History

In 1990 a group of students from the Mennonite Bible Institute (Managua) were inspired to do something practical to show the love of God to a hurting society. A survey done by the government’s Ministry of Family Services had shown the City of Diriamba to have the highest percentage of children at risk in the country. Their definition of children at risk was: children living on the street, abandoned children, glue-sniffers, child prostitutes, and children who had been sexually and physically abused. After praying about the situation for some time, Elizabeth Vado went to the mayor of Diriamba, requesting the donation of a property to develop a ministry for these children.

In April 2003 property was donated to the Fraternity of Evangelical Mennonite Churches of Nicaragua, with the condition that the property be used for “children at risk.” Construction began on the site within the year.

With the help of the Evangelical Mennonite Conference, the generous donations of many people who have adopted the Centre as their project, and the hard work of the local Nicaraguan churches and the work teams that have come from central Canada the following facilities have been built.

Office building – 2004

Multipurpose hall – 2005

Kitchen / Dining hall – 2006

Girl’s Dormitory – 2007

In October of 2006 a pilot project was launched with 18 children from the area. This provided a platform to develop experience in ministry to children at risk. It also served to demonstrate to the Ministry of Family Services that CINAG is capable of caring for children.

Since the Evangelical Mennonite Conference did not have administrative expertise with orphanages or child sponsorship, a partnership was sought with an organization that would provide the needed administrative expertise to the project. In April of 2007, Action International Ministries sent their Latin America Director to visit the project. He recommended to ACTION Canada that they take on the ministry of CINAG.

In May of 2007 the Nicaraguan government officially recognized CINAG as a charitable organization.

In July of 2007 a Memorandum of Understanding was drafted between the Evangelical Mennonite Conference Board of Missions and ACTION Canada relating to the ministry of CINAG.