In the municipality of El Tuma / La Dalia, 40 km from Matagalpa, women agricultural workers have formed housing co-operatives to collectively address one of their essential needs: having a dignified place to live that they can call their own.
They are organised, they survey and engage with their piece of land, and they envision a place to live where decision-making power rests in their own hands. Reflections from our project managers on the field mission.
In February 2024, Léa Oswald and Suzanne Lerch, our two project managers, travelled to Matagalpa, Nicaragua. During their stay, they took part in numerous events, meetings and discussions, but one of the highlights of their visit was an in-depth visit to the three housing co-operatives located in the municipality of El Tuma / La Dalia, 40 km from the city of Matagalpa.
These three co-operatives share a number of common features: 85% of their members are women, although this was not a deliberate objective. These women are representative of a highly significant social group in this municipality: agricultural workers, an essential part of the coffee production chain, which is the area’s main economic activity. Agricultural workers themselves, or members of working families who have gone on to work in professions such as teaching, they formed these co-operatives to collectively address one of their essential needs: having a place to live of their own.
The Victoria de Noviembre co-operative in the village of El Carmen has succeeded in building around fifteen houses for its members on land made available by the municipality, and is now experimenting with the collective management of a neighbourhood: planting fruit trees, constructing a communal bamboo hall, shared vegetable gardens, and small businesses.
The Nuestro Barrio co-operative in the village of La Mora acquired a sizeable plot of land thanks to a revolving fund self-managed by the local federation of co-operatives, CECOVI, and has now fully repaid it. A gradual urban development and greening project is set to turn it into the region’s first “eco-neighbourhood”.
The Voces Guerreras co-operative in the village of La Dalia has recently acquired a large, well-located plot of land at the entrance to the village, also thanks to the locally self-managed revolving fund. The appropriation of the land is taking place through a participatory process aimed at strengthening the collective dimension and the engagement of all members and their families.
“What struck us most during these visits was the sense of joy expressed by these organised groups of people as they walked across their own plots of land and imagined a place to live where decision-making power belongs to them,” Léa and Suzanne tell us. They were also struck by the network that exists among these women across different villages: through meetings and joint activities organised within the co-operative movement, they share knowledge, support one another, and have also formed strong bonds of friendship.
Our collaboration with Multipro, a service co-operative responsible for providing technical support to co-operatives, continues in this encouraging context.
