Quixote Center

The Quixote Center, established in 1976, is a multi-issue social justice organization rooted in building a more justly loving world. We work with partners at the grassroots level in Haiti and Nicaragua to enact lasting systemic change. Our programs implement locally directed solutions to social challenges, specifically encouraging sustainable ecology in the form of sustainable agriculture and reforestation. We serve under-represented groups, such as the poor and people in rural communities. The direction of our programs stems from local leaders and community groups in the design and implementation of all program initiatives. The Center has a long history of ‘tilting at windmills’ - taking on the unpopular causes or seemingly impossible tasks, and succeeding in championing them. In the early 1980s, the Center came together to protest the Regan administration’s involvement in the Contra War and military aid. Since then, our involvement with communities in Nicaragua has expanded and taken on new issues based on the reality the people face. Now our work in Nicaragua centers on the development of sustainable housing for the poor and agriculture programs within the rural countryside. Since our inception our organizational model has always been to support the efforts of local leaders, long before the established ‘best practice’ began to show that locally developed initiatives were more successful and sustainable. We collaborate with our partners to raise funds, develop programs, and provide training and support to the communities our partner organizations serve. Our strength lies in listening to the communities we partner with, remaining committed to creating lasting change, and effectively engaging partners both on the ground in Nicaragua and Haiti and as advocates for change here in the US.