In November 2013, FRIDA was able to award 4 additional grants to the organizations that received the second highest number votes from our Grant Cycle 2013. We are happy to introduce our new grantees, the young feminist groups from Nepal, Burkina Faso, Egypt and Ecuador!
Women’s Empowerment and Resource Center – Radio Udayapur, Nepal
Founded in 2009, Radio Udayapur is a community radio station run by girls and women based in Udayapur, Eastern Nepal. With a 200,000-listener base from among semi-urban and indigenous communities of Danuwar, Chaudhary and Hilly/Terai Dalits, we use media as an important instrument in ending patriarchy. Our new project – Un-Veiling – is a response to a very urgent issue: child marriage. If nothing is done, an estimated 140 million girls will become young brides by 2020. Through Un-Veiling, a pilot yearlong mass-engagement and sensitization effort using media activism among local communities, we aim to create change in the society and end child marriage.
Collectif Vivre Ma Vie, Burkina Faso
Founded in 2012, we are a group of 47 young feminists driven by the desire for change and freedom. We want to give young women and girls the voice and opportunities they need to fight for their rights, particularly the right to have full control over their lives and bodies. As such, we stand against forced marriage, a serious problem in our community that puts many young women and girls in danger. By educating men and women, young and old, political leaders and other community members on girls’ and women’s rights, we work to end forced marriage and to ensure that girls and women can fully exercise their rights.
Ganubia Hora, Egypt
Founded in 2012, we focus on ensuring that women are part of the democratic transition processes happening in Egypt. We utilize interactive theatrical performances and storytelling workshops to address the issues faced by women in our region, such as gender-based violence, harassment, female genital mutilation, and child marriage. We also focus on training of trainees so that we can encourage discussion and political empowerment of women, provide the support women in our region need on all levels, and ensure that women are an inseparable part of all changes currently happening in our society.
Salud Mujeres, Ecuador
Founded in 2008, Salud Mujeres provides free and timely information on how to safely terminate a pregnancy using medication (Misoprostol) to prevent unnecessary deaths of young women resulting from unsafe, clandestine abortions. By sharing strategic knowledge with other women, we ensure that they can exercise autonomous well-informed decisions. In collaboration with other women’s groups, we work to decentralize information on abortion and raise awareness about the need to decriminalize abortion. As part of our advocacy work, we are starting an “artistic traveling caravan,” a new project to provide information and raise awareness on safe abortion across Ecuador. Incorporating theatrical performances, movie screenings, and other forms of information dissemination, we aim to reach at least 500 young people in 5 cities across Ecuador.
