Founder and Director
Rose Cunningham Kain is a Miskito Indigenous leader from the North Atlantic coast of Nicaragua. She is the founder and Director of Wangki Tangni, which means “Flower of the River” in Miskito.
Through Wangki Tangni, she has worked to serve more than 115 marginalized communities along the Coco River by developing programs that equip Indigenous Peoples with the skills they need to self-govern, build local infrastructure and institutions, protect the region’s biodiversity, and preserve traditional knowledge.
At the international level, Rose has partnered with Indigenous women activists from Africa and other Latin American countries to raise the visibility of gender-based violence that Indigenous women face such as domestic violence and sex trafficking. She is also part of the Alliance of Indigenous Women of Central America and Mexico and the International Indigenous Women’s Forum (FIMI).
Rose served as an officer for the Organization of American States for 10 years and as the Gender Coordinator for the International Organization of Migration (IOM).
