Pacayas

Located in the mountains, with a dirt road amongst the forest for access, Pacayas is near the town of Talanga, and part of the municipality of Cantarranas. It is one of the most rural villages where we work, and it takes more than an hour to travel the 60 km trip from the SELF offices.

Pacayas consists of more than 300 villagers, in 63 families, many of whom work in agriculture. There is a primary school in the village, but for both work and more advanced school, youth and adults often have to travel to 10-30 km to the larger towns nearby. While there are more males than females in the community, there is equal participation of males and females in community leadership and organization.

Over the past several years, SELF has worked in collaboration with Pacayas on several community development projects. Starting with several health and dental collaboratives, we built trust and partnership with the community members, who were eager for more growth for their town’s future. Starting in 2018, with the community of Pacayas, SANAA and Rotary International, we started planning the development of a large water project, which took over a year to complete. SELF is now initiating a youth council with the Community Youth Microenterprise program to help support the schooling of Pacayas’ students.