Mar
21
Recuperating The Soil, Seeds, The Soil of Our Society: The Fearless Women of AFEDES
2012
Posted by IDEX
IDEX Executive Director Vini Bhansali reports from Guatemala, where she visited with IDEX partner Women’s Association for the Development of Sacatepéquez (AFEDES).
“When we started our School for Political Education for indigenous women, we knew it would change families, communities and our country for good. We knew that patriarchy would be challenged, so would the church and the economic system that forces us to consume poorly over critically thinking for ourselves and building our communities. We knew that together women would recuperate not only the soil and seeds on our land but, in fact, the soul of our society. This is our struggle." - Amarilis Guamuch, AFEDES
I leave early from Guatemala City to visit with IDEX partner Women’s Association for the Development of Sacatepéquez (AFEDES), where Amarillis Guamuch, their fearless leader, shares the origins of her organization.
From Working in the Kitchen to Running the Show
Years ago, the men of a cooperative in Santiago Sacatepéquez were meeting to organize politically when the women began to accompany their husbands mostly to cook for their meetings.
While cooking, the women began to talk amongst themselves and recognize that they, too, could engage in economic empowerment activities. Thus, 1996 saw the start of AFEDES’ work in training women to sew, bake, and sell groceries.
By 2001, AFEDES had built a microfinance program that promoted savings and microcredits for small-scale income-generating projects accompanied by technical assistance and skills training. Outwardly, the program seemed to be a success.
Microcredit Alone Not The Solution
But in 2008, after an assessment survey conducted in the region, AFEDES found that women were not necessarily becoming more empowered and, in fact, at the household level, some women were worse off and deeper in debt than at the start of the program.
And, while no one was talking openly about domestic violence at the time, its impact could certainly be felt, too.
Women’s Oppression Hindering Their Success
Some women were being forced to become a part of the microcredit programs under duress and suffered sexual and economic violence when they exercised any resistance. Husbands were taking away their land titles or fathers would move the property in the name of their sons in law rather than daughters.
After a period of analysis and reflection, AFEDES shifted its work understanding that women’s oppression could not be solved by credit alone.
Women Learn Their Rights and Stand Up Against Violence
AFEDES started what they call “School for Women’s Political Education”– an 18 week-long program to educate and empower indigenous women about their rights and share information about the mechanisms – both legal and social – that exist to protect their rights. AFEDES organizes many of their workshops with the full family in mind and especially encourages children to attend.
“Unless a woman herself learns to stand up against violence, she will forever be subjected to someone who wants to act their power over her,” explains Amarillis.
Women of AFEDES
Organizing with Other Women’s Rights Groups for Policy Change
AFEDES has also been a long-term member of the National Alliance of Women, a women’s social movement in Guatemala with 33 member organizations actively participating to make women’s voices heard and propose public policies that are in favor of women.
Together the alliance works on actions against the re-militarization of the communities in Guatemala and on the defense of labor rights. To participate effectively in this forum, AFEDES’ women are being trained as community organizers.
A Shelter for Women in Need
For seven years now, AFEDES has been struggling to get a shelter for battered women to seek psychological counseling and be served in their indigenous languages.
The exclusion, discrimination and racism facing indigenous women and their organizations continues unabated. They have marched to the governor’s office and have been rejected, but AFEDES is determined. Now, with is a seat at the table in coalition with other groups, this is a policy victory that they intend to win this year.
No More Violence
I am humbled by the courage of these fierce women holding all systems accountable. And I am struck once again by their wisdom and rigor when the discussion turns to how important it is to help women see that they have the right to have a critical mind, to think, to research, to discuss and to make their own decisions.
Las Mujeres No Esperamos
Alto a la violencia ya!
No mas violencia en…
Mi Cuerpo
Mi Casa
Mi Communidad y
Mi Pais
The Women Aren’t Waiting
Stop the Violence Already!
No more violence in…
My Body
My House
My Community
My Country
For Immediate Release
Press contact: Deborah Goldberg, 415-824-8384, Deborah@idex.org
(San Francisco, CA) – Celebrating more than 25 years of global grantmaking, San Francisco-based International Development Exchange (IDEX) is pleased to announce its new Evaluation and Learning Report, documenting the effectiveness and impact of its unique grantmaking model that puts resources directly in the hands of local leaders and organizations in the world’s most under-resourced communities.
