Sabriya Simon
Marcha da Mulheres Negras 2016
Marcha da Mulheres Negras 2016
Marcha da Mulheres Negras 2016

Priority Areas

Supporting feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements to thrive, to be a driving force in challenging systems of oppression, and to co-create feminist realities.

Co-Creating Feminist Realities

While we dream of a feminist world, there are those who are already building and living it. These are our Feminist Realities!

What are Feminist Realities?

Feminist Realities are the living, breathing examples of the just world we are co-creating. They exist now, in the many ways we live, struggle and build our lives.

Feminist Realities go beyond resisting oppressive systems to show us what a world without domination, exploitation and supremacy look like.

These are the narratives we want to unearth, share and amplify throughout this Feminist Realities journey.

Transforming Visions into Lived Experiences

Through this initiative, we:

  • Create and amplify alternatives: We co-create art and creative expressions that center and celebrate the hope, optimism, healing and radical imagination that feminist realities inspire.

  • Build knowledge: We document, demonstrate & disseminate methodologies that will help identify the feminist realities in our diverse communities.

  • Advance feminist agendas: We expand and deepen our collective thinking and organizing to advance just solutions and systems that embody feminist values and visions.

  • Mobilize solidarity actions: We engage feminist, women’s rights and gender justice movements and allies in sharing, exchanging and jointly creating feminist realities, narratives and proposals at the 14th AWID International Forum.


The AWID International Forum

As much as we emphasize the process leading up to, and beyond, the four-day Forum, the event itself is an important part of where the magic happens, thanks to the unique energy and opportunity that comes with bringing people together.

We expect the next Forum to:

  • Build the power of Feminist Realities, by naming, celebrating, amplifying and contributing to build momentum around experiences and propositions that shine light on what is possible and feed our collective imaginations

  • Replenish wells of hope and energy as much needed fuel for rights and justice activism and resilience

  • Strengthen connectivity, reciprocity and solidarity across the diversity of feminist movements and with other rights and justice-oriented movements

Learn more about the Forum process

We are sorry to announce that the 14th AWID International Forum is cancelled

Given the current world situation, our Board of Directors has taken the difficult decision to cancel Forum scheduled in 2021 in Taipei. 

Read the full announcement

Find out more!

Related Content

CFA 2023 - Forum Theme - thai

 ลุกขึ้นพร้อมกัน: เชื่อมต่อ เยียวยา และเติบโต

ประเด็นหลักของเวที – ลุกขึ้นพร้อมกัน (Rising Together) เป็นการเชิญชวนให้ทุกคนกลับมาอยู่กับตัวเองเพื่อเชื่อมต่อซึ่งกันและกันอย่างมีสมาธิ เอาใจใส่ และกล้าหาญ เพื่อให้เราสามารถรู้สึกถึงจังหวะการเต้น ของหัวใจของการเคลื่อนไหวทั่วโลก และลุกขึ้นมารับมือกับความท้าทายในยุคนี้ไปด้วยกัน

นักสตรีนิยม นักปกป้องสิทธิสตรี ความยุติธรรมทางเพศ LBTQI+ และขบวนการพันธมิตรทั่วโลกกำลังอยู่ ในช่วงหัวเลี้ยวหัวต่อที่สำคัญ คือเผชิญกับแรงตอบโต้สิทธิเสรีภาพที่เคยได้รับก่อนหน้านี้ ช่วงไม่กี่ปีที่ผ่านมา ลัทธิอำนาจนิยมเติบโตอย่างรวดเร็ว การปราบปรามภาคประชาสังคมอย่างรุนแรง และการทำให้สตรีและ นักปกป้องสิทธิมนุษยชนที่มีความหลากหลายทางเพศกลายเป็นอาชญากร สงครามและความขัดแย้งที่ ทวีความรุนแรงขึ้นในหลายส่วนของโลก ความอยุติธรรมทางเศรษฐกิจยังคงดำเนินต่อไป รวมทั้งวิกฤตการณ์ ด้านสุขภาพ นิเวศวิทยาและสภาพภูมิอากาศ

