Samuel branch in Managua was shut down

On 11 June 2024, the Samuel Foundation's branch in Nicaragua had its work permit for Nicaragua withdrawn and was forced to cease operations immediately after 35 years of local involvement. At the same time, President Ortega's regime confiscated all of the Foundation's assets in Nicaragua - the Centre for Technical Education, land and inventory. The Foundation condemns this arbitrary and unjustified act and regrets that with the closure of its centre, Nicaragua's youth have been deprived of another important facility for professional education without replacement. How did the shutdown come about?This measure comes in the context of the political crisis that has been ongoing since 2018 and is characterised by human rights violations, the revocation of citizenship, repression against the church and the systematic suppression of any civic engagement. As part of their control measures, the Ortega regime has so far banned more than 5,100 national and international NGOs. The official accusations that have led to the shutdown of our organisation and many others are always the same: failure to properly fulfil reporting obligations to the national supervisory authority for non-governmental organisations and inconsistencies in the financial reports over an extended period of time. These accusations are verifiably unfounded. Until the last month before its forced shutdown, our foundation regularly received its official operating licence from this very authority upon submission of the required documents. For more than three years, every contribution of funds from abroad to an NGO operating in Nicaragua has had to be authorised in advance. These are exclusively granted on the basis of the operating licence, which is renewed monthly. The last of these monthly transfers, which we made for our work in Nicaragua, was approved on May 29th, 2024. Help for affected studentsIn addition to our 25 employees, 237 students at our Centre for Technical Education in Managua are directly affected by the shutdown. As the Nicaraguan government has not offered any alternatives to the young people affected by the shutdowns of the various centres, the foundation has developed an aid concept for its students via its branch in Costa Rica. The students of the batch graduating this November were placed in company apprenticeships by our Costa Rican branch and will also receive their final diploma from there once they have completed their education. The students who just started their technical education this year have been given the opportunity to continue their education at our centre in Costa Rica. A sincere thank youWe would like to express our sincere gratitude to our employees in Managua, who have implemented the foundation’s work with commitment and passion for many years. We wish them all the very best for the future. We would also like to thank all the companies and co-operating partners who have provided us with invaluable help in our work over a long period of time. We wish the more than 3,700 young people who have pursued their professional careers through the completion of the Samuel Foundation's programme in Nicaragua since 1993 every success and all the best, despite the increasingly difficult social conditions. It has been a great honour for us to work for them and with them!