indigenous
peoples and ethnic communities.

IPILC elaborated a proposal for a decentralized Caribbean Coast educational system on behalf of the Regional Educational Commissions set up by the Autonomous councils, the Ministry of Education, and related NGOs.

IPILC works with cultural recovery programs and does work with PEBI
[Intercultural Bilingual Education Program] in both autonomous regions.

IPILC is part of the EIB Latin American Network and has carried out
studies on this theme in Central America in collaboration with Indigenous
organizations, UNESCO, and the Rigoberta Menchu Foundation.

IPILC was a principal organizer of the First (April 1996) International
Symposium on EIB and the First Interregional Meeting on Intercultural
Education and Autonomy.
 

INSTITUTE FOR TRADITIONAL MEDICINE AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT (IMTRDC)

DIRECTOR: ALTA HOOKER

IMTRDC specializes in ethno-medicine, ethno-botany, and community
development.  It has coordinated over forty studies in the past two years.
It has a medicinal plant farm in Krabutingni (RAAN) and a herbarium in
Bilwi.

IMTRDC has more than 50 healers, midwives, and sukias supporting its work. Recently the Mayangna Sauni As Traditional Medicine Commission was formed.

IMTRDC played a key role in the elaboration and establishment of an
Autonomous Health Model for Caribbean Coast Indigenous  people and ethnic communities, working together with the Autonomous Councils and other health initiatives.

IMTRDC collaborates with international health initiatives and
organizations, participating in both Indigenous and broader networks.

IMTRDC works on mental health issues and anti drug-abuse campaigns. It is based in Bilwi [RAAN], and also does work in Bluefields, Bonanza, and Siuna.
 
 

NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT INSTITUTE (IREMADES)

DIRECTOR:  ZARIFETH BOLANOS

IREMADES has active projects in both Bluefields and Siuna areas.  It is
monitoring a dredging project in Bluefields Bay and in Siuna has undertaken a soil-use study in the Rio Wani microbasin.

IREMADES began its work with a study of a participatory research
methodology for community work on natural resources.  In Bilwi it is
coordinating TRANSFORMA, an environmental network.  Together with CATIE is offered forest-management courses.  Presently a joint management project for the Plan Grande Experimental Center (Bonanza) is being negotiated with GTZ-MARENA-BOSAWAS [German Cooperation, Environment Ministry, and Bosawas Reserve].

IREMADES organized the first Symposium on Ecology and Development in Siuna in 1977.
 

INSTITUTE FOR PROMOTION AND STUDY OF AUTONOMY (IEPA)

DIRECTOR:  CESAR PAIZ

IEPA is based in Bilwi and Bluefields, with its main offices and documentation center in Bilwi.  It organizes forums and debates on
regional autonomy, communal lands, and human rights.

IEPA carries out lobbying work at the National Assembly, the Regional
Autonomous Councils, and AMURACCAN (Association of Municipalities of the Atlantic Coast Autonomous Regions).

IEPA organized the Central America and Mexico Indigenous Rights Network (RDICAM) and is responsible for URACCAN participation in the continental Network of Indigenous Universities and Allied Programs, comprised of 23 participating organizations.

IEPA coordinated URACCAN's Indigenous Rights Diploma
 
 

URACCAN COURSES

PRE-GRADUATE COURSES
* Agroforestry Engineering
* Maritime Resources Engineering
* Business Administration oriented to natural resources
* Nursing Degree with honors in Epidemiology and Community
Health
* Education Sciences with honors in Social and Natural
Sciences
* Intercultural Bilingual Education Degree
 

ADVANCED TECHNICAL COURSES
* Indigenous Rights
* Social Communication
* ESEDIR - Mayan Culture and Community Development
* Intercultural Bilingual Education
* Accounting
* Forestry

POST BASIC
* Nursing with honors in Teaching and Administration

CERTIFICATE COURSES
* Gender and Local Development
* Indigenous Rights
* Sustainable Development
* Basic Accounting
* Local Health Management
* Intercultural Bilingual Education

SPECIAL COURSES
* Management
* Business Management and Independent Gold Miners
* Agroforestry
* Research Methodology
* Pedagogy
* Human Rights
* Cooperativism
 

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

URACCAN's  teaching staff are mostly  people from our two autonomous regions; it is supplemented by academics invited for certain courses.  Each semester our teachers take PD upgrading and methodology courses. Twenty-nine of our professors are taking Masters Degree and Post-graduate courses in different fields offered by universities in Canada (York) and Spain (Barcelona).
 

POSITIVE EXPERIENCES

URACCAN has a high profile as a multi-ethnic and multilingual Costeno
institution in eight municipalities of the Autonomous Regions -- with real
credibility and acceptance from most of the public.

URACCAN is recognized by the National Council of Universities (CNU) and  has access to state funding under the Constitutionally-established "6% of national budget formula".

URACCAN has a strong international profile and plays a leading role in key Indigenous and other networks.  Our first graduates were Mayan ESEDIR students.

URACCAN has been able to provide partial or full scholarships to some 50% of its students.

URACCAN has highly qualified and committed administrative-technical
leadership.
 
 

LIMITATIONS

URACCAN's growth has been uneven because each campus has its own pace of  institutional development.  This impedes integral approaches to problem solving and planning.

