 |
    |
 
Nicaragua  Why children in Nicaragua need your helpNicaragua is struggling to overcome the effects of dictatorship, civil war and the massive destruction of Hurrican Mitch, all of which have contributed to the country's under-performing economy.
Standards of education in Nicaragua are also very low - with less than one-third of of children completing their primary education. Country factsThe Republic of Nicaragua is the largest nation in Central America and is bordered by Honduras on the north and Costa Rica on the south. Nicaragua achieved independence from Spain in 1821 and became a republic in 1838. Britain occupied the Caribbean Coast in the first half of the 19th century, but gradually ceded control of the region. Violent opposition to government corruption had spread across the country by 1978, which resulted in a civil war that brought the Sandinistas to power in 1979. The Sandinistas remained in government throughout the 1980s, and later fought a US-sponsored counter-revolution, which saw the US finance thousands of rebels, or Contras, to carry out attacks on Nicaragua from bases in Honduras. Elections in 1990, 1996 and 2001, saw the Sandinistas defeated, but voting in 2006 announced the return of former Sandinista President Daniel Ortega.
|
Nicaragua is one of
the poorest countries in the western hemishphere, with one in
every three children suffering from some form of chronic
malnutrition. The country has an unacceptably high maternal
mortality rate, and ongoing problems with unsafe water and
sanitation.
