Local Pastor Builds a Church for an Extremely Poor Community Who Live and Work at Nindiri Landfill
Pastor José Duarte’s ministry focuses on the extremely underprivileged community of people who reside and eke out a living at the Nindiri open air landfill.
Nindiri (pop. 58,105) is a small village about 21 miles southeast of Nicaragua's capital city Managua (pop. 1,052,217). It houses one of the many landfills in the country and is one that “benefits” from the overflow garbage of Managua’s La Chureca, which means “trash can” in Managuan slang. La Chureca is one of the largest landfills in Central America.
Pastor José desired the addition of two restrooms and a couple of children’s classrooms to be built onto the simple cinderblock structure that serves as a church at the Nindiri dump.
These additions give him more space for Sunday school classes, but also more space to bring in tutors to help the children with their school work during the week.
Soon after these additions were completed, a group called Corazones Abiertos (Open Hearts) reached out to YKPM and made a commitment to feed up to 60 children, one meal a day—either a preschool breakfast or an after-school snack—if a kitchen were added to this little church. Today, this kitchen is used to facilitate food prep and storage for this ministry.
These upgrades help José share the Gospel and serve the poor, especially the children, of the Nindiri city dump.
YKPM raised just over $16,000 for this church and the kitchen addition.
Facts about Garbage Dump Communities in Nicaragua
Out of the approximately 1,000 persons who reside at the La Chureca dump in Managua, 50% are children under age 18
Many of these children marry young at the age of 13 or 14
Waste pickers are called Churequeros throughout Nicaragua
Smaller landfills, such as the one in Nindiri, often benefit from the higher end garbage overflow from La Chureca
Churequeros suffer many severe health problems, such as asthma, tuberculosis, malaria, conjunctivitis and gastrointestinal disease
Many at La Chureca are also affected by lead, mercury and DDT because of the exposure to garbage and consumption of fish from Lake Managua
There are maybe 100 to 200 people who live at the Nindiri landfill, about 60 of whom are children
SOURCES:
by William Grigsby Vergara, Revista Envío
Facts about Nicaragua
Population: 6.5 million
Largest country in the Central American Isthmus
Capital city of Managua is third largest city in Central America
24.9% population lives below poverty line
Poverty concentrated in rural areas, especial among single households led by women
Since 2018, the country has been in a socio-political crisis that is still unresolved
Less than 50% of population has at least some secondary education
FUN FACT: Nicaragua is home to Lake Managua, which is only fresh water lake to have sharks
SOURCES:
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