Around 300 Brazilian women gathered in the capital to demand that lawmakers pass the Babassu Free Law at national level, giving them a right to collect the coconuts which play a key role for the livelihoods of the 250,000 poor rural families living across the region.

“Babassu Free, now! Hunger Free, now!” they shouted to lawmakers at the public hearing that launched the HungerFREE campaign.

“We are not beggars. We are not asking for charity or pity. We are nut breakers and we want to have the right to feed our families from this activity.”

It took the women, babassu nut breakers from remote communities in four states, three days to reach the capital by bus. They carried with them the indigenous palm tree's products, hoping that decision makers would listen to them.

At the launch, ActionAid Brazil and the nut breakers challenged the parliamentarians to support the right to food by wearing HungerFREE campaign t-shirts.

“We will not accept that the values of our lives be exchanged with a locker in a fence or by the price of the landlord’s cows,” said Maria Alaides Alves de Souza, from north-eastern Brazil.

De Souza was key in drafting the first version of the Babassu Free Law, which assures the right of the nut breakers to enter private properties to collect the coconut, based on the country’s constitution.

In the last five years, progress has been made. The women have found a way to legally challenge the landlord’s practice, leading to the passing of the law, which assures the women free access to the palm trees, even if they are located on private land.

The law is currently active in several municipalities but to offer sufficient protection needs approval at national level.

“To make the law real, people must experience it, and make sure it is enforced,” says Sebastiana Gomes Siqueira, who manages a women’s local cooperative.

After years of defending their rights, the babassu nut breakers have established organisations to represent their interests and cooperatives to improve their working conditions and export their products.