LA ISLA IN THE NEWS - Reuters - Dec 23 2011

Dec. 23 - An unexplained kidney disease epidemic hits Nicaragua’s impoverished sugar-growing town of La Islas with locals blaming pollution. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.

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.

Be Part of the Solution - Short Film by Tierra Unida

La Isla is a small community located on the outskirts of Chichigalpa, Nicaragua in the Central America lowlands. Its sole economy is the sugar cane industry which relies on young men desperate to provide for their families ensuring an endless supply of labor. The wage they can earn cutting sugar cane makes the work worth it despite the fact that some 70% of men working in the industry develop Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) due to unknown causes. Research done by both the University of Boston as well as the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, Leon (UNAN) has so far not yielded answers as to the cause of the disease. Meanwhile roughly 250 men are dying every year leaving their community to take on the nickname “la Isla de Viudas,” “the isle of widows.” The dying men range in age from 18 to 40s+ which inherently means they are the breadwinners of the families. Without their earning power the widows of the community are left to try to make ends meet for their children in numbing poverty while their sons grow up destined to swing their machetes and set fire to the ground, in the end to produce consumer grade sugar at a low price. The people of La Isla deserve dignity, can you help?

Video by Tierra Unida