การเคลื่อนไหวของเรากำลังสั่นคลอน และในขณะเดียวกันเราก็พยายามสร้างและดำรงความเข้มแข็งและ อดทนเพื่องานข้างหน้า เราไม่สามารถทำงานนี้โดยลำพังในห้องเล็กๆของเราได้ การเชื่อมต่อและ การเยียวยาจึงเป็นสิ่งสำคัญในการปรับเปลี่ยนความไม่สมดุลของพลังงานและข้อบกพร่องภายในการเคลื่อน ไหวของเราเอง เราต้องทำงานและวางยุทธศาสตร์ในลักษณะที่เชื่อมโยงกัน เพื่อที่เราจะสามารถเติบโต ไปด้วยกันได้ เวที AWID จะส่งเสริมองค์ประกอบสำคัญของการเชื่อมโยงถึงกันกับพลังความสามารถ การเติบโต และการสร้างความเปลี่ยนแปลงของนักสตรีนิยมทั่วโลก

Love letter to Feminist Movements #8

Dearest Beloved Feminist Movements,

Hello again, and again, and again. I have known and loved you my entire adult life, since I first met you meaningfully, after graduating from university. I’d seen you one time before then. That was you appearing as Betty Friedan on a local TV talk show in the US Midwest, in the late-1960s. At the time, Mrs. Wells, my other mother, and I commented on what wild, far-fetched ideas this woman was trying to convince us about. Decade after decade since then I have fallen more deeply in love with you, Beloved, and understand and witness your political and theoretical brilliance, ethical and moral authority, creativity, joy, and love, above all. Nearly 60 years later, I know we are partners forever.

Love letter to feminist movements from Your dramatically cloaked jungle nymph.

The early years of our acquaintanceship was ok. I was quite self-involved--figuring racial, gender, and sexual identity; getting clear on my core politics, values, and ethics; completing my formal education--and you provided numerous settings, intellectual drop-in centers, and comforting holding environments where and through which I was able to craft the young-adult building blocks of the feminist and human being whom I would become.

The predominantly white women’s movement of Cambridge and Boston, including Daughters of Bilitis, was my starting place. That suited me at the time but soon realized I desired something more. Poof! Like magic (serendipity), I connected with a small group of radical, anti-imperialist, Black, socialist lesbian women and we soon became the Combahee River Collective. 

That early Combahee experience, combined with critical life lessons and particular African-American/Korean immigrant racial politics of early-1990s in the US, prepared me for the journey that has led me to identify and work as a transnational feminist to address militarism and to dedicate myself to imagining other worlds where all living beings will thrive.

The next two critical women’s-movement moments were decades after Combahee years but deeply linked. First was meeting and being invited into the Korean feminist movement organizing against US military bases and supporting the “kijichon women” the Korean women whose lives, including for some, their mixed-race children, revolved around servicing US military personnel in numerous ways in villages and towns adjacent to the bases. Korean Beloved Feminists, especially Kim Yon-Ja and Ahn Il-Soon, the first sisters I met and traveled with, made me see and understand the critical importance of nation as an analytical and organizing principle. The “capstone” was living, working in occupied Palestine. The late Maha Abu-Dayyeh introduced me to the Palestinian women’s movement, with a profound comment, “you can leave Palestine but Palestine will never leave you.” So true. And, all my work and experiences across many borders brought me to AWID--my second home.

As you know, Beloved, being with you has not been easy or simple. Indeed, you are demanding, consistently riddled with contradictions, and sometimes even hurtful. Nonetheless, you continue to grow and develop, as you are supporting my political, emotional, and spiritual growth and development.  I guess we are growing each other--a very profound process to which I will dedicate the rest of my time in my current form.

The through-line of being with you all these decades is this: 

Feminists Collectively Engaging the Heads, Hearts, Hands, and Spirits to transform our worlds

This is chart with 7 consecutive circles arranged in a circumference. Each one is separated by an arrow which makes the chart a loop. Starting at the top, and following left to right, the circles say: #1 reflecting on individual experiences, #2 story-telling collectively, #3 theorizing, #4 visioning, #5 acting and reflecting, #6 re-visioning, #7 ethic of humility, care, joy, love.

 

So much love, Feminist Movements!

Your Margo
AKA DJ MOR Love and Joy

Wellfleet Massachusetts USA

Ottilie Abrahams

Ottilie was a Namibian feminist activist, educator and politician.

