HONDURAS
Miskito Women Fight on
Nature's Side
By Thelma Mejía
TEGUCIGALPA (IPS) - 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." |
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