MADRE Programs in Nicaragua

MADRE and CADAMUC Clinic

In 2001, MADRE co-founded CADAMUC Clinic, the first women's health clinic on Nicaragua's North Atlantic Coast. Since then, MADRE's Medical Project has sent regular shipments of medicines, medical supplies and equipment for the clinic.

MADRE has also supported a number of CADAMUC's programs, including a Sexual Rights and Reproductive Rights Program, a Drug Abuse Prevention and Rehabilitation Program, a Cervical Cancer Program and a Prenatal Control Ultrasound Program.

Through Trainings for Change, MADRE has supported CADAMUC's workshops on reproductive health and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, counseling for child abuse and drug abuse prevention and rehabilitation. With MADRE's support, CADAMUC was able to produce sexual and reproductive health manuals in Miskito for a Train the Trainers program, to equip Indigenous women to hold health trainings in their communities.

MADRE also supports Books for a Brighter Tomorrow, a library, tutoring center and play corner that promotes children's literacy while enabling mothers to receive critical health care services. In 2002, MADRE donated a playground for the clinic's yard, helping to draw even more mothers and children to the clinic.

MADRE and the Wangki Tangni Women's Center

Since 1994, MADRE has worked in close partnership with the Wangki Tangni Women's Center, a community development organization run by and for Indigenous Peoples on Nicaragua's North Atlantic coast, to promote sustainable development, protect traditional culture, and improve health among Indigenous Peoples along the coast. MADRE and Wangki Tangni have partnered to develop projects in the areas of human rights, sexual health, reproductive health and leadership development for Indigenous women.

MADRE's support for the Wangki Tangni Women's Center has included:

• Donations of direct aid, including emergency medicines and supplies in the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Mitch. MADRE's Executive Director, Vivian Stromberg, traveled to Nicaragua personally to deliver the aid and ensure that it arrived in the most distressed communities, most of whom were not served at all by other relief efforts.
• Harvesting Hope, a program to improve nutrition and food security by providing chickens and vegetable seeds, along with training in poultry management and organic gardening to families along the Coco River. Through Harvesting Hope, the women of Wangki Tangni have established a seed bank for communities on the North Atlantic coast to preserve biodiversity and promote self-sufficiency.
• Donations of sewing machines and more than 1400 pounds of fabric to the Wangki Tangni Women's Sewing and Upholstery Collective, which provides women with resources to pursue upholstery work and generates income for community development projects. MADRE has also donated books and toys for a children's library and play corner in the collective, so that women have a place to bring their children while they work.
• Training for Change, which offers trainings with a human rights perspective on topics including health, combating violence against women, childrearing practices and Indigenous rights.

"Our family lost our food supply in the 2001 drought. We suffered and went hungry for months. Now, thanks to Harvesting Hope, we are learning to plant and tend a sustainable organic garden."
- Patricia, Harvesting Hope participant

MADRE and the Center for Indigenous Peoples' Autonomy and Development

MADRE supports the Center for Indigenous Peoples' Autonomy and Development (known by its Spanish acronym, CADPI), a museum and educational center on the North Atlantic Coast. In 2001, MADRE provided technical assistance for CADPI's conception and initial programs, including art and music classes, human rights trainings and children's recreational and skills-building programs for local communities. More recently, MADRE has supported construction of a new wing of the building and sent a shipment of furniture and equipment, including theatre-sized movie screens. CADPI's new cinemas will provide an exciting focal point for people from the community to gather and enable our partners to reach large audiences with both entertainment and messages about the services they provide.

Through our Sisters Without Borders program, MADRE facilitated a cultural exchange between the women of CADPI and a young Indigenous woman from the Shinnecock reservation in New York, who traveled to Nicaragua to teach the traditional beading and sewing techniques of her community. MADRE's Sisters Without Borders program also made possible a visit by filmmaker and MADRE member Henry Chalfant, who trained young people from CADPI in video production and editing.