Op-Ed

Poverty in Nicaragua Must be Reduced
By Eric Gallager

Nicaragua is stricken with poverty. About 80% of Nicaraguans live in poverty. This has not been helped by natural disasters such as Hurricane Felix, which ravaged the country in 2007. The political turmoil that is going on has also worsened the economic state in Nicaragua, although it is not as bad as the fighting between the Sandinistas and the Contras that took place in the 1980s. As the economic leader of the world, the US has the moral responsibility to help peoples in need such as the Nicaraguans. Some people may try to dissuade you from helping Nicaragua by telling you that Nicaragua has a socialist leader, Daniel Ortega, and that Nicaragua is receiving aid from Iran. However, these facts do not and ought not detract from the fact that Nicaraguans are still human beings in need of our aid. Local churches such as Wesley United Methodist Church have been sending assistance to Nicaragua, yet it has not been enough. We need to lobby our government to increase foreign aid to Nicaragua. The government also needs to make its foreign aid figures clearer so that readers can easily see how much aid each country is getting. This money would be part of the humanitarian foreign aid part of the budget and could be taken out of the military foreign aid part of the budget. In the meantime, while waiting for Congress to take action, you can look up more information about Nicaragua online. There are also many organizations that help Nicaragua that you can find online to which you can donate money.