Ottilie was one of the founders of the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO), the Yu Chi Chan Club (an armed revolutionary group); and the South West African National Liberation Front (SWANLIF). She was also a founder of the Namibian Women’s Association and Girl Child Project.

Throughout her life, Ottilie argued for the right to argue, think, contest, and demand. She mobilized women, organized students and teachers and criticized other comrades for their elitism and their corruption.

Ottilie worked ferociously to dismantle patriarchy, and to create a concrete transformative, liberatory, feminist participatory democracy.

Ottilie often said: “I will rest the day I die.”


 

Ottilie Abrahams, Namibia

Snippet Forum FAQ - General Information - EN

General Information

Privacy and cookies - before 25 Apr 2023

AWID Privacy Policy, Your rights to privacy and cookies

This policy governs all pages hosted at www.awid.org, and any other websites under the control of the AWID (the “Website”) and registrations for these sites. It does not apply to pages hosted by organisations other than AWID, to which we may link and whose privacy policies may differ. Please read the following policy to understand our privacy policy regarding nature, purpose, using and sharing of your personal identifiable information that is collected via this website.

1. Types of information collected on this site

Generally, you can browse this website without submitting your personal information to us. However, in some circumstances, we will ask for your personal information.

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When you register to use the website – for example, subscribe to receive emails from us or apply to become a member - you provide us with the mandatory information about you like Name, country, language to receive email updates and email address. This information is provided by you through secure forms and is stored on secure servers.

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Also, while becoming a member or registering for events, you may need to provide payment information. AWID doesn’t store any credit card information on its servers and uses payment gateway to process the payment information.

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When you communicate with AWID, provide optional information through forms on the website or use the site to communicate with other members, we collect information about your communication and any information you choose to provide.

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In addition, when you interact with the Website, our servers may keep an activity log that does not identify you individually (“Non-Personal Information”). Generally, we collect the following categories of Non-Personal Information:

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If you have subscribed to AWID´s e-newsletters or email updates or you have become a member, we will send you regular communications as specified in the relevant area of the website. You are able to unsubscribe from any of the e-newsletters or email updates at any time by using the unsubscribe information provided in our emails.

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Except as explained below, AWID will not disclose any of your personally identifiable information, and will not sell or rent lists containing your information to third parties. AWID may disclose information when it has your permission to do so or under special circumstances, such as when it believes in good faith that the law requires it.

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We are continuously implementing and updating administrative, technical, and physical security measures to help protect your information against unauthorized access, loss, destruction, or alteration. Some of the safeguards we use to protect your information are firewalls and data encryption, and information access controls. If you know or have reason to believe that your AWID membership credentials have been lost, stolen, misappropriated, or otherwise compromised or in case of any actual or suspected unauthorized use of your AWID membership account, please contact us through on Contact Us.

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This policy may change from time to time. The changed policy will be posted on this website and Last updated date at the end of the policy will be updated. There will be an email update sent to you for the revised policy and if you do not agree with the revised policy, you will have the option to cancel you registration(s) with us. You can also write to us here. We welcome your feedback!

Last updated: May 2019

Carmen de la Cruz

Carmen had a long career advocating for women’s rights both in NGOs and within the United Nations (UN) system.  

She taught courses in several Spanish and Latin American universities, and published numerous articles and reports on women, gender and peace in developing countries.

Her writing and critical reflections have impacted a whole generation of young women. In her last years, she was responsible for the Gender Practice Area in the Regional Center of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) for Latin America, from where she supported very valuable initiatives in favour of gender equality and women's human rights.


 

Carmen de la Cruz, Argentina/ Spain

Will there be support for sign language interpretation other than ISL?

If your activity is accepted, you will be contacted by the AWID team to assess and respond to interpretation and accessibility needs.

Bessy Ferrera

Bessy Ferrera was a lifelong defender of the human rights of trans people, sex workers and HIV positive people in Honduras.

Bessy was also a member of Arcoíris, an organisation which supports the LGBTI+ community. She was also a focal point person for the Right Here, Right Now (Derechos aquí y Ahora) Platform of Honduras, and advocated strongly for full citizenship of trans people, and the passing of a gender identity law that would allow trans people to change their gender identity legally.

