"Our role today is to take the lead, mainly to fight for the defense of our rights, our territory, and for the lives of our children."
– Maria Leusa Munduruku

Maria Leusa Munduruku is a mother, a law student, and a powerful leader from the Munduruku people of the Brazilian Amazon. Maria co-founded the Wakoborũn Women's Association to protect Munduruku territories and communities from extraction and amplify the voices of Indigenous women and youth defending the rainforest.

Amazon Watch supports Maria Leusa's leadership and safety, as well as the work of the Association, including monitoring territories against invasions, enhancing women's economic opportunities, building communications and media power, and encouraging the use of traditional medicines and healing practices. This International Women's Month, please donate to honor and uplift women defenders of the Amazon!

Munduruku women are reclaiming their voices and expanding women's roles in the fight for the rainforest. They carry out this work in the face of serious, sometimes fatal threats from illegal miners, organized crime networks, and other destructive pressures. They continue despite this violence because the rainforest is at the heart of who they are, and because this is a fight for our future.

Indigenous women like Maria Leusa are life-givers, knowledge keepers, and leaders in the movement to protect the Amazon and our common future. For all that Indigenous women defenders do for our planet, we ask you to take one act of solidarity today: please donate to support their work and well-being.

Together, we can build our collective power to secure Indigenous women's solutions for the Amazon and Mother Earth. Thank you!

Happy International Women's Month,

Leila Salazar-López
Executive Director

 
P.S. If you haven't yet voted for Amazon Watch in CREDO Mobile's March donation challenge, please take a minute to do it today. You vote, they donate, and it only takes a few clicks!