A Cycle of Death: Inside Nicaragua’s Sugar Cane Fields

Thursday, 12 January 2012

Written by Jason Glaser

The video here focuses on the community of La Isla de Viudas (The Isle of Widows) outside of Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, but it is a powerful introduction to a much larger global issue. Sadly, the stories shared are in no way isolated or limited to this area. Throughout the sugarcane industry in Central America child labor is rampant, widows from this disease far too common and young workers will likely not escape their fate, many will perish as their fathers have.

None of the usual causes of CKD have been linked to this new form of the disease and no adequate treatment exists for those affected making it a death sentence. Worldwide cases of CKD often correspond with hypertension and diabetes; however, research concludes that no correlation between these traditional causes has been made in this context.

Getting sick often means losing your job as companies attempt to distance themselves from responsibility by testing and then firing sick workers. With the need for labor still present workers enlist with subcontractors.  When they are finally too sick to work their sons illegally work in their place. Despite the legal age being 18 for this type of work, in Nicaragua boys as young as sixteen are now coming down with the disease, their hope for a better life dashed.
This cycle of death ends futures and stymies any hope for meaningful development in the region.  Read more…

Recommended links

• http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/3355-thousands-of-sugar-cane-workers-die-as-wealthy-nations-stall-on-solutions
• http://www.theworld.org/2011/12/kidney-disease-epidemic/
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16007129
• http://youtu.be/x9UZ1hbfPPw

Jason Glaser is the president of La Isla Foundation and can be contacted at laislafoundation(at)gmail.com. Tom Laffay is the director of Tierra Unida Films based in Leon, Nicaragua and can be contacted attierraunidafilms(at)gmail.com.

Hey NYC, Join Us!! - Nov 17- 8p

La Isla Foundation NYC Fundraiser

WHERE: The Counting Room (44 Berry Street Brooklyn, NY 11211) is a wonderful space located just off the Bedford L train in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The bar and kitchen will be open, and hopefully we will have a few things to give away in appreciation. We are still working out small details and will update soon, but please mark this down on your calender!

RSVP here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=260755460636951

PhotoPhilanthropy - Constantino Schillebeeckx + La Isla Foundation

Our friend and freelance photographer, Constantino Schillebeeckx, has published and submitted his photographic work of La Isla and Chronic Kidney Disease to PhotoPhilanthropy Activist Awards.

You can see his Nicaragua images on his website here - http://www.photocs.net/travel/nicaragua/

He states:

La Isla Foundation is a 501(c) 3 organization created in 2008 to help establish the causes of the Nicaraguan chronic kidney disease (CKD) epidemic among sugar cane workers and their communities. It seeks to facilitate treatment, educate workers on CKD, and to support their families while simultaneously educating northern consumers about where many of their food products come from and the costs of the industrial practices that bring them to market.

I began this photojournalism project to represent people in Nicaragua with CKD. I wanted to put a human face to the epidemic as well as to show the impact CKD is having. I chose this organization because I speak fluent Spanish. Getting in touch and interacting with the people is crucial for my own understanding of the topic so I can relate to those I’m photographing. Furthermore, La Isla Foundation is a small organization, so I knew that I would have the creative freedom to work as I saw best instead of getting caught up in a bureaucracy.

The organization now has an entire library full of professional-grade and media-ready images which is uses on their website, sends to public media and uses in presentations around the world to help educate.

- Constantino Schillebeeckx, Photo CS, L.L.C.