This Miskito woman is a member of the Bakahno Pawanka Women's Cooperative and her vegetable stand is a beneficiary of the Cooperative's Micro Loan Program. (photo by Casta Calderon)

The Bakahno Pawanka Women's Cooperative of Nicaragua was formed in 2008 to support projects benefiting indigenous Miskito cooperative members living in the towns of Puerto Cabezas, Sandy Bay and Waspam in Nicaragua's North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN). The RAAN is a huge sector of Nicaragua, about the size of Costa Rica, but sparsely populated with around 250,000 people while Costa Rica has 4 million. Most are living on less than $2.00/day. The RAAN contains Central America's most extensive and intact lowland tropical rainforest and coastal ecosystem.

The indigenous communities of this region have suffered for decades because of intensive exploitation of their natural resources, invasion of their territories, the denial of their rights and by the major natural disasters which have struck the region every decade over the last thirty years. In September of 2007, Hurricane Felix, a category 5, battered the RAAN with 160 mph winds and torrential rains. More than 100 people were killed, 17,000 homes were destroyed and 99% of the crops were lost.

The Bakahno Pawanka Women's Cooperative has 76 members. Many are widows resulting from Hurricane Felix. In addition to a micro lending program, co-op members benefit from training and education in business administration, civil and human rights, and health and domestic violence interventions. Plenty volunteer Casta Calderon has been assisting the Cooperative and, thanks to a grant to Plenty from the Better World Fund, we are able to donate $4,000 to support their work.