IDEX is a nonprofit grantmaking organization that provides long-term flexible funding for initiatives in marginalized communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America to empower women, build local economies and care for the environment. The core purpose of the Evaluation and Learning report is to examine the effectiveness of IDEX’s partnership-based grantmaking model from the perspective of its grant partners. The report summary can be viewed or downloaded here.
“We commissioned this report because we wanted to hear directly from our partners whether our approach works and what we could do better,” said Rajasvini Bhansali, IDEX’s Executive Director. “We are pleased to hear from our grant partners that we walk our talk. We also wanted to share any critical lessons learned with the international grantmaking community. With these findings and recommendations, we look forward to building on IDEX’s legacy of a transformative, human rights grantmaking model that stops short of nothing but fundamental social change.”
Key findings from the report indicate that, since receiving a grant from IDEX, a majority of its partners:
- Have met all, or more than half, of their goals to address local needs
- Have been able to develop local, community-based solutions either totally or to a great extent
- Can measure a significant and substantive positive change in community members’ leadership and behavior
- Have developed stronger links with social change movements internationally
- Have greatly increased their geographic scope and the number of people interested in participating in their programs
Today thousands of events around the world will be held to celebrate women as part of International Women’s Day.
In honor of the upcoming festivities IDEX wanted to take this opportunity to share a poem (below, in both Spanish and English) shared with us by our partner organization EduPaz.
Women of EduPaz share their stories.
IDEX stands behind our partner organizations in their celebrations and wishes everyone around the world a happy International Women’s Day.
EduPaz provides programs in economic development and agroecology to promote community-based development in the most remote indigenous communities of Chiapas, Mexico. The organization provides microloans to self-help groups and provides support for various community projects such as live-stock farming, providing healthcare facilities, and growing organic vegetables.
Mar
7
From Seattle to Istanbul: IDEX and Partners Present at Upcoming Conferences
2012
Posted by IDEX
IDEX is proud to be sharing our learnings from our grassroots partnerships at the invitation of these important conferences/forums below:
Northern California Grantmakers: * March 20, 2012 * San Francisco, CA
IDEX Executive Director Vini Bhansali will be presenting at NCG on a panel titled “Creating Values-Driven Philanthropy: The Secret to High Impact Giving” alongside Women’s Foundation of California, Mitchell Kapor Foundation, The California Endowment, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, Bay Area Justice Funders Network, and Levi Strauss Foundation. Please join colleagues from private, family, corporate and public foundations to hear how local funders are shifting their way of thinking and incorporating their institutional values into their day-to-day philanthropic practices.
Learn about diverse grantmaking approaches to support community-led change, discuss how to “live” your values and align your foundation’s values with your philanthropic practice, and find out about resources and best practices to support high impact philanthropy. Vini’s comments will focus on IDEX’s recently completed Evaluation & Learning Report. For more information, please go here.
Center for Women’s Policy Studies * April 16-20, 2012 * Honolulu, HI
Association of Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) Forum * April 19 – 22, 2012 * Istanbul, Turkey
The theme for AWID’s 12th Annual AWID Forum is Transforming Economic Power to advance Women’s Rights and Justice. A goal that is found in many of IDEX partners’ social justice vision, IDEX has always recognized the interconnectedness between women’s empowerment and economic justice to further advance human rights and transformative social change.
This year, IDEX Program Manager Katherine Zavala, IDEX Board Member Diane Dodge, and leaders from our partners Ñepi Behña from Mexico and Angus Gillis Foundation from South Africa, will be actively participating in this global space. We will be presenting in two panels sharing successful economic models for building resources and ensuring sustainable livelihoods, particularly in this challenging time of global economic recession, and environmental and climate crises. For more information on the AWID Forum, click here.
Social Venture Network’s Annual Conference * April 19- 22, 2012 * Stevenson, Washington
The Social Venture Network is a community of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs working together to create transformational innovation, growth and impact. IDEX Executive Director Vini Bhansali was invited to join this network in 2011. For IDEX, participation in SVN connects us to a growing community of innovative business leaders and social entrepreneurs to help us improve our business, enhance our leadership, and expand our impact. This April IDEX will be actively participating in SVN’s annual conference, represented by both Vini and Pilar Gonzales, IDEX Director of Philanthropic Partnerships.
Vini has been invited as a feature speaker on a panel on Friday, April 20 at 10.45 am titled “Building Markets & New Solutions to Fight Poverty” with leaders from Sseko Designs and Upaya Social Ventures. For more information, click here.
