The Community Committee (COM COM) is Mama Cash’s participatory grantmaking decision-making body run for and by activists with experience in feminist movements. COM COM makes decisions about who receives funding from the Mama Cash’s Resilience Fund, which provides core/general support to the groups, collectives and organisations led by women, girls, trans people and intersex people. Community Committee members also contribute to the grantmaking programme by providing thematic, issue, regional, linguistic and other context analyses in case of need, and by reflecting on the participatory grantmaking programme as we go to learn how to improve our processes. COM COM members serve on the committee on a rotation basis. They receive an annual stipend to cover the costs related to their participation in Community Committee meetings and opportunities to enhance their feminist activism. The committee is composed of 11 individuals.
- Alejandra Sarda-Chandriramani
- Billy Hani Billima
- Cathy Ketepa
- Kamila Zakhidova
- Marta Music
- Nana Abuelsoud
- Natia Gvianishvili
- Prabha Nagaraja
- Stacy Velásquez
- Thandiwe Chidavarume
- Anonymous
Alejandra Sardá-Chandriramani (uses she/her pronouns). Joined COM COM in 2021.
Alejandra Sardá-Chandiramani is a feminist and sexual rights activist from Argentina; currently residing in Uruguay. She has been active in the feminist, lesbian and anti-capitalist movements nationally, regionally, and internationally since the early 90s. Alejandra has a long trajectory of activism in different spaces, from the streets to the UN and feminist funders to lesbian collectives and sexual rights NGOs. Alejandra worked 5 years for Mama Cash developing the fund’s unique Women’s Funds programme. She is a Board Member for Akahatá-Equipo de Sexualidades y Géneros and is an Advisor to RESURJ. Alejandra is a strong ally to the sex-worker and trans movements. She was the Co-Creating Feminist Realities/Forum Director at AWID until February 2021 and has now retired from full-time NGO activism, but not from what she loves most – being an activist and doing translations. She is a professional translator and uses the language as a political tool that contributes to greater access to and equality within social movements. Alejandra speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese, and can read and write in French. Alejandra writes novels, loves history, folk music, dancing and walking by the river/sea.
Billy Hani Billima (uses they/them pronouns). Joined COM COM in 2024.
Billy Hani is a queer trans artist, activist and healer based in Kenya. Their writing and photography explore African sexuality, bodies and mental health. Billy’s healing practices are drawn from their own experiences of healing, their artistic mediums and indigenous African practices. They are the co-founder and current Director of HeART Out Kenya, a healing justice organisation that uses art therapy to promote individual and collective care among LGBTIQ+ activists and feminists. Billy works and volunteers with different LGBTIQ+ organizations on advocacy and communication, and currently leads the Board of Directors of Q-Initiative Eldoret.
Billy Hani was the 2022 Creative Arts Fellow with ‘Adventures From the bedrooms of African Women’ where their work tackling abortion, periods, pleasure and queerness were published. They have been an Artist in Residency at 32 Degrees East in Kampala. Billy Hani has won multiple awards for photography and activism including ‘Upcoming Human Rights Defender of the year 2022’ awarded by the Working Group on Human Rights Defenders in Kenya and the British High Commission Climate Changemakers Photography Competition in March 2021. Some of their work has also been published by Taboom Media, The Continent, Minority Africa, and FemInStyle Africa among others.
Billy believes in queer joy and radical self-love as a form of resistance.
Cathy Ketepa (uses she/her pronouns). Joined COM COM in 2023.
Cathy Ketepa is the National Coordinator for Friends Frangipani Inc. and is from Papua New Guinea. Cathy, as a former sex worker and Human Rights Defender, is very active in the field of sex worker rights and is committed to the meaningful participation of female, male and transgender sex workers, including those living with HIV. She is currently the President for Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers and a public speaker at all levels of the PNG government nationally and internationally and on camera by request. Cathy has been PAC Member for Red Umbrella Fund from 2018-2021 as a representative of Aisa and the Pacific Region. From 2014 onwards, she is also a representative for KP Community members on the CCM-PNG for Global Fund and since 2017 she is Chairlady for the National Key Population Advocacy Consortium.
Kamila Zakhidova (uses she/them pronouns). Joined COM COM in 2023.
Kamila Zakhidova is non-binary feminist activist, artist, community organiser, curator, and educator in Uzbekistan & larger Central Asia. As an artist and activist, Kamila is a persistent advocate for holistic security. They are part of decolonial feminist movements, anti-violence activism and youth and human rights civil society sectors in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Their work also focuses on the development justice and redistribution of resources and money on a regional level when addressing foreign donors and intergovernmental institutions. Also, central to their movement-building as an artist is to belong to the emerging community of decolonial knowledge producers in Central Asia about Central Asia, which includes other visual artists, designers, journalists, documentary photographers/filmmakers, writers, creative directors, curators, researchers, illustrators, translators, and other creators. Kamila is a co-founder and Co-Executive Director of the Central Asian Feminist Organisation FemAgora based in Kazakhstan. In Uzbekistan, Kamila co-founded 139 Documentary Center – www.instagram.com/139documentarycenter, an art activist and interdisciplinary creative and collaborative space (offline) where they currently serve as a Strategic Advisor, formerly Creative and Art Director.
