SERAPH Cosmetics - Global Action

Global Action

The Wangki Tangni Women's Center ("Flower of the River Women's Center" in Miskito) is a community development organization run by and for Indigenous Peoples on Nicaragua's North Atlantic coast. Wangki Tangni's mission is to promote sustainable development, protect traditional culture, and improve health among Indigenous Peoples along the coast, where poverty, marginalization and exploitation of natural resources threaten local economies and cultures and the biodiversity on which Indigenous Peoples depend. Women's participation and the promotion of gender equity are central to Wangki Tangni's work.

Since 1990, the Wangki Tangni Women's Center has served more than 60 communities along the Coco River providing much-needed health and educational services, human rights trainings and ongoing advocacy for peace and justice. Among its many accomplishments are:

Training and technical assistance for Indigenous leaders, healthcare workers, and educators across the region, including instruction in human rights instruments, traditional herbal medicine, nutrition, and prevention of disease and substance abuse.
Promotion of women's sexual health and reproductive health. The women of Wangki Tangni have played a central role in the development of a regional health system for the North Atlantic coast, which, as an autonomous region, has a separate health care system from the rest of Nicaragua. Wangki Tangni helped to ensure that this health care system incorporates traditional medical knowledge along with Western medicines and works to ensure that the system has the resources necessary to meet the need of North Atlantic coast communities.
Harvesting Hope, a community agriculture project that is providing women with the trainings and resources necessary to improve their families' nutrition and health. Through Harvesting Hope, Wangki Tangni has established a seed bank and distributed hens and roosters to families throughout the community, promoting food security and self-sufficiency.
The Wangki Tangni Women's Sewing Collective, an income-generating cooperative made up of 35 Indigenous Miskito women. The Sewing Collective has a workshop with sewing machines, where they offer classes. Members have begun pattern-making and dyeing projects and recently sold some of their products at a local small producers craft fair.

CURRENTLY THE WANGKI TANGNI WOMEN'S CENTER IS PARTNERING UP WITH MADRE.ORG TO AID IN RE-BUILDING HOMES DESTROYED BY HURRICANE FELIX