On Colombia's Pacific coast, more than 500 mothers and female heads of household live in extreme poverty, many without any formal education, surviving on just $2 a day. They collect piangua (a mangrove mollusk) to survive, but the shells that protect the mollusks-considered worthless-pollute their homes, their city, and the mangrove ecosystem. This project trains them to transform that waste into vases, jars, and useful household items, creating a sustainable women-led economy rooted in the hear
Every month, over 10 tons of piangua shells are discarded on Colombia's Pacific coast. Thrown into mangroves, streets, and the sea, they rust, smell, block waterways, and harm public health. Behind each shell is a woman who, barefoot in the mud, enters the mangrove for survival. In places like Buenaventura and Guapi, piangua means life, yet most women lack education and opportunities. They sell only the meat, while the shells pollute their homes and symbolize the change still out of reach.
This project turns waste into opportunity: piangua shells will be transformed into useful, sustainable products by over 500 women shell-gatherers. With community workshops, training in crafts, literacy and home economics, they will create vases, jars and items with commercial value. This is not just a productive project, but the beginning of a collective venture with purpose, born from the mangrove and the strength of its women. The program will foster income, dignity, environmental stewardship.
From waste to wonder, this project plants transformation. Women who once discarded shells will now craft beauty, build businesses, and protect mangroves. Each workshop is more than tools: it is hope, identity, and a collective brand of the Pacific. By reducing pollution, restoring ecosystems, and empowering mothers as leaders, we give children a future rooted in pride and possibility-proof that change begins in their own hands. Donors ignite craft markets, sustaining family dignity and hope now.
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