Organization name withheld (1)

About the Organization Contact and Service Areas Successes and Impact Innovative Solutions for IPV Survivors’ Economic Security Survivor Leadership Understanding Economic Harm in Context

About the Organization

Country

Nicaragua

Number of survivors served in a year

51 to 100

Languages

Spanish

Groups most commonly served

Refugees, migrants, or internally displaced persons Rural communities Sex workers Women Youth, children, or adolescents

Type of organization

Nonprofit or non-governmental organization (NGO) Other non-traditional organization

Program model(s)

Community-based financial initiatives Holistic crisis response Rights-based economic justice Survivor-centered income generation Systemic change through strategic partnerships Transforming social norms through community-building

Contact and Service Areas

Email

If you would like to contact this organization, please email FreeFrom to introduce yourself at programs@freefrom.org

Service Area(s)

Nicaragua (urban and rural communities, with emphasis on the Caribbean coast); Nicaragua’s neighboring countries

Successes and Impact

“Women go from being participants in the program to becoming human rights defenders and community leaders.”¹

This organization has a powerful community-based approach that encourages economic autonomy, healing, and leadership among survivors at all levels of society. The Nicaraguan government has dismantled civil society organizations throughout the country—yet this organization continues to move forward, creating networks of survivors and adapting their model despite having to operate from exile.

Survivors achieve economic autonomy

The Solidarity Credit Fund has supported women survivors in developing their own businesses, breaking cycles of economic dependence. Participants take part in training sessions where they learn how to manage business finances, rebuild their self-esteem and financial capacity, and receive small funds to grow their businesses. The organization explains: “We want [survivors] to be able to aspire to financial independence, empowerment, personal growth, entrepreneurship, and self-sustainability. . . . And many times, women have achieved exactly that.” Additionally, many of the program’s graduates return as mentors, creating a strong and sustainable support network.

Building community power and solidarity

The organization’s model puts survivors at the center of their work. Participants not only benefit from the programs but also take on leadership roles within their communities. This approach ensures that the organization’s programs are aligned with the real needs of survivors. “Working with local [survivor] leaders strengthens our organization and creates bonds that last beyond the programs,” says the organization.

To bolster solidarity, community-based survivor advocates come together to form a network of human rights defenders. This network leads awareness campaigns and participates in identifying other survivors who need support, reinforcing the organization’s work. Advocates also form strong bonds with each other as they campaign for change at the government level and create impact at the grassroots level for survivors across the country.

Resilience in the face of political repression

In a challenging political context, this organization has demonstrated an extraordinary capacity for adaptation. Despite the loss of their legal status in Nicaragua, the organization persists, supporting displaced women in neighboring countries and helping them rebuild their lives. “We have had a very strong impact, so strong that [all of the human rights organizations] have been expelled from Nicaragua because of the work we have been doing,” the organization stresses. They emphasize their dedication to their work: “Institutional violence is one of the greatest challenges we face, but we continue forward because of our commitment to women’s rights.”

Innovative Solutions for IPV Survivors’ Economic Security

“The revolving fund arose from the needs of the women’s community.”

About the Program

Based on the needs identified by women survivors of gender-based violence served by the organization, the Solidarity Credit Fund was created as a revolving fund that provides microloans and business training to these women. Participants repay the loans so that others can benefit from the fund. This program supports them in developing small businesses and aims to help them achieve financial independence. In addition, this system creates a continuous cycle of mutual aid that fosters solidarity and leadership among survivors—an innovative aspect often lacking in other credit cooperative initiatives.

Program Development and Key Strategies

The organization’s approach is flexible and adapts to the changing needs of communities. They work closely with women leaders in specific territories to develop effective strategies, noting that they “have developed a model in which each woman identifies what she needs to move forward and actively participates in the program’s decision-making.”

The success of their Solidarity Credit Fund is based on three key approaches:

Personalized entrepreneurship training paired with small loans
Integration of economic and psychological support
Mentoring by graduate survivors

Personalized entrepreneurship training paired with small loans

Identify or reinforce entrepreneurial pathways

The organization offers a series of workshops and training tailored to the needs of survivors on how to start and run a business. This may include identifying sustainable business opportunities in rural or urban communities. Depending on the specific needs of each participant, it may also include financial education, savings strategies, and advice on developing small businesses, such as opening stalls or shops or street vending.

Participants receive support in designing personalized business plans geared toward long-term sustainability. “Many [survivors] already have their own initiatives, like pulperías [small shops and mobile commerce] where they sell milk, bread, or clothing. We give them the tools so these initiatives can thrive and they don’t have to depend on [someone else],” the organization says.

Receiving and managing small loans

Although the organization’s resources are limited, part of the support they offer to women survivors may include a small loan to help them start or grow their small business. Unlike other common microcredit initiatives, this loan is also accompanied by education on how to manage microloans efficiently. Repaying the small loan becomes a way for women to assist other survivors in their community, creating a network of solidarity and mutual support.

Integration of economic and psychological support

The organization recognizes that emotional well-being is a fundamental part of developing economic autonomy. While receiving financial assistance, participants also begin to recover from their trauma and rebuild their self-esteem, ensuring that emotional and economic well-being go hand-in-hand. The organization states that the “main guidelines” of this process are “emotional support, psychological empowerment, and training in managing their own resources.”

