positions stem from personal experiences rather than purely ideological reasons. Specifically, many women joined because of the men in their lives and the political decisions they made. It is estimated that seven percent of the Contras were women. Similar to the organizations made by Sandinista women, the female members of the Contras created organizations to aid women who had lost husbands and children in the conflict. The Committee of Mothers of the Resistance (Comité de Madres de la Resistencia) was formed in an effort to obtain war pensions from the government. The women of the Sandinista and Contra movement worked together. In 1993, groups of Sandinista and Contra women merged to form an organization with the goal to attempt reconciliation; the organization was called the Association of Mothers and Victims of War. This organization managed to obtain pensions for a small number of women. It also funded and completed joint development projects. These development projects included a self-help housing project, food aid packages, and a construction cooperative. The housing project, El Progreso, built 26 houses for Mothers of the Resistance and 26 houses for Sandinista women. In the construction cooperative, women learned how to make bricks and build latrines. The organization also received funding from a German agency. This allowed them to buy a house where they could hold meetings, workshops, and courses for women. The excess money was used to fund other initiatives such as: a credit fund, art classes for children, and training courses for women with disabilities in beauty therapy, floristry, baking, and dressmaking. Notes See Also List of Nicaraguans, Revolutionaries, Heroes and Martyrs References Sources Chinchilla, Norma Stoltz. "Feminism, Revolution, and Democratic Transitions in Nicaragua" in The Women's Movement in Latin America: Participation and Democracy (2nd ed). Ed. Jane S. Jaquette. Boulder: Westview Press, 1994. 177-196. Chinchilla, Norma Stoltz. Revolutionary Popular Feminism in Nicaragua: Articulating Class, Gender, and National Sovereignty. Gender and Society 4 (1990): 370-397. Cupples, Julie. “Between Maternalism and Feminism: Women in Nicaragua’s Counter-Revolutionary Forces.” Bulletin of Latin American Research 25, no. 1 (2006): 83–103. Heumann, Silke. “The Challenge of Inclusive Identities and Solidarities: Discourses on Gender and Sexuality in the Nicaraguan Women’s Movement and the Legacy of Sandinismo: Gender and Sexuality in the Nicaraguan Women’s Movement.” Bulletin of Latin American Research 33, no. 3 (July 2014): 334–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/blar.12103. Kampwirth, Karen. Feminism and the Legacy of Revolution: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chiapas. Athens: Ohio University