By Vivian Stromberg | Executive Director
In the past year, Harvesting Hope has held trainings on sustainable agriculture and women’s rights; provided seeds that project participants used to plant community gardens; provided chickens so that families have a reliable source of protein in their diet; helped participants sell their surplus produce, eggs, and meat in local markets; and introduced participants to other Wangki Tangni programs that improve the quality of life for Indigenous families in the region.
This year, the project faced a devastating setback when Hurricane Felix, a Category Five storm, struck the North Atlantic Coast on September 3. Just weeks before collecting the harvest of a bumper year and reaping the rewards of their hard work and newfound knowledge, Indigenous Miskita women saw their crops destroyed by winds, rains, and floods. The Nicaragua Network Hotline reported that 99 percent of the crops in the region were destroyed.
However, Harvesting Hope participants are encouraged by the supply of seeds in their newly created seed bank, and by their knowledge of MADRE’s commitment to support their communities, and have already begun to replant their gardens.
Beneficiaries of Harvesting Hope include over 2,000 Indigenous women and families in the village of Waspam and 104 surrounding communities, as techniques learned in Harvesting Hope trainings are shared with remote communities by project participants. Rose Cunningham, Wangki Tangni’s Director, reports that women from neighboring communities continue to attend Harvesting Hope trainings in record numbers, sometimes walking two or three days to get there, and participants say that the income-generating aspects of the project are helping them come closer to meeting their families’ immediate needs.
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