Women Shine; Communities Flourish

December 11, 2025

As our Share the Light campaign continues through December, we’re celebrating the strength and ingenuity of women who illuminate paths forward in their communities every day. Their light travels through knowledge shared, burdens lifted, and opportunities created. And in rural Central America, some of the brightest light comes from women who are transforming their families’ futures one harvest at a time.

In the Bosawas region of Nicaragua, rice is a staple. But harvesting by hand is exhausting, time-intensive work, especially for women. Thanks to your support, women’s groups now have access to small-scale mechanical rice threshers, and everything has changed. What once took hours can now be done in minutes.

Families retain more of their harvest, and women can sell surplus grain for income. Women, some for the first time, can contribute to and manage part of the household budget — a shift that brings both confidence and agency. A shift that more women will experience with continued support for mechanical rice threshers in the remaining priority communities along the Rio Coco.

This is the light you share.

In the mountainous communities of Chicamán, Guatemala, climate change has made traditional crops increasingly unreliable. Droughts and erratic rainfall threaten harvests year after year. But with training, seeds, and support, women’s cooperatives can cultivate amaranth, a highly nutritious, climate-resilient grain rich in protein and essential vitamins. It grows quickly, thrives in poor soil, and provides reliable harvests even in harsh conditions. An alternative crop to corn, its market value is much higher and, unlike corn, it maintains its price year round.

In the new year, this new initiative will provide the necessary support for 150 women farmers to pursue amaranth cultivation. It will mean women generating meaningful income for their families. It will mean mothers consistently feeding their families — even in lean seasons, women earning income through community processing and sales, and communities having access to affordable, nutrient-rich amaranth products.

This is the light you share.

Your generosity helps women build resilience, nourish their communities, and shape their own futures.

Central America and the Caribbean Food Sovereignty In The Field Indigenous Peoples