"Since the beginning of the year [2019] the trans community has been suffering a series of attacks, for defending, for demanding rights." - Rihanna Ferrera (Bessy’s sister)

Bessy was a sex worker, and in early July 2019, was shot to death by two men while working in the streets of Comayagüela. Her assailants were subsequently arrested. 

Bessy is one of many LGBTI+ rights defenders in Honduras, who were murdered because of their identities and work. Other companeras include: Cynthia Nicole, Angy Ferreira, Estefania "Nia" Zuniga, Gloria Carolina Hernandez Vasquez, Paola Barraza, Violeta Rivas, and Sherly Montoya.

Bessy’s case is emblematic of injustice and a much larger problem of the systematic violence the LGBTI+ community faces in Honduras as the state fails to guarantee rights offer and fails to offer protection. This has created a culture of impunity.

Despite the risks LGBTI+ defenders in Honduras face, they continue their work to challenge and resist violence, and fight stigma and discrimination on a daily basis. 

“If I die, let it be for something good not for something futile. I don’t want to die running away, being a coward. If I die, I want people to say that I died fighting for what is mine.” - member of Arcoíris 

كان من المفترض أن أشارك أنا أو مجموعتي في المنتدى الذي تم إلغاؤه بسبب الجائحة، كيف يمكنني المشاركة في هذا المنتدى؟

سنعيد التواصل مع الشركاء/ الشريكات السابقين/ات لضمان احترام الجهود السابقة. إذا تغيرت معلومات الاتصال الخاصة بك منذ آخر عملية للمنتدى، فيرجى تحديثنا حتى نتمكن من الوصول إليك.

Doris Valenzuela Angulo

Doris Valenzuela Angulo was an Afro-descendant social activist, leader and human rights defender from Buenaventura, Colombia. She was part of Communities Building Peace in the Territories (CONPAZ), a national network of organizations in communities affected by armed conflict that advocate for non-violence and socio-environmental justice. 

Doris defied constant paramilitary violence and pressures from mega projects to displace her community and state collusion. Faced with one of the most difficult contexts in her country, she played a leadership role in an unprecedented initiative of non-violent resistance called Puente Nayero Humanitarian Space, an urban place for community cohesion, safety, creativity and collective action. 

This unique non-violent struggle of the families that belonged to Puente Nayero Humanitarian Space, attracted attention and support from both local and international agencies. By September 2014, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had granted precautionary protection measures to the community ordering the Colombian State to adopt necessary measures to preserve their lives and personal integrity. However, the threats and violence from the paramilitaries continued. Doris focused her energies on preventing forced recruitment of children and young people by the neo-paramilitaires, continuing on despite the murder of her son Cristian Dainer Aragón Valenzuela in July 2015. Doris also became a target, continuously receiving threats for her activism and the work she did.  

The continued aggression and threats against her life forced Doris to leave Colombia. She was residing in Spain from February 2017 to February 2018, as part of the Amnesty International temporary protection program for human rights defenders at risk. In April 2018, Doris was murdered in Murcia, Spain by her ex-partner. She was only 39 years old. 


Tributes:

"Doris, spending a whole year with you has taught us how a person can have the ability to transform and generate hope in the face of deeply negative and devastating events during your life...We continue with our commitment in the defense of all human rights. Your courage and your light will always guide us.” - Montserrat Román, Amnesty International Grupo La Palma

Excerpt from “Words for Doris Valenzuela Angulo” by Elsa López

"..You knew it. You always knew. And in spite of everything you stood firm against so many injustices, so many miseries, so much persecution. You stood up, haughty and fierce, against those who wanted to make you again abandon your hopes, humble yourself and surrender. Standing up you cried out for your freedom and ours that was yours. Nothing and no one paralyzed your efforts to change the world and make it more generous and livable. You, live among us, more alive today than ever among us despite death. Always live by your gestures, your courage, your greatness when crying for a promised land that you came to invoke with each of your cries for all the deserts you inhabited. You. Always alive. Doris Valenzuela Angulo.

