GOCARE: Empowering dreams through education addressed at Rotary

Empowering the dreams of those living in poverty in Nicaragua through education is the mission of a nonprofit organization with strong ties to Santa Paula, those attending a recent Rotary meeting learned.

In fact, Past President of Santa Paula Rotary Pam Lindsay is deeply involved in GOCARE Inc., founded by her husband Jan Lindsay, the CEO of the nonprofit. The couple, residents of Santa Paula, now spend considerable time traveling to Nicaragua’s GOCARE Learning Center.

Jan Lindsay is the former governor of Rotary District #5240 and a member of the Ventura East club. He is the recipient of the highest honor given by the Rotary Foundation, the Service Above Self Award. Lindsay, who served as CFO of the Rotary International Convention in Los Angeles in 2008, was a CPA with an international accounting firm before he semi-retired in 2011. 

Lindsay told Rotarians that GOCARE was a product of several Rotary clubs and remains closely tied to the organization. Founded in 2001, GOCARE, registered in both California and Nicaragua, “has created groundbreaking education models,” and employs 16 people in the latter and is overseen by more than a dozen volunteers - primarily Rotarians - stateside. The program has a budget of about $300,000 annually garnered from a “substantial endowment,” as well as donations from Rotary Clubs and individual donations.

“In the world today, 40 percent of all the people live in abject poverty,” living on less than $2 a day, “what would be $720 a year here.” Lindsay said for a number of years “numerous organizations have poured literally trillions of dollars into anti-poverty programs,” often money “just wasted, flushed down the drain of bureaucracy,” or for programs that do not work. “What are the consequences? Drugs, gangs, terrorism spring from that well of abject poverty.”

Lindsay said many poverty programs are centered on “gifts of things,” ranging from water projects to housing, which do not eliminate poverty and create dependency. “The key to change is to empower people to help themselves,” requiring the poor to “invest time and energy to become empowered.”

GOCARE has worked closely with Nicaraguans to create and implement educational, health and economic development programs into its curriculum, which includes adult education through reading and math, pre-school, day care, computer instruction and English instruction. Lindsay said GOCARE also offers vocational training in baking, sewing and a beauty school, “a tool to work and be productive... those who were raised to believe there are second or third class citizens now have a skill” that brings self esteem and revenue.

The residents of Pantanal, outside of Granada, were living off the resources of the local dump before Lindsay visited and - appalled at the poverty he witnesses - created GOCARE. More than 300 students have graduated from GOCARE programs with the philosophy of the “Come Back to Give Back” mentorship and leadership.