Leading change: stories from Spark Fund grantee-partners
From challenging stereotypes about Muslim women to helping queer and trans people from Abya Yala build confidence, our Spark Fund grantee-partners tackle a wide range of issues and work towards a world where everyone can thrive.
They lead their groups together, organise events where participants learn to speak out against injustice, and take to the streets for our rights. They work towards a world where diversity and identities are not only accepted, but celebrated.
All grantee-partners uphold these core criteria:
- self-led by the women, girls, trans, or intersex people they serve
- work from a feminist, women’s, girls’, trans people’s, or intersex people’s rights perspective
- focus on urgent and contested political issues in the Netherlands or on Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius or Sint Maarten (the ABCSSS islands)
- push for structural and systemic change
What does this look like in practice? We asked grantee-partners that received funding in 2024 to share their experience. Read their stories and discover feminist leadership in action.
Feministas en Holanda: sharing ideals and struggles
We are a group of people living in the Netherlands, with diverse backgrounds and expertise, who encountered this collective space as one to share ideals. Through gatherings, conversations, and trust-building spaces, we plant seeds in our community.
Papaya Kuir: peers, not saviours
We work with trans refugees, asylum seekers, those without papers and basically people with many intersections of marginalisation. We are not saviours, but peers providing a lifeline to our communities.
S.P.E.A.K.: for self-determination of Muslim women
Muslim women are increasingly confronted with Islamophobia, racism, and exclusion, especially in public debate and policy. At a time when our bodies and clothing are being politicised, S.P.E.A.K. offers a platform for self-representation and resistance to stereotyping.
Vrije Keuze Coalitie: fighting for abortion rights
The Vrije Keuze Coalitie (Free Choice Coalition) is a partnership of civil society organisations, activists, and experts in the field of abortion care and rights. We joined forces to protect and improve access to and the right to abortion in the Netherlands.
Trans In Eigen Hand: beyond the gatekeeping of healthcare
We’re laser-focussed on the healthcare system for trans people in The Netherlands. Although it has helped a great deal of people through transition, it’s also still a heavily gatekept system that infringes upon fundamental human rights and bodily autonomy.
