Hello my name is Leo Cerda. I am Kichwa and an indigenous social and environmental activist from the Ecuadorian Amazon. Currently, I am based out of Tena in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Since I was 13 years old I have been involved with local indigenous communities fighting oil companies and big government projects that can potentially  destroy our territories, culture and the planet itself. 

Throughout  the work I have done with local indigenous women and my mother’s experience, I know first hand how hard it is for indigenous women to take care of their children and advocate for the Amazon. This is the reason I am supporting Amazonian Indigenous WOMEN to find an alternative sustainable income while  defending their territories. 

HAKHU women's association wants to provide a platform in the form of an online marketplace to sell the products of indigenous women artisans from the Shiwiar, Kichwa and Waorani nations from the Ecuadorian Amazon. The money received from the products will support projects within a community-based initiative format, such as providing classes and workshops  on how to continue these traditional art forms and designs to develop quality products and keep cultural knowledge from disappearing.

This project will give indigenous women a chance to improve their existing skills, learn innovation in design and gain knowledge of marketing systems. Indigenous women often face double discrimination, based on gender and ethnicity, and find themselves at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, marginalized from policy and decision making processes and from training programs. Yet in many communities, women are the principal or sole producers of traditional crafts as well as custodians of cultural knowledge.

So far, we have worked on legally recognizing the Hakhu Indigenous Women's Association and done a couple of workshops. Now we want to take this project  to the next phase and we need your support!

Check us out!

www.hakhu.org