Nicaragua: Wangki Tangni | CADAMUC | REDTRANS
Wangki Tangni Women's Center
Wangki Tangni's mission is to promote sustainable development, protect traditional culture, and improve health among Indigenous Peoples. In this region, poverty, discrimination and exploitation of natural resources threaten local economies and cultures and the biodiversity on which Indigenous Peoples depend. Women's participation and the promotion of gender equity are central to Wangki Tangni's work.
Water
Clean drinking water is not only a vital resource but an inherent, universal human right. Through our project, Liwa Mairin | Women Waterkeepers, MADRE and Wangki Tangni are building community awareness of the right to water, cleaning and repairing wells and training Indigenous women and their families to maintain wells and latrines and to care for their local water resources.Sustainable Agriculture
MADRE has worked with Wangki Tangni to build Harvesting Hope, a community organic-agriculture project that is providing women with the trainings and resources necessary to improve their families' nutrition and health. Through Harvesting Hope, Wangki Tangni has established a seed bank and distributed hens and roosters to families throughout the community, promoting food sovereignty and women’s rights.Trainings for Human Rights
Wangki Tangni provides training and technical assistance for Indigenous women leaders, healthcare workers, and educators across the region. The trainings include instruction in:- human rights instruments,
- traditional herbal medicine,
- nutrition, and prevention of disease and substance abuse.
Health Care for Women
The women of Wangki Tangni have played a central role in the development of a health system for the North Atlantic coast. As an autonomous region, the area has a separate health care system from the rest of Nicaragua. Wangki Tangni helped to ensure that this health care system combines Indigenous with Western medicine and that it provides high-quality, culturally appropriate health care to Indigenous women and families.Income-Generating Projects
The Wangki Tangni Women's Sewing Collective is an income-generating cooperative made up of 35 Indigenous Miskito women. The Sewing Collective has a workshop with sewing machines, where they offer classes. Members have begun pattern-making and dyeing projects and recently sold some of their products at a local craft fair. MADRE supports the sewing collective with contributions of fabric and sewing machines through Helping Hands.CADAMUC Clinic
CADAMUC began providing health services to Nicaragua's dramatically underserved North Atlantic coast in the 1990's. Founded by an OB/Gyn and a dentist who had worked with Wangki Tangni, another MADRE sister organization on the North Atlantic coast, CADAMUC started out with a focus on sexual rights, reproductive rights and women's health. In 2001, with MADRE's support, CADAMUC became a full-fledged women's health clinic--the first on the Atlantic Coast.
CADAMUC Clinic specializes in gynecology, obstetrics and general medicine. The Clinic combines traditional medical knowledge with western medicine and treats approximately 10,000 people every year.
In 2003, CADAMUC expanded its services to include pediatric care and health services to workers in the fishing industry and at a local university. The clinic has also expanded its dentistry program, which is a critical service in a community where the only other dental clinic is a private practice that is unaffordable for most people. CADAMUC also offers a drug abuse prevention and rehabilitation center, staffed by counselors and psychologists, which addresses drug abuse among young people in the community.
In addition to providing health services, CADAMUC offers recreational activities and training programs for the community's youth. CADAMUC sponsors basketball and soccer teams and gives trainings for young people on leadership skills, human rights, gender equity and drug abuse prevention.
The Trans Network of Nicaragua (REDTRANS)
The Trans Network of Nicaragua (REDTRANS) is a network of transvestite, transsexual and transgender activists combating discrimination and violence, and working for access to health care as a human right.
Sexual Rights Trainings and Healthcare
Together with REDTRANS, MADRE has distributed condoms, provided health consultations and education for the Trans community, and trained activists to use human rights standards to combat discrimination on the basis of sexual identity.
MADRE and REDTRANS are building a team of 20 educators who will hold trainings on general, sexual and reproductive health, capacity building, leadership skills, and human rights for the Trans communities in Managua and Masaya. The program will include ongoing condom distribution and health services for participants and the broader Trans community.
Local Advocacy
REDTRANS works with local governmental and nongovernmental organizations to increase acceptance and respect for the Trans community and to advocate for HIV/AIDS prevention. REDTRANS monitors violations of human rights against members of the Trans community and works for the inclusion of sexual diversity within the human rights framework.
International Advocacy
REDTRANS is the Nicaraguan chapter of a larger network of LGBTTI organizations that work throughout Latin America: the Latin American and Caribbean Trans Network (Red LAC Trans). With representation in 18 countries, Red LAC Trans works to raise the visibility of the Trans community in Latin America and the Caribbean through active political participation. It acts as a communications network, allowing communities to share research and information about legal processes that could help improve laws, policies and regulations that affect the Trans community.
