We met Melissa and Matilda, pictured here, when MADRE visited with Wangki Tangni, our Nicaraguan partner organization, last month.
Together -- and with your support -- MADRE and Wangki Tangni run Harvesting Hope, a collective of Indigenous women farmers growing the food their families need to survive on the remote, North Atlantic Coast of the country.
Melissa and Matilda are a determined mother-daughter duo! Together, they farm six plots of land, where they grow cabbage, tomato, melon, carrots, rice, beans and other healthy crops. Along with the rest of the Harvesting Hope collective, about 30 women in total, they grow enough food to feed 10 families in their community.
Your support helps provide the seeds that Melissa, Matilda and the women farmers of Harvesting Hope need to plant successful harvests. When we spoke with the women farmers, they were proud to tell us of their farming process. "In November, we clean and prepare the land," they explained. "In December, we plant the seeds that you help to provide."
They then sell their surplus harvests at MADRE-supported farmers markets in both early and late spring. With the extra money they earn here, many of the women farmers are able to send their daughters to school and invest in their families' futures.
Thank you so much for making this possible! With your support, women like Melissa and Matilda are raising healthy and happy families.
Here are some more, new photos from Harvesting Hope that we wanted to share with you.