Madre

MADRE is an international human rights organization and feminist fund that partners with community-based, women-led organizations on the frontlines of war, climate breakdown, and their aftermath. Our mission is to advance human rights and social justice by meeting urgent needs in communities and creating lasting solutions to the crises of our time.Founded in 1983, MADRE uplifts the leadership of visionary young women and girls, Indigenous women, Afro-descendant women, LGBTIQ people, and people with disabilities. We offer a holistic model of support to our grassroots partners using three interconnected strategiesgrantmaking, organizational strengthening, and legal advocacyto address immediate priorities identified by our partners and forge opportunities for women and girls to assert their agency and create lasting social change. Through these strategies, we provide long-term and flexible financial and direct service support, particularly to womens and girls groups in marginalized communities facing war or disaster that have rendered them difficult to fund and challenging to reach. Since its inception, MADRE has distributed almost $63 million in grants and in-kind support to partners worldwide.We work across three core program areas: (1) Ending Gender Violence to prevent, redress, document, and promote accountability for gender-based abuse; (2) Advancing Climate Justice to sustain and amplify partners vital interventions and strategies to confront climate breakdown; and (3) Building a Just Peace to uplift the work of women and girls to avert, resolve, and build back from war and conflict. In FY22, we are pleased to report that we surpassed our annual grantmaking goal of $5M, disbursing over $5.67M in funds through 254 grants to 265 organizations and activists. MADREs increased grantmaking in FY22 is due to several notable factors, including emergency appeals and responses to the crises in Afghanistan and Ukraine and the steady growth of grantmaking through our VIVA Girls initiative. While the number of countries in our portfolio remained consistent38 countries in FY22 compared to 41 in FY21our rapid response grants in Afghanistan and Ukraine accounted for nearly 40% of total grantmaking disbursements in FY22.Examples of Recent Accomplishments in FY22Ending Gender Violence: Gender violence, including physical and sexual abuse, is widely used during times of peace and war to threaten, shame, and oppress people based on their perceived or real gender identity and sexual orientation. MADRE helps transform harmful social norms, change policies, increase recognition of women's and girls solutions, and reduce violence, stigma, and discrimination.- With MADREs support, our partner in Palestine, Salon Plus, provided holistic support to women and girls who would otherwise face insurmountable challenges in accessing health services, such as family planning and psychosocial support, and violence prevention resources amid the occupation.- MADREs partner in Syria, Women Now for Development, challenged and shifted local, national, and global discourses on the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls through a variety of campaigns focused on issues like ending child marriage and increasing access to justice and accountability for survivors.- In Haiti, MADRE supported the Foundation for Advancement of Haitian Midwives (FAHM) to provide member trainings for midwives across the country on stigmatized topics, such as womens healthcare and the prevention of gender-based violence; as key points of access to healthcare for gender-based violence survivors, FAHM further empowered and resourced midwives to serve as advocates and educators for women and girls. - MADRE assisted women, girls, and their families at-risk of violence to find safe passage out of Afghanistan and shelter across the border in Pakistan, where they were able to access medical care and legal services for asylum applications and visas. Advancing Climate Justice: The widespread and intensifying impacts of climate breakdown are fueling environmental degradation, disasters, and weather extremes that interact with the global context, exacerbating food and water insecurity, economic disruption, political instability, and conflict. MADRE supports partners to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate breakdown while amplifying the voices and solutions of women and girls on the frontlines of the global climate crisis.- On the Pacific Island nation of Tonga, MADRE responded to volcanic eruptions with an emergency grant to the Talitha Project, which conducted local needs assessments and distributed relief supplies such as dignity packs, prioritizing survivors like young women and girls and people with disabilities, whose needs are often neglected in patriarchal and able-bodied-centric societies.- In Ecuador, MADRE responded to some of the heaviest flooding experienced in decades, distributing life-saving funds to Maitress Dancea collective of young Afro-Ecuadorian womento provide food, psychosocial services, and livelihood support to widows.- To strengthen Palestinian womens inclusion and leadership in a male-dominated agricultural sector, MADRE enabled our partner Dalia Associationa Palestinian-led community foundationto target support toward women-designed and led agroecology initiatives.- MADRE also supported YouWIn, a feminist collective of young Indigenous and LGBTIQ+ women in the Philippines that is working to build life-saving and rights-affirming support networks amongst their peers, including local government units, in the absence of State disaster relief services.Building a Just Peace: Women and girls have long served as vital defenders of peace in their communities, from mobilizing humanitarian aid and managing shelters and other lifesaving care to healing rifts between individuals and communities. MADRE strengthens womens and girls locally-rooted work to respond to the drivers and impacts of violence in their communities and cultivate peace based on equality, justice, and dignity for all women, girls, and marginalized groups.- Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, MADRE distributed over $1.3M through more than 91 grants to local activists, organizations, and a network of human rights defenders, both in exile and in-country; grants provided for coordination and advocacy efforts, evacuation and relocation, humanitarian aid distribution, refuge/shelter, and the facilitation of humanitarian corridors.- MADRE held three community hearings in Iraq focused on gender-based crimes that may amount to gender persecution and other atrocities committed by ISIS, contributing to rebuilding trust and reintegration for survivors of ISIS violence with their communities.- After a years-long global campaign led by MADRE, our partners, and allies worldwide, in October 2022, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women adopted General Recommendation No. 39 on the Rights of Indigenous Women and Girls, recognizing the compounded impact of intersectionalities that increase the risk of experiencing violence and discrimination and clearly articulating the rights of Indigenous women, girls, LGBTIQ+ people, and people with disabilities.- In partnership with Global South feminist movements, MADRE enhanced international recognition of and accountability for gender-based crimes that may amount to gender persecution, ensuring that international legal norms uphold womens rights and become more LGBTIQ+-inclusive, including through the creation of a toolkit on understanding, recognizing, and documenting gender persecution in conflict and atrocity settings.