In 1984, Burlington, Vermont, began its sister city relationship with Puerto Cabezas, a city of 60,000 inhabitants located on Nicaragua's North Atlantic coast.
Over the years, Burlington has shipped to its sister city sizeable quantities of material and humanitarian aid, including 500 tons of supplies on a "Peace Ship" in 1986, as well as agricultural supplies, educational materials, computers, video equipment, wheelchairs, and fire-fighting tools. Our first cultural exchange project was a book of photographs, Sister Cities: Side by Side, which was published in 1988. In 1990, Burlingtonians helped establish Puerto Cabezas's Vivero Comunal, a community tree nursery. Official, educational, and cultural exchanges between the two cities have involved mayors, firefighters, drug-abuse counselors, photographers, visual artists, folk singers, college students, and entire Little League baseball teams. We are currently preparing to send a used firetruck to our sister city, and we're working with the Vermont-based Institute for Sustainable Communities to support Puerto Cabezas in developing a community action plan for sustainable development.