The pandemic has shifted life in many ways.  For CoCoDA, it forced us to think more creatively.  We retooled our annual Febrero Fiesta fundraiser as a four-night internet event and TRIPLED donations and doubled attendance with people participating from a dozen states and five countries.  We took our Sun and Water Conference virtual and have already seen nearly $85,000 pledged to water projects in 2022.  We may never go back to the in-person events.

However, one of our losses has been two years without delegations.  Since one of the missions of CoCoDA is to connect North Americans and Central Americans, this has been a significant loss.  Yet, here too, CoCoDA has been creative. 

In September of 2021, we launched the CoCoDA Speakers Bureau to connect our staff and Central American leaders to churches, universities, and service clubs. 
This has raised nearly $5,000 for CoCoDA during a financially challenging time, but – more importantly – allowed us to sustain and expand the connections between North Americans and Central Americans. CoCoDA has provided:Lectures for several Indiana University classes on ethical global public health engagement.A workshop for University of Missouri faculty on authentic partnershipsTwo global public health forums for large US hospitalsA forum on Women’s Empowerment for DePauw UniversityInterviews with a Central American who took the dangerous journey across the US border for a church in Arizona and for a forum at Guilford CollegeAnd much more.

Here are three short testimonials about those experiences: