International Women’s Day 2025
Gender equity has been at the center of TWP’s work since the early days of our clean cookstoves program, more than 27 years ago. At that time, we followed the guidance of local women to design the Justa stove – named after Doña Justa Nuñez, who led the process in Honduras – and develop a stove program that prioritized women’s health, protected forests, and created local economic opportunity.
We understand the wellbeing of women, landscapes, and communities are deeply tied, and we now prioritize gender equity in all of our ongoing partnerships.
In Honduras, we’re building on our early collaborations to expand our clean cookstoves program and further integrate gender equity into the stove building process. As part of the maestros fogoneros program, our partner, AHDESA, is training local women to lead stove construction, strengthening women’s economic status alongside health and environmental outcomes.
Elsa Rodríguez - Maestra Fogonera
Learn more about the work Elsa is doing in Honduras.
A Maestra Fogonera Leads a Network of Lenca Women in Honduras
In Guatemala, our partners are supporting Maya and Xinca women in recovering traditional farming practices, developing agro-ecological small businesses, and leading conservation efforts. After helping to facilitate community healing spaces that reached more than 400 women, we’re carrying learnings forward by supporting participants’ establishment of a feminist consultancy organization.
Our new partnerships in Mexico center women’s leadership within community ejidos, restoring degraded forest lands while expanding economic opportunities through waste wood handicraft production. Supported by the Ford Foundation in Mexico City, we are also researching conditions throughout Mesoamerica that will help women-led and other alternative enterprises thrive.
In the U.S. we are supporting Native women students’ involvement in Colorado bison herd management and restoration, and our environmental work in New Mexico continues to be guided by Native women professionals and organizations.
Not only on International Women's Day, but on all days, we recognize the women at the heart of our work and our communities.
As we have since the beginning, we’ll stand by their vision of the future and continue to follow their lead in getting there.
