In honor of 15 years of supporting women###s rights worldwide, the Global Fund for Women (GFW) has awarded 15 Partnership Grants. The grants reflect a unique approach in philanthropy within an ideal central to GFW###s work: that the "givers" and "receivers" within the field of philanthropy share roles and become partners in a joint venture to work toward a better world.
Through the 15th Anniversary Partnership Grants Program, 15 women###s groups around the world will each receive a grant of U.S. $20,000 from the Global Fund. Of this amount, $15,000 will be re-granted to other women###s groups in the country or region that support smaller, grassroots women###s groups in each community. Typically, these are groups the Global Fund, working on its own, would have had limited opportunities to reach due to the small size of the groups, their remote locations, limited infrastructure, and different languages. The remaining $5,000 can be used by the sponsoring organization to administer the program.
The recipients of the 15th Anniversary Partnership awards are:
-- Al-Zahraa Organization for the Advancement of Women###s Status (Sakhnin, Israel) has been a grantee since 1999 and works to raise the status of Arab women in Israel.
-- Asociacion Comunal de Mujeres de Morazan (Morazan, El Salvador) has been a grantee since 2001 and fights for the rights of widows, peasant women and single mothers affected by armed conflict in El Salvador.
-- Assistance Center for Disabled People "Hayot" (Samarkand, Uzbekistan) has been a grantee since 2000 and was the city###s first organization to advocate for the rights of women with disabilities in Uzbekistan.
-- Coletivo de Feministas Lesbicas (Sao Paulo, Brazil) has been a grantee since 1996 and promotes the rights of lesbians in Brazil through legal aid and public education.
-- Educational Cooperation and Development Center (Tbilisi, Georgia) has been a grantee since 2000 and operates a center that promotes philanthropic partnerships between local businesses and women###s rights organizations.
-- Gender Project for Bulgaria Foundation (Sofia, Bulgaria) has been a grantee since 1997 and is a model for women in Bulgaria organizing around economic empowerment, political representation, violence against women, and gender rights.
-- Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (Bangkok, Thailand) has been a grantee since 2000 and, through its worldwide network, conducts a variety of research and programs to combat trafficking in women and girls, and to strengthen the rights of sex workers.
-- Mujer Ahora (Montevideo, Uruguay) has been a grantee since 1991 and works to improve the sexual and reproductive rights of women. Mujer Ahora is accepting the Partnership award on behalf of a collaboration of five nongovernmental organizations in Uruguay.
-- Nari Uddug Kendra (Dhaka, Bangladesh) has been a grantee since 1993 and organizes garment workers to advocate for their rights at the national and international levels, and promotes girls### education as a means of empowerment.
-- Ntulume Village Women###s Development Association (Kampala, Uganda) has been a grantee since 1997 and provides rural, female entrepreneurs with business and networking skills, and micro-loans.
-- Puntos de Encuentro (Managua, Nicaragua) has been a grantee since 1993 and uses popular culture to educate the public, particularly young women and men, on issues of sexuality and violence.
-- Red Thread Women###s Development Programme (Charlestown, Guyana) has been a grantee since 1993 and addresses the challenges that Guyanese women of African, Indian and indigenous descent face, in the areas of labor rights, women###s sexual and reproductive health, and domestic violence.
-- Samdech Rasmey Sobbhana Women###s Foundation (Phnom Penh, Cambodia) has been a grantee since 1996 and works to improve women###s and girls### status through education, skills training, and income-generating programs.
-- Shaanxi Volunteer Mothers Association for Environmental Protection (Xi###an, China) has been a grantee since 1999 and promotes environmental rights awareness and activism among rural women.
-- Yayasan Abdi Asih (Surabaya, Indonesia) has been a grantee since 2000 and provides alternative skills training courses to sex workers that help them set up and manage their own small businesses.
Since 1987, the Global Fund has given $25.5 million to seed, strengthen and link over 2,000 groups in 161 countries. For more information, go to globalfundforwomen.org.