Ticuantepe

Bridges to Community has been operating in Ticuantepe since 2002. We have constructed one school and over 150 houses for families living in material poverty in four of the eighteen communities in the municipality. We expect to expand and diversify our impact by implementing various community projects in all eighteen of the communities in the municipality of Ticuantepe. Our philosophy for designing and implementing projects is to work through and with local leadership and citizens at the grassroots level. We have established working relationships with the development committees in each community as well as with the municipal government and other local NGOs.

Ticuantepe produces ninety percent of the pineapples for all of Nicaragua, some twenty-seven million pineapples. As a result of pineapple production, over half of Ticuantepe remains rural, yet is located only fourteen kilometres from the capital of Nicaragua, Managua. However, due to seed quality that is considered inferior in the international market, Nicaraguan pineapples remain a domestic product instead of a lucrative export.

Ticuantepe mostly consists of humid sub-tropical forest, and nearby Volcan Masaya has blessed the region with rich volcanic soil but also cursed it with frequent acid rain. Deforestation and low agricultural production levels are two of the problems most seriously effecting the municipality.

Ticuantepe also sits atop the largest aquifer in Central America, which provides water for one quarter of the Nicaraguan population. Even still, Ticuantepenos often live without running water for days at a time due to insufficient infrastructure.

While Ticuantepe serves as a suburb for Managua, its population remains small at twenty-four thousand total inhabitants and is plagued by many of the same problems as rural communities. In fact, over sixty percent of the population in Ticuantepe live in rural and semi-rural communities. A third of children do not attend elementary school and by high school only a half of young people are studying with even less graduating. As a result, nearly a quarter of the population remains illiterate.

The municipality has one hospital with fifteen beds, four doctors, eleven nurses, and irregular ambulance service. Nevertheless, the hospital runs on a socialist model that provides free care to all, including foreigners.