News from women's groups

Homophobic violence during LGBTI rally in Georgia


 May 2013- On Friday May 17th, activists in Georgia came together peacefully to mark International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia. When thousands of people, led by ultra-conservative Orthodox priests and church supporters, violently attacked a silent street-action event, the police in the Georgian capital Tbilisi failed to protect LGBTI activists.

Two of our grantees were at the rally. Together with other activists and allies, they had to be evacuated by the police in a small minivan as crowds of brutal anti-gay protestors charged after them, hurling stones and bottles of water at the vehicle and beating on the windows.

Read more >>

Women's rights news

Challenging fundamentalisms: women’s rights activists lead the way


 May 2013- Women are often seen to symbolically embody morality and cultural identity. Within a values system where women are responsible for ensuring morality and social harmony, controlling women’s bodies and limiting their freedoms is seen as a mechanism to “protect” society. Limiting access to abortion, reducing women’s choices in clothing by enforcing dress codes and forced body alteration such as female genital mutilation/cutting are all attempts to control women’s and girls’ agency.

In the final installment of our web series ‘Change is happening’ we reflect on the challenges and progress made by the women’s movement in resisting fundamentalisms.


Mama Cash news

Writing women’s rights history together


Mama Cash founders at the kitchen tableThis year, Mama Cash celebrates that for 30 years now we have had the privilege of supporting women, girls and trans people around the world who have organized themselves to claim their rights and improve their lives. In 1983 Mama Cash was founded as the world’s first international women’s fund.

In three decades of funding feminist activism we have helped to break taboos and build bridges. We invite you to explore our shared history at www.history.mamacash.nl.

Mama Cash news

Zohra Moosa is Mama Cash’s new director of programmes

Zohra MoosaMay 2013- We are excited to introduce you to Zohra Moosa, our new director of programmes. She is joining Mama Cash this month.

She comes to Mama Cash from Action Aid (UK), where she was their Women’s Rights Advisor for three and a half years. She led AAUK’s policy and advocacy work on women’s rights through research, policy analysis, programme advice, campaign development, and media and advocacy.

Prior to joining AAUK, Zohra was the Senior Policy and Campaigns Officer at the Fawcett Society in the UK, one of the UK’s oldest and best known feminist organisations. Since 2007, Zohra has been a freelance blogger and reporter for the Guardian’s “Comment is Free”, openDemocracy and The F-Word.

Mama Cash news

Mama Cash Annual Report 2012: She’s Alive & Kicking!


 May 2013- In Mama Cash’s 30 years of feminist grantmaking, we have seen our grantees make great progress in changing the world. Together with women’s movements and activists, we continue to work with passion and commitment to achieve social justice. That’s why we are using the tag line She’s Alive and Kicking! in our jubilee celebrations this year and why we gave our annual report 2012 the same name.

We are proud to present our results and achievements of the past year.
Read more >>


Blog by Nicky McIntyre

My rotten tomato for Margaret Thatcher

Photo: Daan Stringer

April 2013- As a young woman, I studied at Somerville, at the time a women’s college at Oxford University. Baroness Margaret Thatcher also studied at Somerville College. When Margaret Thatcher passed away recently, I was reminded of the confusion she has always stirred in me.

On the one hand there was the pride that I could study at a prestigious university and a college that promoted the education of women and produced many renowned women leaders. And on the other hand there was the shame I felt that this woman leader could be so different from my vision of a real leader, and so uninterested in promoting the rights and leadership of women.

 

Read Nicky McIntyre's blog on Margaret Thatcher >>


Women's rights news

In solidarity with the Garment Workers Unity Forum in Bangladesh

 

April 2013- Mama Cash stands in solidarity with our grantee Garment Workers Unity Forum (GWUF) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. They are bravely dealing with sorrow and facing critical challenges following the building collapse last Thursday. GWUF’s president, Mushrefa Mishu, informed us that many of their friends were killed or injured in the building.

 

GWUF advocates for the labour rights of women workers in the garment industry in and around Dhaka, including the right to a safe work place. The fire in the Tazreen fashion factory in the same district last November is still fresh in the memory of GWUF and garment factory workers,  and now they are hit again by a serious industrial accident in the workplace. This latest incident shows the severe unsafety of many of the low wage workplaces where clothing for Western labels is produced.

 

Our thoughts are with our sisters at GWUF and with all garment workers hit by this tragedy.



News from women's groups

Women’s Fund Georgia under fire

Mariam GagoshashviliApril 2013- The Women’s Fund in Georgia (WFG) has been raising funds to support women’s groups working for social change since 2005. The Fund is working hard to shift Georgian attitudes about women’s rights issues and also about engaging in philanthropy as a way to effect social change.

The Fund’s work has frequently met with opposition and hostility, and in February the WFG experienced more serious threats.

Read more >>

Women's rights news

Change is happening

30 years of women's rights activism

March 28, 2013- Mama Cash is celebrating our 30th anniversary this year. We launched a history website that looks back at what we have learned from three decades of funding women’s rights activism. It tells our story, including some of our key decisions, debates, strategies, groups funded and accomplishments.

We also see our anniversary as a perfect moment to reflect on the impact of three decades of women’s organising in making our planet a more just place for women, girls and trans people. This week, we are launching a web series looking at some of the achievements of women’s rights movements in the past 30 years.

Read the web series Change is happening >>

News from women's groups

They are Alive and Kicking


April 2013- Many of our grantees took the opportunity on International Women’s Day  to show their work,  celebrate their successes and raise awareness for the challenges women, girls and trans people face in their  communities.

From demonstrations to debates, new websites to video projects and  performances to workshops, their activities show incredible variety and creativity. Above all, they show that  they are Alive and Kicking.

Read about our grantees’ activities in March >>

Women's rights news

Indian women demand freedom,  not ‘protection’


 Shehzah Salam, from "Fearless", the poster collectiveFebruary 2013- The gang rape of a 23-year-old woman in New Delhi last December has provoked unprecedented protests across India. The woman died from her injuries two weeks later. The crime has focused attention on the deep-rooted misogyny in politics, religious organisations, legal systems, and on the streets of India and countries around the world. 

Mama Cash spoke to two Indian feminists, Geetanjali Misra and Prabha Nagaraja, to delve deeper into the work that women’s rights activists have been engaging in for decades, and to try to understand why the recent public outrage about this case has been so strong.

Read more >>

News from Mama Cash

Immense portrait launches campaign to Defend Women Who Defend Human Rights on 10 December 2012


het kunstwerk vanuit de luchtDecember 2012- Activists often have to get their hands dirty to make a statement, to raise awareness, to build a movement, to create change. In solidarity with the Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders, Mama Cash volunteers and staff dug into the earth and got our hands dirty last week with urban artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada to create an immense land-portrait of an anonymous woman activist.

The image covers a piece of land about two football fields large in Amsterdam and took a week to build out of sand, hay and black, fertile soil. We unveiled the piece on International Human Rights Day, 10 December 2012.

Read more >>

Mama Cash news

New Mama Cash end of year campaign



December 2012- All over the world, women and girls are opening people’s eyes to injustices, discrimination and violence. Instead of watching passively, they are fighting for what can and must be changed.

They set their sights on real, life-affecting change for themselves, their communities and their countries. In their activism, they point out the obstacles and problems they face and how they will overcome them. They open our eyes.

Read more about our (she opens your eyes) campaign>>

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