Land & Food Security for Women in The Miskitu Territories of Nicaragua | 2017

World Centric + CEJUDHCAN

$25,606.67 from profits from fiscal year 2017

Non-native settlers have been moving into the Awas Tingni territory on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. Armed with machetes and guns, the new-comers regularly threaten and perpetrate violence on the Awas Tingni. As a result, the Awas Tingni are being forced to abandon their food-crop fields because the distance from their homes and the proximity to the settlers make these farm lands vulnerable to attack. With World Centric funding, CEJUDHCAN will support women in bio-intensive agriculture on the land directly surrounding their homes.

It is important to note that the Miskitu communities are self-sufficient and do not participate in the cash economy. Thus, the ability to produce food is crucial.

This is the expansion of a project we funded with 2016 profits.

The Impact

• Establish 50 new bio-intensive women's gardens in the 20 most highly impacted Miskitu villages.
• Provide trees to 250 women to start a food forest.
• Provide agroecology training to 1000 women in 20 villages.

Indirect Impact:

• Increased safety for women who will no longer have to travel great distances to tend their land.
• Improved food security for 250 households.
• Bio-intensive gardens will improve soil fertility.
• Health improvements from access to diverse crops and high nutrient fruits, such as breadfruit, avocado, and citrus.

The Approach

CEJUDHCAN provides garden training for all the women participating in the program; how to plant a bio-intensive garden and how to tend it. Garden materials are then distributed to the women. This includes shovels and fencing to keep goats and other animals from eating the crops. CEJUDHCAN will then regularly provide continued training as well as visiting the garden to evaluate how they are doing.

About CEJUDHCAN

A World Centric partner since 2017.

CEJUDHCAN is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization that provides educational programs, legal support, and practical assistance to indigenous peoples and afro-descendant communities on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. They these communities with the actualization of their established communal rights, specifically self-determination and autonomous governance over communal lands.

More projects with CEJUDHCAN

• Youth Wellness in the Miskitu Territories of Nicaragua

Updates

April 2019
250 moringa, lemon, and orange trees were planted. An assessment was also conducted of 122 gardens to identify how to diversify the crops. Since the project began, 63 of the 300 women have sold produce grown in their gardens at the regional market earning between $10-$100.

November 2018
The 50 new gardens have been completed, bringing the total number to 300. Agroecology trainings for the women have also been completed. The only remaining component of this project to be completed is the distribution of trees which will be completed in the beginning of 2019.