Pacific Northwest Global Donors Conference * May 4, 2012 * Seattle, WA
The Pacific NW Global Donors Conference is designed expressly for Northwest grantmakers and philanthropists active and/or curious about global philanthropy. The speakers, panels and workshops provide insights and education on many of today’s most significant global issues- including agriculture, climate justice, human rights, technology and explore best practices in international grantmaking. IDEX has participated actively in this forum since its first meeting in 2010. Many members of IDEX’s Alliance of Advisors Peter Blomquist and Katrin Wilde among them, have been leaders in formulating this forum.
At this year’s conference – “Collaboration for Impact” - IDEX will be involved in two interactive workshops on collaboration in action. First, with Britt Yamamoto of iLEAP on working collaboratively on intergenerational leadership development and the second with Hilda Vega from the Libra Foundation on building a Theory of Change. For more information, click here.
International Funders for Indigenous Peoples (IFIP) Annual Conference * May 15 – 19, 2012 * San Francisco, CA
The theme of this year’s conference is “Towards a Better World: Strengthening Indigenous Sustainability” highlighting three tracks that explore current issues in: Investing in Indigenous Models of Sustainable Development, Strengthening Partnerships and Alliances, and Protecting Ancestral Territories and Safeguarding Human Rights.
IDEX, a long-time member of IFIP, will be on a collaborative panel on sustainability in partnerships. Amarilis Guamuch, from IDEX partner AFEDES in Guatemala, will also be invited to share her thoughts on a plenary on indigenous women’s leadership. This intergenerational panel will focus on the rising indigenous women’s leadership and will shine light on the perspectives and case studies of indigenous women leaders organizing and building the leadership capacities of other women in Guatemala, Senegal, Kyrgyzstan. The panel will also offer an opportunity for funders to learn more about the strategies of the Indigenous Women’s Fund, the first indigenous women-led fund that provides resources to indigenous women from all 7 geo-cultural regions defined by the UNPF using principles of intercultural philanthropy. For more information, click here.
The following was written by Suzanne York, blogger at Taming the Tiger and writer with the Institute for Population Studies/HowMany.org.
Recently I had the privilege of meeting with Dr. Prakash Tyagi, a medical doctor and director of Gramin Vikas Vigyan Samiti (GRAVIS), a rural empowerment organization based in the state of Rajasthan, India. Dr. Tyagi was visiting the San Francisco Bay Area, courtesy of the International Development Exchange (IDEX).
GRAVIS encourages women to participate in sustainable agricultural development as a way to generate independent income.
The mission of GRAVIS, grounded in Gandhian philosophy, is to promote sustainable rural development via capacity building, community and women’s empowerment, social justice, and protecting the environment. Previously, I wrote on how the organization empowers rural communities by employing traditional knowledge of taankas, a water storage system.
GRAVIS works in the Thar Desert in western Rajasthan. It is the world’s most densely populated desert ecosystem, with 23 million people. Life is tough, with unpredictable rainfall, environmental degradation, climatic extremes, resource scarcity, few health clinics, and oppressive social standards for women. GRAVIS incorporates a holistic approach, focusing on water security, food security, health, and education, and reaches approximately 1 million people.
Please help us welcome two new additions to the IDEX family - Kate Raymond and Pilar Gonzalez!
"Fundraising, philanthropy, and donor services are my calling," says Pilar, posing with Quito the chihuahua. " I feel completely connected to humankind when I'm being a bridge between people's generosity and people's ingenuity. IDEX is an obvious fit for me."
Pilar, joining IDEX as its new Director of Philanthropic Partnerships, is an accomplished advisor and consultant to nonprofit organizations and donors with over two decades of experience in fundraising.
For the past eight years, Pilar has been part of a founding team at Rudolf Steiner Foundation Social Finance. And from Native Americans in Philanthropy, she was awarded the Flying Eagle Woman Award for her practice of community-based philanthropy.
Pilar comes to IDEX having most recently served as the Interim Vice President of Philanthropy at the Global Fund for Women. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for BolderGiving.com.
“Having lived and worked in Spain, Ecuador, and Chile, I am thrilled to join an organization that works to support amazing groups internationally," says Kate
Kate, joining IDEX as its Manger of Finance & Administration, began as an intern at IDEX in April 2011 working with the board.
“Working to alleviate poverty has been a growing passion of mine ever since I spent a year Ecuador as an exchange student,” says Kate.
