Candombe is playing and the rhythm connects Gimena with her female ancestors. Her activism started with dance and now she is one of the founders of "Somos negras y q’???", an organization of afro-descendant informal domestic workers in Rivera, Uruguay.
Gimena lives in the uruguayan city called rivera, on the border with brazil where it takes longer for rights to be won than in the capital. Working as a domestic worker, gimena literally felt it in her skin. In addition to her precarious work situation she felt discrimination for being a black woman.
Gimena knew she had to unite with others to transform her reality. That is how she became one of the founders of the sindicato de empleadas domésticas de rivera (rivera domestic workers union). Later, she felt the need to approach her activism from an afro-activism perspective. So in 2017 along with other colleauges she founded the organisation called “Somos negras y q’???” (we’re black and so what?).
Weaving networks with the state they were able to ensure statistics speficied the number of afro women affected by gender-based violence as well as access domestic violence prevention workshops and communication with the police to report cases. They elaborated projects focused on rural women, such as community gardens for community kitchens as well as suicide prevention workshops.
That is how they created the network of community agents. These are circles of trust and support, where the seeds of feminism are planted. For Gimena, this was very important. It helped her to embody her body and embrace the strabismus that characterises her. Today she encourages others to be couragous and more and more people want to be free, rebellious and happy, like how Gimena feels when she dances candombe.
FMS supports Gimena and "Somos negras y q'???" thanks to your donations.
We invite you to follow us on social media and read more on the women's networks that keep us Together, Stronger and Alive!
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From the bottom of our hearts, the entire FMS team would like to thank you for all your support this year. 2022 was an important year for us as we celebrated our organization’s 15th anniversary, and having you by our side made it even more special!
Your donations allow FMS to strengthen feminisms through the mobilization of resources to support the protagonists of social change. An important aspect of our work is establishing networks that unite activists and organizations to oppose the fragmentation and fragility produced by patriarchy and its intersections. Gatherings are essential to developing these networks as they promote dialogue and intersectionality, reinforcing feminisms.
To this end, FMS organized an event in August aiming to build and exchange collective and individual strategies revolving around care and its role in the sustainability of activism. It brought together over 150 activists from all over the country with some of the FMS Board of Directors and Executive team. Representing organizations supported by 7 different FMS programs, these activists not only lived in very different contexts but also worked on very diverse issues.
They shared their strategies, tools, challenges, and experiences through workshops and discussions, focusing on advocacy, communication, and providing support. This experience allowed them to reinforce the care network that strengthens a collective, loving feminist power.
Your donations play a key role in the planning of such events. Continue supporting us by donating and sharing our work!
Thank you again for an amazing year.
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This year is important for Fondo de Mujeres del Sur: this October FMS celebrates its 15th anniversary. This represents 15 years of mobilizing resources to support groups and organizations and to strengthen feminist and diversity movements.
In honor of this event, we organized festivities in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, bringing together volunteers and activists from the organizations we support. We celebrated our efforts toward building the world we want to live in by reinforcing feminism with joy and enthusiasm.
We are delighted with the results achieved in this decade and a half of work, and I would like to share some of these successes with you:
With small monthly donations, you can continue to support the progress toward gender equality. Donate now and strengthen the networks that keep us Together, Stronger, and Alive!
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What was it like to be a lesbian in the 70s? In the 80s? These questions are hard to answer due to the few records available on the history of lesbian identities before the Equal Marriage Law was passed in Argentina in 2010. That is why the organization Alerta Torta was established.
Alerta Torta was created on June 28th, 2019, after Marian, a woman arrested in 2017 for kissing her girlfriend, was sentenced to a year in prison. The organization brings together lesbian, human rights, diversity, and political party activists, all with different backgrounds and experiences. Together, they strive to give a voice to lesbian and lesbian identities by providing them with spaces free of prejudice and violence, thus widening their political participation.
During the pandemic, Alerta Torta developed the Cuarentorta* project to address situations of violence that worsened with the health crisis. Fondo de Mujeres del Sur supported this initiative by putting the organization in contact with mental health activists and professionals. This allowed Alerta Torta to carry on its activities and strengthen its network.
In February 2022, the organization hosted a face-to-face meeting that brought together lesbian activists from all over the country. After two days of workshops, celebration, and rest, Aleta Torta realized that giving visibility to dialogues, stories, images, and memories was a shared request, and thus made it its challenge.
“Each story should be told: the stories from the capitals and stories from the towns, those that were told to us directly or those we heard through testimonies; the stories of those who were activists, could get married, march for pride, and those for whom the rainbow came late. It is a political commitment with future generations”, they affirm. That is the challenge.
Today, Alerta Torta strives to develop a plural and federal agenda that concentrates on the particularities of the lives of lesbians and lesbian identities.
Your contribution makes this possible. Donate today!
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In the 1980s, women from the Yvopey Renda indigenous community in filadelfia (El Chaco province, Paraguay) challenged the status quo, raising their voices and taking on leadership roles. This collective decision changed the lives of many indigenous women. Venancia was one of these women.
Venancia and other women strove to ensure their voices were heard. They developed their own perspective on problems in their community. One of their achievements was to form the first trade union of indigenous domestic workers. Since 2016, they have been part of the Red De Mujeres Guaraní (Guarani Women’s Network).
During the pandemic, women discovered that besides the isolation, they were also doing more household work than before. They wanted to be in touch with other women in their community so they focused on community radio.
In order to allow women to participate, the network activists learned how to use new technologies. Later, they shared this learning with other women to make room for more voices and perspectives.
Radio is the medium they use to communicate and have an impact in their community and in politics. This has proven key for decision-making and activity planning. Now, inspired by those who preceded them in the 1980s, many more women are engaged in the debates.
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