Wings for Wisdom

Actividades: Asistencia técnica, jurídica y psicológica; capacitación.


· Especialización: Violencia intrafamiliar; violencia doméstica; violencia contra las mujeres; salud sexual y reproductiva.

Organization Objectives

IXCHEN strives to promote and defend women’s sexual and reproductive rights, and help women live lives free of violence. Its goals are to:

• Provide free and low-cost legal, psychological, and medical attention for victims of domestic violence
• Offer educational workshops on human rights, women’s rights, and legal rights
• Train community outreach workers and youth peer health educators to raise awareness on health issues

 

Program Information

 

1.Human Rights – Intra-Familial Violence

IXCHEN conducts workshops on human rights, women’s rights, and legal rights to prevent and act against violence. It also offers psychological counseling services for women and adolescents who are victims of violence.

 

Opportunities

• Facilitate IXCHEN workshops
• Carry out research and create new workshops on relevant topics
• Conduct outreach to advertise IXCHEN’s workshops
• Help with debriefing sessions for women and adolescents taking part in psychological counseling

 

Requirements

• Intermediate to Advanced Spanish (spoken and listening)
• Background or experience in human rights, women’s rights, legal rights, and/or intra-familial violence
• Ability and willingness to tackle various projects at once
• Sensitive toward the needs of women experiencing domestic, sexual, physical, or psychological abuse
• Responsible and motivated
• Team player

 

2.Legal Assistance

IXCHEN has a resident lawyer that provides information and legal recourse for women who have been victims of domestic and sexual violence. IXCHEN staff members also accompany women to the courts and police stations in their pursuit of legal action.

 

Opportunities

• Assist the resident lawyer and other staff in their daily tasks
• Conduct outreach to raise awareness about legal rights and processes for divorce, child custody, domestic violence, and rape
• Create pamphlets for outreach activities

 

Requirements

• Intermediate to Advanced Spanish (spoken and listening)
• Background or experience in human rights, women’s rights, legal rights, and/or intra-familial violence
• Ability and willingness to tackle various projects at once
• Sensitive toward the needs of women experiencing domestic, sexual, physical, or psychological abuse
• Responsible and motivated
• Team player

 

3.Self-Help Groups

IXCHEN provides counseling sessions and self-help groups for women who are victims of domestic violence. It also offers peer support for its clients that focus on relationship issues, sexual and reproductive health, exercise and nutrition, self esteem, and planning for the future.

 

Opportunities

• Assist staff with mediating and facilitating counseling programs
• Help staff with running the women’s peer support group

 

Requirements

• Intermediate to Advanced Spanish (spoken and listening)
• Background or experience in counseling, peer support, and/or health
• Ability and willingness to tackle various projects at once
• Sensitive toward the needs of women experiencing domestic, sexual, physical, or psychological abuse
• Responsible and motivated
• Team player

 

4.Community Development and Outreach

The IXCHEN staff visits surrounding communities in Masaya to encourage women to take advantage of its multiple health and legal services. IXCHEN also supports Grupos de Educación Sostenible (Sustainable Education Groups) where youth are trained to become peer health educators and lead workshops in their own communities. Parallel to that, it also trains promotoras (community outreach workers) so that they can conduct home visits and implement local action campaigns.

 

Opportunities

• Assist in conducting field visits to surrounding communities
• Search for promotoras and assist in their training
• Facilitate workshops to train youth to become peer health educators (this opportunity needs special director’s permission and depends on participant’s experience level; refer to “Working Conditions”)
• Create educational, low-literacy friendly print materials on IXCHEN’s health and legal services

 

Requirements

• Intermediate to Advanced Spanish (spoken and listening)
• Background or experience in outreach, youth training, health, legal services, and/or related topics
• Sensitive toward the needs of women experiencing domestic, sexual, physical, or psychological abuse
• Interest in working with youth
• Responsible and motivated
• Team player

 

5.Health Assistance

IXCHEN provides a full range of women’s healthcare services. This includes ultrasounds, gynecological exams, medical consultations, cancer prevention (PAP smears), reproductive health, and laboratory exams. It would like to expand its services by offering a program that caters specifically to infants and pregnant women.