A self-professed “lifetime volunteer,” Kate has done everything from tutoring children of migrant workers, assisting people with tax preparation, and has served on the board of the East Bay section of the American Society for Quality. She has a B.A. in International Policy Studies from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and brings to IDEX twenty years of experience in the technology and banking sectors.
“Both Kate and Pilar are superstars in the respective fields and their experience and passion for the work that we do is already evident. We are incredibly lucky to have them both joining IDEX.” says Vini Bhansali, IDEX’s Executive Director.
Katherine Zavala – IDEX’s Program Manager, Grassroots Alliances – recently journeyed to South Africa on a site visit to our partners. She reports from Johannesburg.
Women's Net provided technical training to teenage girls in order to provide a new outlet for advancing women's rights.
Driving into Johannesburg, on the other side of the hemisphere from San Francisco, it is easy to embrace the warm sunny weather. The Jacaranda trees are blooming this month, giving a purple flair to the lush, green environment.
Along the highway, I see the Nelson Mandela Bridge and central “Jozi” as some local people refer to the South African city.
I start my learning journey with Women’s Net, an IDEX Catalyst Grantee.
The goal of Women’s Net is to strengthen women and girls movements for social change through the use of information communication tools and advocacy that promotes access, the right to information and freedom of expression.
IDEX has been named a 4-star charity by Charity Navigator, the largest independent evaluator of charities in the US. IDEX has been awarded a 4-star rating for exceeding industry standards.
“Receiving four out of a possible four stars indicates that IDEX adheres to good governance and other best practices. Approximately a quarter of the charities we evaluate received our highest rating, indicating that IDEX outperforms most other charities in America,” states Ken Berger, President and Chief Executive Officer at Charity Navigator. “This ‘exceptional’ designation differentiates IDEX from its peers and demonstrates to the public it is worthy of their trust.”
“We very much appreciate Charity Navigator’s recognition. Their 4-star rating underscores IDEX’s sound fiscal management and our commitment to accountability and transparency,” says Vini Bhansali, IDEX’s Executive Director.
Charity Navigator rates charities by evaluating two broad areas of financial health: organizational efficiency and organizational capacity. Under organizational efficiency, they consider the ratio of money spent on core programs in relation to the amount spent on staffing, fundraising, and administration. Under organizational capacity, they analyze an organization’s ability to sustain programs over time and maximize resources towards its mission.
“IDEX grants to our partners come entirely from our community of supporters and we strive to put your generous contributions to good use, for work that is not only important but also effective,” adds Vini. “My hope is that this rating will give our supporters the added assurance that a gift to IDEX is well-managed and a wise investment in lasting solutions to poverty and injustice.”
See IDEX’s profile on Charity Navigator here: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=6372
More information on Charity Navigator can be found on their website: www.charitynavigator.org
Katherine Zavala – IDEX’s Program Manager, Grassroots Alliances – is in South Africa on a site visit to our partners. She reports from Cape Town.
"We talk about our commonalities and differences. We get to know each other’s history, where we come from, and our struggles as women."- Mary Tal, WWWA's Founder and Director. Photo by Eric Miller.
Mary Tal, Founder and Director of Whole World Women Assocation
Today I’ve been invited to observe a training at the wonderful Community House in Salt River, Cape Town, a unique building where lots of NGOs share a communal space including IDEX Partner Whole World Women Association (WWWA).
The training is for peer educators. The goal is that these new peer educators, who come from different countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Rwanda, and Cameroon, will educate and build awareness among other refugees on HIV/AIDS literacy.
WWWA has been working with migrant and refugee communities in the surrounding areas of Cape Town since 2002, particularly focusing on women.
Refugees from the most conflicted areas around the African continent have been attracted to South Africa because it offers the best economic opportunities on this continent.
Unfortunately, refugees are still not welcomed or integrated into South African society.
Katherine Zavala – IDEX’s Program Manager, Grassroots Alliances – is in South Africa on a site visit to our partners. She reports from the Eastern Cape province.
IDEX Program Director Katherine Zavala with AGF staff (in red) and Positive Health Champions
Today I went to visit IDEX Partner Angus Gillis Foundation (AGF) and accompany them on a community visit to Glenmore, a township in the Eastern Cape province.
Eastern Cape is known as the poorest province in South Africa, where two-thirds of the people are living in rural areas and lack access to available resources.
It is the final day of activities before the communities start their Christmas vacation. Many of them will travel far to visit extended family. Some will stay home.
But today is a day for reflecting on what was learned in 2011 and what their dreams are for 2012.
Older Posts »