The vision, mission, and strategies of URACCAN are not adequately
understood and appropriated by Association members, the administration, teachers, and students.  Coupled with scarce resources, this problem makes it difficult to identify priorities.

Traditional teaching methods still persist.  Together with a certain
"paternal-materialist" relationship existing between teachers and students
(a heritage from our colonial past), this creates barriers to our educational goals.

Relations with other institutions of higher education are still weak and
underdeveloped -- both within our region and at the national level.
 

EDUCATION WITHOUT BORDERS OR LIMITS

INTERNATIONAL NETWORKING AND COOPERATION

URACCAN is a community-based university serving the autonomous regions of Nicaragua.  But URACCAN is also an international university.

URACCAN grants accreditation to the Guatemalan Escuela Superior de
Estudios y Desarrollo Rural (ESEDIR-School for Advanced Studies and Rural Development), in particular to a course on Mayan Perspectives of
Community Development.  On a Central American level URACCAN accredits certificate courses with FLACCA (Open Faculty Association of the Atlantic Coast of Central America) and with ILPEC (Latin  American Pedagogic Institute) - Human Rights Certificate.

URACCAN participates in and helps to lead several important regional and continental initiatives - Indigenous, educational, health, and human
rights networks.  They include:

* Continental Network of Indigenous Universities and Allied Programs
[coordinated from Canada (SIFC),  Nicaragua (URACCAN), and Chile (Frontier University).

* World Indigenous Health Network (coordinated from Ottawa, Canada).

* Continental Network on Multicultural Bilingual Education (coordinated from La Paz, Bolivia).

* Permanent Forum on Autonomy and Indigenous Rights (URACCAN chairs this Forum).

URACCAN publishes an English-language internet email bulletin called
URACCAN UPDATE.

URACCAN's  friends and collaborators include NGOs and support groups on several continents.  Among them are:

The US PASTORS' FOR PEACE NETWORK and the US FRIENDS OF URACCAN NETWORK; the Canadian YORK UNIVERSITY-URACCAN LINKAGE PROJECT;
GZT.(Germany)-MARENA-Bosawas; ASDI; KEPA FINLAND; OXFAX-UK; OXFAM-AUSTRALIA; APN and SAIH, NORWAY; OED; AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT; CIDA-CANADA; INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISTS FEDERATION, LATIN AMERICAN REFUGEE COUNCIL; MADRE, EARTHLINKS, BENEDICTINE SISTERS, AND TECSCHANGE (US), GOVERNMENT OF HOLLAND, AND THE UN.

URACCAN has bilateral agreements with York University and the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College in Canada; four US universities (Idaho, Cleveland, Illinois, Santa Barbara); DADA in Germany; Barcelona, Girona, and Popona Fabra in Spain; UPAZ and CATIE in Costa Rica; and ESEDIR-PRODESSA and the Rigoberta Menchu Foundation in Guatemala.
 

OUR CARIBBEAN COAST

Nicaragua has two Autonomous Regions:

RAAN:  North Atlantic Autonomous Region
Autonomous Government Center: Bilwi

RAAS   South Atlantic Autonomous Region
Autonomous Government Center: Bluefields

Modern History: British "Protectorate" until 1894 when  invaded by Nicaragua's General Cabezas and incorporated into the Spanish-speaking
nation-state.  Won constitutional autonomy in 1987 during the Sandinista
revolutionary decade. Constitutional recognition then given to minority
languages in the autonomous regions.
 
 

Ethnic Group	RAAN	RAAS	Total (%)
Mestizo	63,964	53,179	117,143 (46)
Miskito	60,198	9,204	70,102 (27.5)
Creole	15,299	34,771	50,000 (19.6)
Garifuna		3,068	3,068 (1.2)
Rama		1,023	1,023 (0.4)
Mayangna	12,181	1,023	13,204 (5.19)
Totals	152,294	102,268	254,560 (100)

[1991 Estimates FADCANIC-HUMBOLTD FOUNDATION]

Caribbean Coast Region has 6.2% of total national population of 4.1
million [1993 estimate].  Mestizos comprise 96% of Nicaraguans,
Miskito-Mayagna-Rama - 3%, Creoles-Garifuna (Afrocaribbean) - 1%. Major languages spoken: Spanish, Miskito, Creole English, Mayagna.

• Total area of the Coast region is 66,542 square kilometers, or 50.4% of the total national territory [131,811 sq. k.]
• Major Rivers-Rios: Coco, Wawa, Bambana, Prinzapolka,  Grande de Matagalpa, Escondito, Rama.
• Major economic activities: fisheries, gold-mining, lumbering, agriculture, tourism.
• Larger population centers/municipalities: Siuna, Bilwi, Bluefields, Waspam-Rio Coco, Rama, Pearl Lagoon.
• Major Ports: Bilwi, Bluefields, Rama.
• Major Airports: Bilwi (soon to become international) and Bluefields.  Regular commercial flights also service Siuna, Rosita, Bonanza, Waspam, and Corn Island.
• Major Highways: Managua-Rio-Blanco-Las Minas-Bilwi / Managua-Rama-Rio Escondito-Bluefields / Bilwi-Waspam-Rio Coco.

URACCAN UPDATE HOME