 

Opportunities

• Assist IXCHEN medical staff with daily tasks
• Create educational print materials on procedures, exams, and tests offered at IXCHEN
• Collaborate with CARE (one of IXCHEN’s sponsors) in developing the new infant and pregnant women health program

 

Requirements

• Intermediate to Advanced Spanish (spoken and listening)
• Background or experience in women’s health or illness prevention
• Sensitive toward the needs of women experiencing domestic, sexual, physical, or psychological abuse
• Responsible and motivated
• Team player

 

6.Fundraising and Internal Organizing

IXCHEN would like to raise funds to finance its programs, as well as strengthen its organizational management.

 

Opportunities

• Write grants and implement a fundraising system for regular and sustainable donor marketing
• Digitalize and organize client information in spreadsheets, databases, and folders

 

Requirements

• Intermediate to Advanced Spanish (spoken and listening)
• Background or experience in fundraising, grantwriting, and/or management
• Ability and willingness to tackle various projects at once
• Responsible and motivated
• Willingness to learn
• Team player

 

Program Supervisors (All Programs)

Martha Fuentes is Director of IXCHEN in Masaya.

Dra. Adelina Morena is Director of IXCHEN in Ciudad Sandino.

 

Note: Responsibilities offered to each participant will be proportionate to their level of experience. Participants who are new to development work may predominantly support and assist current project agendas, while those with much applicable experience may be able to assume greater responsibility. Research projects are strongly encouraged by this organization to support each program’s objective because minimal resources are currently allocated for research.

 

Working Conditions

In Masaya, the IXCHEN center is located in the heart of downtown next to the central park, and takes both drop-in and scheduled clients. In Ciudad Sandino, the center is a few blocks away from the Plaza Ciudad Sandino (the city’s unofficial downtown) within walking distance from the FSD host families. IXCHEN’s offices are some of the nicest ones in terms of Nicaraguan nonprofits, complete with a comfortable waiting room for clients, a small library on materials related to domestic violence, and a computer for the staff (internet not available in the office, but cyber cafes are close by). IXCHEN is often frustrated by shortages (e.g. medical and office supplies), governmental and institutional apathy toward family violence and reproductive rights, and funding challenges. FSD participants will work with the staff on a variety of integrated projects.

 

*Regarding working with youth:Because of federal legislation, IXCHEN is not allowed to give workshops in schools or to teach about safer sex and STDs to youth who come to the centers. IXCHEN can only interact with minors who are outside of the school system (i.e. street kids or pregnant girls who dropped out of class), or who arrive at the centers with parental permission. IXCHEN in Masaya has worked in the past with minors by coordinating workshops together with the police department and street youth. For participants who wish to work specifically with teenagers, please contact FSD to find out if this situation has changed or to find alternative host organizations.

 

Organizational Background

IXCHEN was founded in 1989 with the aim of promoting sexual and reproductive health for women from a human rights and gender equality perspective. It receives regular funding assistance from the governments of Switzerland, Norway, Holland, and Denmark as well as from several national and international organizations.

 

There are 12 IXCHEN locations throughout Nicaragua; FSD works with the centers in Ciudad Sandino and Masaya. A team of health professionals, counselors, and outreach workers provide reproductive and general health care (including pap smears, infant and prenatal appointments, and sexual and reproductive health services); intervention and care for domestic violence victims (both judicial action and psychological support); and education that promotes women’s rights, empowerment, and domestic violence prevention.

 

About IXCHEN’s Clients

The clients are predominantly women; although a few straight and gay men seek out IXCHEN’s services. In 2002, IXCHEN helped 8,519 victims of violence—13% were adolescents and 15% were children under the age of 13. Most cases involve physical and psychological violence; the rest are sexual violence cases and women seeking child support from absent or divorced partners. The clients at IXCHEN are mostly educated women, since most services involve a small fee, which the absolute poorest women cannot afford to pay. In terms of occupation, the majority (38%) work in the home; 12% work in commercial industries; 19% are students; 11% work in free trade zones; 9% are cleaners; and 5% are professionals.