Melanie Chiponda started as an activist the day the police stopped the bus she was traveling in and forced all the women to get naked in order to search them. Since then, she has been harassed several times by state agents, but it didn’t prevent her from fighting the oil and mining interests that are destroying the local ecosystem and displacing families. On the contrary, Melanie has bravely been working in the defense of women’s right to land. Photo credit: Global Fund For Women
