An unexpected journey

It’s not easy trying to decide which events have led or motivated the journey I want to undertake now. I think something that definitely influenced me were the profound social changes happening in my country while I was growing up. Nicaraguan people had just overthrown a bloody dictatorship that kept in power for almost fifty years. So I grew up in a time of radical social changes when listening about social struggles and inclusiveness was very common. In spite of the darkness brought by the counter-revolutionary war imposed on Nicaragua during the 1980s, we also experienced the power of solidarity and hope. Many people from around the world were working in solidarity with Nicaraguan people back then, so I learned very early about the importance and unsuspected power of connections and collaboration.

Later on, my work experience in a nonprofit organization, which facilitated sister relationships between communities of faith from the USA and Nicaragua, taught me how critical is to connect people at a deep and meaningful level, share each other’s stories and build relationships based on interdependence as opposed to the dependency patterns that have characterized relationships between the global North and South. In pursuing these alternative ways of engaging with the ‘other’, communication plays an essential role. When people from diverse backgrounds and places come together and start sharing about their dreams and things that really matter to them, they can realize how much they have in common and uncover walls of misinformation that have been blocking and keeping them apart.

A few years ago, I was involved in a Global Economic Justice Program at an NGO based in Nicaragua. Here, I had the chance to learn about crucial issues impacting Nicaraguan and Mesoamerican people’s lives, which were not being addressed in traditional media. Not only was I able to learn from alternative news sources, but also from the voices of grassroots organizations and social movements, at a local and regional level. I remember wondering myself, how come no one is talking about this on the newspapers or TV?!

How did I find out about World Pulse?

Last year, I had a wonderful opportunity provided by an incredible nonprofit organization based in Seattle, iLEAP: The Center for Critical Service (http://ileap.org/). They gave me the privilege of being part of their International Fellowship Program, through which I met people from different regions of the world working for positive social change in their own communities. I experienced the significance of networking, collaboration, need of renewed global leadership, media and the power of storytelling. In the midst of this exciting adventure an amazing woman from the iLEAP staff ‘introduced’ me to World Pulse. After a couple of conversations we had, she thought I might be interested in this beautiful initiative, so she gave me an issue of World Pulse Magazine! And she was so right… I fell in love with it!