Global IssuesHONDURAS: Miskito Women Fight on Nature's Side
Seven years ago, in the isolated Honduran region of Mosquitia, on the Caribbean coast, a group of women, mostly single mothers, elderly or widowed, overcame their fear and timidity -- thanks in part to a waste recycling project.
They decided to break from the 'machismo' of the local culture and organised themselves in the Association of Indigenous Miskito Women on the Atlantic coast (MIMAT - Miskito Miskitu Indian Mairinka Asla Takanka, in the Miskito language).
MIMAT took on the clean-up of the largest lagoon in the area and the streets of the six municipalities that make up eastern Mosquitia, a natural region shared with Nicaragua, with the Honduran part covering 16,630 square kilometres.
They also classify, pack and ship the garbage to a private company that has agreed to purchase the material.
'We began little by little and I'm pleased because we've come a long way, but there's still a long way to go,' said MIMAT leader Cendela López Kilton, 58, who has six children and 18 grandchildren.
Between smiles that revealed her white teeth, she told IPS, 'We never thought we could be useful to the community and the country. Miskito culture is very difficult; our men believe that women should stay in the home and have children.'
'The husbands are angry about the revolution we are creating, because the Miskito woman is no longer submissive. Our Miskito brothers like to hit the women, but now the women defend themselves, they report the men to the authorities, and the men don't like it,' she said, letting out a laugh.
With the support of the Global Environment Facility's Small Grants Programme, of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the women founded MIMAT in 2003. But it was three years before the waste collection and recycling project got started, winning them local and international accolades.
In addition to cultural barriers, they had to overcome the distrust of the local authorities, who saw they were being displaced from some of their responsibilities. Currently, MIMAT is made up of 1,200 women from the six municipalities, and is based in Puerto Lempira, the seat of Mosquitia.
Since 2006, the MIMAT project, which now involves some men, has collected an average of 70 cubic metres of garbage per month.
López is proud of the results and of the collective effort as she talks about how they have kept the Caratasca lagoon clean. Located in the centre of a series of lagoons that surrounds the region, Caratasca measures 60 kilometres long and 12 km wide, part of the coastal wetlands of the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, which has been declared heritage of humanity.
'Before, people would throw their garbage in the lagoon, and Puerto Lempiro was ugly, full of garbage, and the pollution affected us. The lagoon is the source of our staple food, which is fish,' López explained on a recent visit to the Honduran headquarters of UNDP in Tegucigalpa.
'With the contamination, we were affected by diseases like malaria and diarrhoea, but now that has decreased,' she said.
She detailed another important change: the residents of the area no longer burn their garbage in their homes, so there is no more polluting smoke rising from the houses.
'The women of MIMAT have built an incinerator where the garbage goes and we process it. It's great!' she said, with her contagious enthusiasm.
In addition to the first waste incinerator, they also acquired the first garbage truck, providing part-time employment to rotating teams that collect the waste.
'With the jobs, they feel useful; they know the can do something for their children and the environment -- which if we Miskitos don't take care of it, nobody will,' said López.
Hugo Galeano, the Small Grants Programme coordinator in Honduras, told IPS, 'The women of MIMAT set an example for, and are the pride of the country. They have an enviable strength of will and determination.'
'The hour or the day doesn't matter -- they are always willing to learn. To see them using a computer and the Internet gives goosebumps to those who have watched their progress,' he said.
Thanks to that support, López was able to participate in late May in the 4th Assembly of the Global Environment Fund (GEF), the main source of Small Grants funding, in the Uruguayan resort city of Punta del Este.
'What I liked best were the ideas I learned, to share with my colleagues. Look, this manual they gave us is going to be very useful. I imagine that in Mosquitia we can do -- uff! -- thousands of things, and I'm going to carry them out,' said López as she looked through photographs and documents of projects that she hopes to replicate through MIMAT.
Mosquitia is the most isolated area of Honduras, accessible only by air or sea. It is home to about 50,000 people, of which 16,000 do not have an identification card because they have never officially registered with the government.
One can see the effects of globalisation there, but because the Miskitos are isolated there is often a lack a cultural context, which has resulted in some children being named after figures like George Bush or Osama bin Laden, or after vehicle brands like Mack or John Deere.
Farming and artisanal fishing and diving are the main sources of income. There are many who have been left disabled as a result of diving without appropriate equipment.
Mosquitia has also become an attractive region for drug-trafficking mafias, due to its location in the Caribbean and its isolated mountains and beaches.
Within the poverty of the region, waste recycling provides many opportunities for the women of MIMAT. They have distributed their job responsibility and the salaries assigned to each function, which range between 70 and 200 dollars a month.
With its lush natural beauty and its legends, Mosquitia seeks to 'create success stories' through MIMAT, said leader López as she pressed on her face 'so that the ideas don't escape.'
© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service