MADRE Articles

Summer 2007: From the Executive Director

Posted on: Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Keywords: Women's Health, Combating Violence Against Women, Economic Justice, Environmental Justice, Peace Building, Latin America and Caribbean, Africa

MADRE Speaks:
Spring/Summer 2007

Letter from the Executive Director, Vivian Stromberg

Dear Friends,

In April, I visited the communities of our sister organizations on the North Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, home to most of the country's Indigenous Peoples. I witnessed firsthand the incredible work that women there are doing with MADRE's support.

One of our local partner organizations, Wangki Tangni (meaning "flower of the river" in the Indigenous Miskitu language), has launched income-generating projects for women—in a region with 90 percent unemployment. Wangki Tangni is cultivating organic family food gardens—in communities where 75 percent of children suffer from malnutrition. Now the women of Wangki Tangni are speaking out against local government maneuvers to sell communally owned Indigenous land—in a region where Indigenous women's voices have historically been excluded from political debate. And Wangki Tangni is developing new systems of natural resource management—to protect communities and ecosystems that are threatened by both climate change and corporate greed.

MADRE Speaks: Spring/Summer 2007

The women who are part of Wangki Tangni's flourishing programs are empowered by the energy that is generated when people join forces to tackle problems—and taste success. This success would never have been realized without the concrete support, technical assistance, and political accompaniment that your contributions to MADRE have made possible.

And success is possible. We know that from experience—in Nicaragua, Peru, Kenya, Guatemala, Sudan, Iraq, and everywhere that MADRE support has been able to give wings to our sisters' determination to live just and dignified lives. Because of your support, we're able to strengthen our partnerships with women and families whose dreams resonate with our own vision for the world.

During my trip to Nicaragua, I was taken on a tour of the beautiful and fragrant MADRE-supported organic gardens that are helping to feed families and preserve traditional Indigenous agricultural techniques. Since we began the Harvesting Hope program two years ago, it has grown from serving eight families to supporting nearly 50. Thank you for helping to make those gardens grow and for all of your crucial support to MADRE—in Nicaragua and around the world.

Sincerely,

Vivian Stromberg
Executive Director

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