UNM Nourish Wins Funds for Peruvian Project

When Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Eco­nom­ics Matias Fontenla took stu­dents down to Nicaragua to see how eco­nom­ics play out on the ground, he was impressed that the stu­dents took on the task of build­ings homes and a school. Even he couldn’t have antic­i­pated that these ambi­tious and resource­ful stu­dents would set their sites higher: to build a much-needed health clinic in the Ama­zon region.

These projects cost money. “The stu­dents fundraised – they sold cup­cakes and cook­ies, and cleaned the Pit,” Fontenla said. Then they set their sites higher. UNM already had a Nour­ish Inter­na­tional Chap­ter (estab­lished in 2010).

They posted their project, “Improv­ing Access to Health Care in the Peru­vian Ama­zon,” on the Nour­ish Inter­na­tional site. They had 21 days to get peo­ple to donate to their cause. Other col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties – like Cor­nell, Yale and the Uni­ver­sity of Texas – were also com­pet­ing for donors and dol­lars. But there’s only one win­ner who gets the money. This time, it’s UNM.

“The UNM chap­ter raised $8,661 from 104 donors. They received an addi­tional $1,000 for the most money raised and another $1,000 for the most donors. They also got a five-percent match of $433, for a grand total of $11,094 in just 21 days,” Fontenla said.

Fontenla said that Nour­ish UNM goes back to Feli­cia Alexan­der. She was a UNM hon­ors stu­dents who trav­eled on her own dime to the uni­ver­sity where Nour­ish Inter­na­tional was devel­oped, Uni­ver­sity of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. “She set up a table at Hon­ors ori­en­ta­tion and recruited stu­dents. She’s cur­rently doing Teach for Amer­ica in Hous­ton after defer­ring admis­sion at the Uni­ver­sity of Penn­syl­va­nia Law School,” he said.

Cur­rent UNM Nour­ish co-directors are Sam Wag­goner and Mer­cedes Pratt. Nicole Dev­ereaux rep­re­sents the UNM chap­ter on the Nour­ish Inter­na­tional Board of Direc­tors. Dev­ereaux has been a dri­ving force in the chapter’s fundrais­ing efforts.

Fontenla said, “Every penny goes toward the project. The stu­dents – five to 15 of them – pay for their own flight and room and board. I am so proud of them. Feli­cia, Sam and Nicole were part of the orig­i­nal group that went to Nicaragua to build homes and a school in a squat­ters’ com­mu­nity. All three are bril­liant and future lead­ers at what­ever they decide to do.”

Indi­vid­u­als may view the Project descrip­tion from the Nour­ish Inter­na­tional site.

Media Con­tact: Car­olyn Gon­za­les (505) 277‑5920; email: cgonzal@unm.edu