Marta Musić (uses they/them pronouns). Joined COM COM in 2024.
Marta Musić is a queer, transfeminist activist-researcher from ex-Yugoslavia, currently based in Barcelona, Spain. They work as a transnational movement organizer, a feminist economist and a weaver of systemic alternatives. They are currently the lead in the Building Feminist Economies team at the Association for Women’s Rights in Development, and one of the co-founders and coordinators of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives. They hold a doctoral degree in Environmental Science and Technology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, dedicated to decolonial feminist perspectives of a pluriverse of systemic alternatives. During their free time, they enjoy boxing, playing the guitar and the drums, photography, hiking, cooking for loved ones and spoiling their two cats Milo and Dani.
Nana Abuelsoud (uses she/her pronouns). Joined COM COM in 2023.
Nana Abuelsoud is a feminist and a reproductive rights and population policy researcher based in Egypt. She is a member of Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Justice (RESURJ) and is on the Advisory Board of the A Project in Lebanon. Nana follows and contextualizes national population policies and builds evidence that addresses modern eugenics, regressive international aid and authoritarianism. Previously, she was part of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and the Ikhtyar Feminist Collective. Nana loves reading, learning Spanish, and taking walks.
Natia Gvianishvili (uses she/her pronouns) Joined COM COM in 2021.
Natia Gvianishvili is one of the first publicly open lesbian feminist activists from Georgia; currently residing in Sweden. Natia has been actively engaged with local, regional and international LGBTIQ and feminist movements for over 10 years; her work ranges from the community mobilisation, research, visibility work, building solidarity to lobby and advocacy. Natia is a former Executive Director of Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group (WISG) – Georgian LBTQ organisation, and is proud of the work she’s done as a bold human rights activist through WISG, including advocating for LGBTQI rights to live free from violence and discrimination. She currently works at RFSL – The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Rights, with a specific focus on organizations program in Eastern Europe, that includes advocacy, mapping the conservative opposition in the region and working on response strategies. Natia is a Board member of EL*C – EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community. Natia is a strong proponent of do no harm principle, intersectional feminism and collective care that she believes are prerequisites for sustainable movements. Natia is a professional translator fluent in Georgian, English, Russian, Swedish and Italian.
Prabha Nagaraja (uses she/her pronouns). Joined COM COM in 2024.
Prabha Nagaraja has over two decades of experience in the field of SRHR, counselling and training, engaging with diverse audiences from different parts of India and South and Southeast Asia. She is based in New Delhi, India. Prabha is currently the Executive Director of TARSHI. Her areas of interest include sexuality education for young people and the sexual rights of people with disabilities. Her other passion lies in the field of energy healing modalities, stress management, burnout prevention, self-and collective care.
Stacy Velásquez (uses she/her pronouns) Joined COM COM in 2023.
Stacy Velásquez is a Salvadoran transfeminist activist and human rights defender living in Guatemala for 17 years and has developed several bills in favour of LGBTQI+ people during these years. She is a co-founder of the Platransforma Feminista and a consultant for OIM Argentina and Guatemala. Stacy is a winner of the Tulip Award for Human Rights of Central America from the Embassy of the Netherlands and Costa Rica, and national referent of REEDLACTRANS (Latin American and Caribbean Network of Trans People) in Guatemala. Stacy is currently Executive Director of OTRANS-RN.
Thandiwe Chidavarume (uses she/her pronouns) Joined COM COM in 2021.
Thandiwe Chidavarume is a feminist and an environmental justice activist from Zimbabwe. Having lived in rural areas most of her life, Thandiwe has been working with rural women from various cultural backgrounds, religious affiliations and sexuality for the past 15 years. Her work has been focusing on women’s land rights, community mobilization, movement building, monitoring and evaluation. She has been actively lobbying the government and corporations to respect the women’s right to land and resources and to stop land grabbing practices of the mining companies. Thandiwe is a member of the International Alliance on Natural Resources in Africa (IANRA), a founding member of Womin- (an alliance of women in mining affected communities), a founding member of Rural Women’s Assembly in Zimbabwe, and a Board member of RWA – Southern Africa and ZILAN. She is currently working with the Women and Land in Zimbabwe (WLiZ) which is a rural women’s organisation addressing unequal ownership of, and control over land and natural resources. With Thandiwe’s leadership, WLiZ fights for women’s right to land and natural resources and women’s participation in decision making at all levels. Thandiwe speaks English and Shona.