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Interview with the writer and feminist activist Schuma Schumaher, executive coordinator of the non-governmental organization REDEH.

In this first conversation – AWID's Arts & Culture Coordinator Amina Doherty sits down with donors, artists, and activists from diverse social movements, contexts and backgrounds to discuss their work, alternative strategies for organising and the value of supporting (and funding!) art.

Cultivating self/collective care and wellbeing is both deeply personal and deeply political. When we nurture wellbeing at the personal level, we improve our ability to care and have compassion for others. We are interested not in hiding from our busy lives and stress, but in finding and sharing ways to fully embody our politics and principles, making our contributions sustainable.

As long as I can remember, my grandmother taught me to stand up straight, cross my legs, clear the table, cover myself, not to talk about periods, hide my maxi pads, not to use tampons because virginity is precious and should not be jeopardized.

In late May the Guardian released the Facebook Files, leaked internal documents revealing how the company moderates content. Many of us have long called for more transparency around Facebook's content moderation so we can better understand gender-based violence that happens on the platform and provide feedback.

We all engage with activism and become part of wider movements for our own reasons. While activism can help us feel free and grow as individuals, the road to imagining our collective futures and the effort that goes into building just, equal, free societies can be physically dangerous and emotionally draining.

The recent AWID Forum that took place in Bahia, Brazil, invited participants to imagine “feminist futures.” But to do so, we must reckon with the extent to which the state and other forces are working to limit our imaginations. This was the focus of the session, Reclaiming Democratic Spaces, in which participants explored the clampdown on resistance taking place across national and international levels.

"I grew up to the sounds of rain on the roof /  Winds bristling through the trees / Rotten mangoes on the earth (...)"

In the context of sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR), the subject of pleasure remains a big taboo. Yet many working in the field around the world are struggling to reach young people with vital information relating their sexual and reproductive health and rights. Is this because we are failing to take into account the motivations and desires of those we are trying to engage?

From the 10th-12th of April 2016, the fourth African Feminist Forum will take place in Zimbabwe, bringing together a range of wisdom, experience and insight from feminist organisers and activists from across the continent.