A reception will honor diplomat, journalist, community organizer and priest, Rev. Miguel D’Escoto, who has worked to bring about peace in a variety of ways to his homeland Nicaragua.

The reception in honor of D’Escoto, Foreign Minister of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, will take place at 5 p.m. on April 13 at Judson Baptist Fellowship, 449 Normal Road.

Sondra King, associate professor of dietetics, nutrition and food science, has worked with health programs in Nicaragua and has seen the work D’Escoto has done.

“I encourage everyone to come and hear how this man has dedicated his life to helping the poor of Nicaragua,” she said. “He still continues to do so and most importantly, he gives people hope.”

DeKalb Mayor Greg Sparrow will welcome D’Escoto to DeKalb and children from the Growing Place and Learning Center will present gifts to D’Escoto for their day care “twins” in Managua, Nicaragua.

DeKalb contributions have provided a few bare necessities such as electricity and indoor plumbing to the Luis Alfonso Valesquez Preschool in the impoverished San Judas Barrio of Managua. Donations are also used to feed children. As many as 110 children can be fed with as little as $18 a day.

The pre-school, adopted by DeKalb friends, is one of the projects of the Nicaraguan Foundation for Integral Community Development, FUNDECI, a charitable organization founded by D’Escoto.

D’Escoto will discuss the current crisis facing Nicaragua as well as the community development efforts of FUNDECI.

D’Escoto is a graduate of Maryknoll College in Glen Ellyn, Maryknoll Seminary school in New York and Columbia University’s Pulitzer School of Journalism. He was a community leader in Chile during the sixties before returning to New York to become the director of Social Communications at Maryknoll headquarters.

He used his time there to serve as editor and publisher of Orbis Books, which he founded, and also of Maryknoll Magazine. He has received numerous international peace awards, among them the first Alfonso Comun Peace Prize in Spain and the Thomas Martin Peace Award in Pittsburgh, Pa.

D’Escoto works through FUNDECI to encourage direct participation in democracy among the poor majority of his nation. Upon its founding in 1972, FUNDECI provided housing for thousands of people who were homeless after a devastating earthquake.

In the seventies D’Escoto began working with the Sandanista Front and in 1977 helped form the Group of Twelve—an association of professionals and intellectuals who banded together in support of the Nicaraguan Revolution.

He is currently seeking to revive FUNDECI to support the development of a “Culture of Peace.” D’Escoto emphasizes the point that 50 years of dictatorship, two wars and current neo-liberal policies have placed Nicaragua on the verge of a social explosion, the pain of which will be felt by the people.

Through FUNDECI he proposes “to create a culture of non-violence and peace, with the understanding that this is attained only if we are capable of demonstrating the effectiveness of civic forms of struggle in turning back the tide of injustice.”

There is no charge to attend the reception, but a goodwill offering will be taken to support FUNDECI’s many projects.

The event is co-sponsored by the Center for Latino and Latin American Studies, the DeKalb Interfaith Network and United Campus Ministries.

Anyone interested in attending the reception for D’Escoto can contact King at 758-8702 or Cele Meyer at 758-0796.