Women’s Funding Network Stands in Solidarity with Afghan Women
Statement by gender and racial justice funders and allies underscore risk to vulnerable genders and populations due to advancement of Taliban forces
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: August 18, 2021
Contact: Ellen Moorhouse, Communications Director, Women’s Funding Network
(413) 218-2293 / emoorhouse@womensfundingnetwork.org
SAN FRANCISCO — The Women’s Funding Network and more than 70 representatives of women’s funds, gender justice funders, and allies issued a statement of solidarity with vulnerable genders and populations at risk due to the advancement of Taliban forces through Afghanistan.
Of the nearly 250,000 people in Afghanistan who have been forced to flee their homes since the end of May, 80 percent have been women and children. Therefore, the statement calls on the global philanthropic community to center the gendered impact of conflict by supporting locally rooted solutions and crisis responses that also center the leadership of impacted populations.
“It is imperative that philanthropic institutions and donors work together to work fast,” said WFN President and CEO, Elizabeth Barajas-Román. “Feminist women’s funds working in the region are trusted partners with the ability to move resources quickly to those in need.”
With the need for urgent action, signatories are asking individuals to call political representatives to expand or create emergency programs to immediately host Afghan refugees. In addition, the statement highlights the following organizations doing vital work on the ground to support women under threat:
- Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights
- Madre
- Global Fund for Women
- The Asia Foundation
- Donor Direct Action Fund for Women
To read the statement in full or to learn more visit the WFN website.
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With more than 100 women’s funds and foundations spanning six continents, the Women’s Funding Network is the largest global philanthropic alliance dedicated to providing strategies, research, and resources that support the critical agency and influence of women’s foundations and gender justice funders in the movement for equality, justice, and power for all.
For more information on the work of the Women’s Funding Network and its members, please visit www.womensfundingnetwork.org or connect on Twitter and Facebook.