Global Fund for Women
Member Fund
Suite 400
San Francisco, CA 94109
United States
MORE READING
We are part of a global women's movement that is rooted in a commitment to justice and an appreciation of the value of women's experience. The challenges women face vary widely across communities, cultures, religions, traditions and countries. We believe that women should have a full range of choices, and that women themselves know best how to determine their needs and propose solutions for lasting change. The way in which we do our work is as important as what we do. This philosophy is reflected in our flexible, respectful and responsive style of grantmaking.
The Global Fund makes grants to seed, strengthen and link women's rights groups based outside the United States working to address human rights issues that include:
- Ending Gender-Based Violence and Building Peace
- Ensuring Economic and Environmental Justice
- Advancing Health and Sexual and Reproductive Rights
- Expanding Civic and Political Participation
- Increasing Access to Education
- Fostering Social Change Philanthropy
EcoWomen
Kunming, China
Since the early 1980s, Chinese farm workers have relied heavily on pesticides in order to increase food production. Excessive and negligent pesticide use contaminates water supplies, destroys natural habitats and causes health problems for farmers and their families. In 1993 alone, rampant use of pesticides caused the deaths of over 10,000 Chinese farm workers.
Due to the migration of rural men to cities in search of work, Chinese women have become the majority of the agricultural work force. Increasingly, Chinese women farmers face the risk of accumulated exposure to pesticides and the accompanying health hazards, such as increased breast cancer, toxins in breast milk, miscarriages and stillbirths. EcoWomen, formerly known as Green Mountain Women, is the first grassroots group in China specifically organizing women to combat pesticide abuse and advocate for women's health and rights.
Located in Yunnan province, one of the most agriculturally productive regions of western China, EcoWomen describes itself as "greening up" Chinese women. Through environmental educational training and programs, the group teaches rural women about the effects of pesticide use on women's health.
When EcoWomen conducted a pesticide pollution survey in Yunnan province, the group found that most farmers knew little about the effects of pesticides, or about their proper mixing, use and storage. In response, the group launched a program to raise public awareness, in which people exchange used pesticide bottles for gloves, masks, and other gear that protects them against toxic chemicals.
EcoWomen transcends traditional modes of women's and environmental activism in China, bridging two critical social justice movements with a more holistic approach to social change.
Women Initiative Group
Baku, Azerbaijan
In Azerbaijan there are 700,000 displaced people who are survivors of a conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the mountainous region known as Nagorno-Karabakh. From 1988 to 1994, 35,000 people were killed, and 1 million uprooted.
This displaced Azerbaijani population has faced the same obstacles when they try to return home as do returnees in other countries. The homes they left behind are in shambles or completely destroyed. Other families may have taken up residence in their homes or on their land. Many have tried to integrate into the crowded capital of Baku, but the influx of refugees has led to tension with longtime Baku residents.
Eleven years after the ceasefire, they struggle to survive; many still live as refugees or returnees in camps polluted by pesticides or open sewers. Their shelters are abandoned railway cars, dilapidated buildings, the backs of trucks or homes dug underground. They try to live on humanitarian assistance in the amount of $3.50 per month for each adult and $2.10 for each child. Started by a woman who was herself displaced, the Women Initiative Group seeks to help women who are trying to reintegrate into their rural communities or settle permanently in the cities.
The group challenges cultural traditions that discourage the education of girls, many of whom are pushed into early marriage between the ages of 13-17. As a result, many girls become pregnant and do not finish school. In turn, the children of these undereducated mothers have fewer chances to pursue an education or gain skills to obtain better-paid work. Displaced women are more likely to become victim to the increasing prostitution, trafficking, drug use and violence.
Committed to deepening women's sense of agency, the group has organized seminars on family planning among women in the Sumgait IDP (internally displaced persons) camp to encourage women to use contraception, rather than abortion, as a means of birth control. As a result of the group's educational efforts, one of the area hospitals agreed to take care of women suffering from reproductive health problems free of charge.
- Global
- Children
- Education
- Empowerment
- Environment
- Gender
- Gender-Based Violence
- Girls
- Health
- HIV-AIDS
- Homelessness
- Housing
- Human Rights
- Policy
- Political Rights-Civic Participation
- Poverty
- Race
- Refugee Rights
- Reproductive Rights
- Security
- Sexuality
- Social Justice
- Trafficking
- Collaboration
- Community
- Development
- Economic Empowerment
- Education
- Entrepreneurship
- Financial Literacy
- Health
- Investment
- Justice
- Leadership
- Social change
- Visibility
