Why this Project is Important

Potential Long Term Impact

Immediate support will save lives and empower survivors to undertake the long process of rebuilding their homes, livelihoods, and communities.

Project Message

Today we are heartbroken. But we need to be able maintain our spirit, our hope, and our steadfastness, knowing that our people are worthy of a secure life today and in the future.
- Mirna Cunningham, Director of MADRE's Nicaraguan partner CADPI

Who is Running This Project

Contact

Vivian Stromberg,
Executive Director
121 W. 27th Street
Room 301
New York, New York 10001
United States
212-627-0444
Email:

Project Sponsor

MADRE

Organization

Learn more about MADRE, An International Women's Human Rights Org. and the project team.

MADRE, An International Women's Human Rights Org.'s Funded Projects on GlobalGiving

Safe Houses for Iraqi Women	Urgent Action: Aid to Women and Children in Darfur	Empower Women to Fight HIV and End FGM in Kenya	Send Aid to Women and Families in Lebanon and Gaza
Urgent Aid Needed for Earthquake Victims in Peru	Sudan: Unify and Empower Women in Crisis	Guatemala: Pigs for Women Farmers

Where this Project is Located

Country

This project is located in Nicaragua and can also be found under Human Rights.

For more information about Nicaragua, read the Human Development Report on Nicaragua or the Wikipedia entry for Nicaragua.

When this Project was Updated

Last Updated

This project was last updated on January 25, 2008.

Date Added to GlobalGiving

This project was added to the GlobalGiving project catalog on September 05, 2007.

Latest Update from the Field

Efforts to rebuild in the wake of Hurricane Felix

By Vivian Stromberg - Executive Director, MADRE, January 25, 2008 03:20 PM

In the months since Hurricane Felix dealt its devastating blow to Nicaragua’s North Atlantic coast, the area’s women and families, most of them Indigenous Miskita peoples living well below the poverty line, are still picking up the pieces. The storm hit just days before the annual harvest, wiping out local food supplies and all but eliminating hope for income generation in seasons to come.

The $273 in emergency relief funds raised by the Global Giving community was combined with funds raised from MADRE’s network of donors and sent directly to CADPI and Wangki Tangni, our sister organizations in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region, whose territories bore the brunt of the storm. MADRE also collected donated goods, such as emergency generators, water purification tablets, antibiotics, sleeping mats, clothes, bedding, mosquito netting, and many other items, to be shipped to Puerto Cabezas and dispersed amongst the people. In the city, MADRE volunteers with experience rebuilding post-Katrina New Orleans helped repair the roofs of community buildings, including three schools and a community center; in the rural areas of the municipality, farmers received hope for their depleted crops in the form of seed banks and tools.

Mirna Cunningham, director of CADPI, the Center for Indigenous Peoples’ Autonomy and Development, had this to say: “I am writing from Puerto Cabezas to thank you for being there for us at a time when we were most devastated by Hurricane Felix. Without support from friends like you it would have been much harder to gather the strength to move into high gear. In addition to emotional support, your support helped us to redo electrical systems, replace roofs, windows, doors; refinish and paint walls, floors; replace lamps, beds, sheets, towels, clothing; replenish medicines at the hospital; buy seeds for replanting food crops; and so much more.”

The area’s Indigenous Miskita women have seen their crops and communities destroyed by winds, rains, and floods. However, they are encouraged by the supply of seeds in their seed bank, and by their knowledge of MADRE’s commitment to support their communities, and have already begun to replant their gardens.

Attachments:

• Miskita family waits for construction of new roof to be complete

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