They are only words. I know. I know it too. But the words unite us, protect us, give us strength and encouragement to continue walking towards the light that you defended so much…” 

كيف يمكنني تمويل مشاركتي في منتدى جمعية حقوق المرأة في التنمية؟

إذا كانت مجموعتك أو مؤسستك تتلقى تمويلًا، فقد ترغب في مناقشة الأمر مع الممول/ة الخاص بك الآن إذا كان قادرًا على دعم سفرك ومشاركتك في المنتدى. تخطط العديد من المؤسسات لميزانياتها للعام المقبل في وقت مبكر من عام 2023، لذا من الأفضل عدم تأخير هذه المحادثة للعام المقبل.

Isabel Cabanillas de la Torre

Isabel Cabanillas de la Torre was a much loved young feminist artist and activist from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, known for her beautiful and evocative hand-painted clothing with eyes being an emblematic feature in her work. Her murals transformed the run down and vacant buildings in Ciudad Juarez’s downtown, bringing life and political commentary to their walls.

Through her art and political activism Isabel sought to draw attention to the gender based violence pervasive in her hometown. She volunteered with the women’s network Mesa de Mujeres on the Citizen Observatory on Gender to monitor the performance of judges, prosecutors and public defenders on cases of femicides and other gender based violations. She was also a member of Hijas de su Maquilera Madre, a feminist collective whose name makes reference to the daughters of mothers who are maquila workers. Some of these mothers were among the first victims of femicide in the city.

Isabel’s latest project, still in progress, was an art installation to protest a Canadian company that was looking to mine copper in the Samalayuca Desert. 

On 18 January, 2020 Isabel was shot while riding her bike back home in Downtown Juárez, in what appeared to be a targeted killing, her body found beside her bike.

Isabel’s murder, sparked a new wave of outrage against femicides in the region, hundreds marched to the US-Mexico border bridge, blocking it for hours and chanting “Ni una mas” (Not one more) as feminist collectives continue to protest the murders of women throughout Mexico. In 2019 alone, 3142 women and girls were killed in Mexico, many of whom were targeted specifically because of their gender.

She loved riding her bike.

"The bike for her was a symbol of freedom. A symbol of being free in the streets." - Marisol (a friend of Isabel’s)  

هل تختلف عملية التقديم الافتراضية عن عملية التقديم الشخصية؟

ليس هناك اختلاف، نفس الطريقة ونفس الموعد النهائي. يرجى استخدام نفس النموذج لإرسال مقترحك سواء كان ذلك شخصيًا أو عبر الإنترنت أو كليهما (هجين).

ماذا لو لم أتمكن من الحضور شخصيا؟ هل ستكون الفعالية هجينة؟

نعم! نحن نستكشف حاليًا تقنيات مبتكرة للسماح بالاتصال والمشاركة الهادفين.

Rising together - Logo and Button - EN

Call for Activities: Deadline extended to February 1st 2024!

AWID Forum - Rising together

Co-create the The 15th AWID International Forum in Bangkok, Thailand.

Submit your activity now!

Snippet - Intro WITM - EN

Where is the Money for Feminist Organizing? Survey Results

Thanks to our global feminist community! From May to August 2024, nearly 1,200 organizations working for Women's rights, gender justice, and LBTQI+ equality shared their experiences in the WITM survey. The results offer a unique picture of how feminist movements are resourced and where gaps remain.

Stay tuned for the upcoming report for more analysis!
 

Learn more about the insights

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 The full “Where is the Money for Feminist Organizing” report will be published in 2026.

To learn more how AWID has been shining a light on money for and against feminist movements check out the work of our Resourcing Feminist Movements Initiative here.

How do you define external funding?

External funding includes grants and other forms of funding from philanthropic foundations, governments, bilateral, multilateral or corporate funders and individual donors – from both within your country or abroad. It excludes resources that groups, organizations and/or movements generate autonomously such as, for example, membership fees, the voluntary contributions of staff, members and/or supporters, community fundraisers, venue hires or sale of services. For ease and clarity, definitions of the different types of funding as well as short descriptions of different donors are included in the survey.

I don't feel comfortable sharing the name of my group and our contact information with AWID, should I still fill out the survey?

Absolutely. These questions are optional, we value your right to remain anonymous. Please fill the survey regardless of your decision to share the name and contact information of your group, organization and/or movement.

Snippet - WITM why - PT

Por Que Devo Realizar Este Inquérito?