COUNTRY / PROBLEM
Nicaragua is a Central American country, which borders Honduras and Costa Rica. It is surrounded by the waters of the Pacific Ocean on the west coast, and the Caribbean Sea on the east coast. Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in the Americas. Remittances are equivalent to roughly 15% of the country's gross domestic product.
During the war between the US-backed Contras and the government of the Sandinistas in the 1980s, much of the country's infrastructure was damaged or destroyed.
Infrastructure development in this country has been hampred by poverty and natural disasters, like Tropical Storm Matthew, which in 2010 hit six countries located on the Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea, including Nicaragua, which suffered the most. Then more than 70 people lost their lives and almost 6,200 become homeless. The gusty wind also resulted in the collapse of several bridges. One of them was the footbridge in Paso Real, whose destruction divided the Condega region into parts isolated from each other, and almost completely inaccessible during the rainy season.
ORGANISATION
Bridges to Prosperity is a United States-based organisation that specialises in building and repairing footbridges as well as training local communities in their maintenance. Footbridges provide access to health care, education and economic opportunity. Bridges to Prosperity was established in 2001 and has already built more than 250 footbridges, serving over 1 million community members all over the world.
The building of the 120-metre footbridge that gave thousands of people from 24 localities the means of travelling and transporting goods.
PROJECT
Kulczyk Foundation supported building and repairing footbridges projects of Bridges to Prosperity.