The organization’s team includes psychologists and social workers who provide constant support throughout the process, helping survivors heal and build confidence. This approach also prevents revictimization, ensuring that women have a safe space to express their experiences and receive counseling. The organization explains: “We try not to revictimize women. That’s why we listen to them with a single team that accompanies them from start to finish, avoiding them having to repeat their story several times.”

Mentoring by graduate survivors

One of the most innovative aspects of the program is their mentoring approach, in which women who have successfully completed the process become mentors to new participants. “Many women who have gone through the program are now . . . mentors, guiding other survivors to also succeed,” the organization states. Mentors help new participants navigate the challenges of entrepreneurship and establish local support networks.

Survivor-led mentoring offers practical support, reinforces a sense of community and solidarity among women, and ensures the program’s sustainability. According to the organization: “Solidarity is the key to building a more just future.”

Survivor Leadership

“Participants not only receive help, but also become community leaders and human rights defenders. . . . Our work strengthens leadership in the territories and gives a voice to women who previously had no space to express their needs.”

The organization fosters survivor leadership through active participation at all levels of the organization. Many of the women survivors of gender-based violence who go through the organization’s programs become community advocates, mentoring others and raising awareness about gender-based violence.

Additionally, women survivors play a fundamental role in decision-making and program creation. The organization’s initiatives are based on the experiences of survivors, ensuring that programs are practical and relevant to those who need them most. As the organization explains, “They participate in program decisions and often become leaders in their communities.”

Understanding Economic Harm in Context

The revolving fund and the organization’s other programs are designed to be flexible and adaptable to different contexts in Nicaragua. Specifically, the organization focuses on low-income women survivors in rural and urban areas, with a particular focus on women from the Caribbean coast. More recently, they have focused on displaced survivors now living in neighboring countries. The organization has observed several factors that affect how these communities are subjected to economic violence and the options available to survivors of intimate partner violence to build their economic security:

Unequal access to property limits women’s income potential
Gender norms regarding control of income hinder women’s economic independence
Political unrest and institutional violence threaten the success achieved by survivors

Unequal access to property limits women’s income potential

Nicaragua faces unique challenges that perpetuate economic inequality, especially with regard to access to property. In many rural areas, women are systematically denied the right to own land, which is often owned by men.² This limits women’s access to resources essential for achieving economic independence and leaves them financially dependent on their husbands or male relatives. As the organization explains, “The man owns the land, but he only exploits it and does not give his wife the opportunity to work it.”

Land ownership is often linked to a woman’s marital status, making it difficult for survivors to achieve economic independence if they leave an abusive relationship.³ As a result, many women do not have access to the financial resources necessary to support themselves or their children.

Gender norms regarding control of income hinder women’s economic independence

Even when women are able to work and earn money, gender inequalities can cause their partners to control how the money is spent. The organization comments: “Power inequality means that women work so that men will give them money. . . . It was the man who managed the money, not the woman. It is double exploitation, in addition to experiencing violence itself.” They note that some survivors “who had jobs in markets, grocery stores, or other initiatives of their own, had to report to their partners. They did not have that economic independence.”

Because of these norms around access to and control of economic resources, the organization responds not only with financial assistance but also with a holistic approach that addresses multiple forms of economic violence and builds emotional resilience.

Political unrest and institutional violence threaten the success achieved by survivors

Political unrest threatens lives and can undo progress in economic autonomy

Since 2018, civil unrest in Nicaragua has forced more than 200,000 Nicaraguans to flee the country, many of them women seeking safety from violence.⁴ Political unrest threatens the progress made by survivors in achieving economic security and has forced many to start over in neighboring countries.

The consequences of this “institutional violence” for women survivors are clear: “Many of these economically empowered women have experienced institutional violence such as the closure of their stores . . . and fleeing because they have participated in our organization. In addition to gender-based violence, there is institutional violence that is not visible . . . We have experiences of women who have participated in the revolving fund and have to leave the country because they support other women, because they say ‘enough is enough’ or because they have an opinion . . . And many women’s organizations are silenced. It’s like a message to shut up and say nothing. . . . [It is] also important to identify the damage that institutional violence does.”

Perseverance in exile

Despite these discouraging and painful circumstances, the organization and the women survivors they work with persist in their mission, now in a context of forced displacement. These women face new barriers in their new countries, including obstacles to accessing employment and housing. The organization has expanded their reach to support displaced women, helping them rebuild their lives in exile through access to economic programs. They emphasize that “violence does not end with separation or displacement; we work with women who continue to suffer exploitation even outside Nicaragua.”

Notes

Direct quotes are slightly edited for style and flow.
Amanda Martínez Elvir, “Nicaragua Land Ownership,” Land Portal, March 18, 2021, https://landportal.org/book/narratives/2021/nicaragua.
Amanda Martínez Elvir, “Nicaragua Land Ownership.”
Human Rights Watch, Nicaragua: Events of 2022, World Report 2023, New York, NY: Human Rights Watch, 2023, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/nicaragua.