About us
The Knitting for Nature Initiative is a group of women from the coastal community of El Astillero. Our mission (one less bag, one more turtle!) is to prevent the death of sea turtles by reducing the amount of plastic bags that enter the water. We also hope to continue providing employment to women in the community, fostering economic independence and allowing women to support themselves and their families. We were founded in 2007 with the help of Fauna & Flora International and later supported by the Pellas Group. From our initial group of ten women, we’ve expanded to our current size of twenty-one women!
We collect discarded plastic bags from the streets and beaches of our communities and then carefully wash and cut them into strips. Finally, we knit them by hand into high-quality handbags and purses. One large bag can take up to a week to knit and uses over 500 plastic bags! These efforts not only leave our communities cleaner, but also prevent the plastic bags from entering the ocean where sea turtles can consume them and asphyxiate. Because we live so close to Chacocente Wildlife Reserve, one of the most important sea turtle nesting sites on the Pacific seaboard, this work has a huge impact! By buying our bags, you support the conservation of endangered sea turtles and the economic empowerment of women through sustainable employment.
Here's where we're located! In El Astillero, a coastal community in Nicaragua