Harvesting Hope for Indigenous Women in Nicaragua

At the end of last year, MADRE traveled to Nicaragua to meet with women who take part in Harvesting Hope. That’s the Indigenous women’s farming project you support on the impoverished north coast of Nicaragua. We visited the community of Kisalaya, where we meet with women farmers to discuss the challenges they face and how they work together to overcome them.

But first, the women were excited to show off their farming plots! To get to the plots, we traveled down the Coco River in a traditional hand dug canoe. The journey to the plots from the women’s homes took about 30 minutes by boat. The women take on the extra travel because, as they told us, this land is the most fertile for farming.

Since the women have to travel far from home to get to their farming plots, they realized that they aren’t able to protect their crops from theft when they’re not there. Their answer? They built small huts near their plots. They rotate staying in the huts for a few days at a time to care for and protect their harvest.

In December, with your support MADRE’s local partner Wangki Tangni organized workshops in Kisalaya and in the nearby community of Waspam to give seeds to women farmers. Over 150 women attended the workshops! They received new seeds, including red pepper, cucumber, cauliflower, pumpkin, onion, watermelon, and tomato seeds to plant on their plots. Here’s a photo from the seed sharing!

When we spoke with the women farmers, they were eager to share how much Harvesting Hope has changed their lives. One woman proudly told that, thanks to the local farmers markets your support makes possible, she was able to raise enough income to send her daughter to school.

Your support of Harvesting Hope ensures that Indigenous women can grow a better variety of healthy food and raise money for their families. Thank you!