How we are co-creating a new model for economic sovereignty.
TL;DR
→ Fundación Sara Omi (FSO) is led by indigenous women building real income, not one-time aid.
→ We run like a startup accelerator: small capital, proof, then scale – not multi-year grants that stall.
→ Goal for 2026–2027: 25 women earning $350/month, sustained for 12 straight months.
→ We're inviting U.S. NGOs, funders, and brands to co-create.
Indigenous communities across Latin America hold something the market keeps missing: generations of skill, artistry, and ecological knowledge. What they lack isn't talent. It's access – to markets, technology, and capital that moves at the speed of real life.
Traditional aid tends to arrive as a lump sum, a workshop, or a donation drive. It helps for a season. Then the funding cycle ends, and the community is back where it started.
Fundación Sara Omi was built to close that gap permanently, not seasonally.
Fundación Sara Omi is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, co-founded and led by Sara Omi Casama – the first Emberá woman to become a lawyer in Panama, named among Forbes' 50 Most Powerful Women in Central America (2026). Our mission: Is to empower indigenous women through access to markets, co-creation and community development by building progressive business models and strategies supported by ongoing implementation.
This is not a side story. Panama's indigenous peoples are part of the nation's identity, its land, and its future. When indigenous women gain economic power, they don't just lift their families – they strengthen the country around them.
Entrepreneurship, technology, and governance training that turns artisan skill into sustainable income. Our first cohort includes the brand, Jumara Juwa, and the Women’s Artisanal Association, Amaríe.
We document ancestral knowledge and stories as a teaching tool – a living curriculum for co-creating with indigenous communities, not just about them.
We meet basic needs first: clean water, connectivity, computers, and communal spaces. Sovereignty is hard to build without the basics in place.
Most nonprofit capital moves once, up front, for a multi-year plan. When friction hits – and it always does – the project stalls, half-finished.
We fund the way a startup accelerator does: in stages, tied to proof.
Every gate requires evidence before the next dollar moves. Communities submit their own proposals – we don't invent programs from outside. We accelerate what's already started.
In under a year, working alongside the Ipetí indigenous community, we have:
If you run an NGO, fund one, or lead partnerships for a mission-driven brand, you already know the hardest problem in this sector: dollars deployed don't equal impact delivered.
Fundación Sara Omi's model is built to answer that problem directly – small tranches, fast proof, real accountability, and a governance structure where the community holds the pen, not just the check.
We're not asking you to fund an idea. We're asking you to fund a system that's already working, and help us prove it can scale.
We are currently building our early partner group – the seed funders, NGOs, and brands who help take this model from one community to many.
If your organization is thinking about how to fund indigenous-led economic development in a way that actually lasts, we'd like to talk. Book a meeting with us below:
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