The 16 Days Campaign has been used as an organizing strategy by individuals and groups around the world to call for the elimination of all forms of violence against women. The campaign takes place annually in the period between 25 November and 10 December.

Key dates include:

• 25 November: International Day of No Violence Against Women
• 1 December: World Aids Day;
• 3 December: International Day for the Disabled;
• 10 December: Human Rights Day

Recognizing the critical role militarism plays in perpetuating gender-based violence, the 2014 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign will continue with the theme of “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Let’s Challenge Militarism and End Violence Against Women!”

Every year AWDF provides resources to women’s organizations and groups all over Africa who are working to end gender-based violence in Africa. To support the 2014 global campaign to end violence against women, AWDF will support small to medium scale women’s rights organisation on the African continent to lend their voice to the campaign to end violence against women.

 

AWDF would therefore give priority to projects that:

• Raise awareness about gender-based violence as a human rights issue at the local and national levels using innovative and community driven activities.
• Strengthen local work around violence against women
• Establish a clear link between local and international work to end violence against women
• Provide a forum in which communities can develop and share new and effective strategies
• Create tools to pressure governments to implement promises made to eliminate violence against women

 

World AIDS Day Campaign

The World AIDS Day, is observed on the 1^st of December every year. The day which is celebrated on or around the 1^st of December every year is an opportunity to intensify awareness raising around HIV issues in diverse ways. The Campaign is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS Pandemic and to demonstrate global solidarity in the face of the pandemic. The campaign is an opportunity for all stakeholders to highlight the progress made and the challenges besetting the response to the pandemic as well as to encourage various stakeholders and government to facilitate progress in HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care around the world. For 2014, the global World AIDS Day theme is “Getting to Zero” by 2015 – Zero AIDS Related Deaths, Zero New Infections and Zero Discrimination.

AWDF would lend its voice to the 2014 World AIDS Day Campaign by supporting innovative initiatives by women’s organizations and groups in Africa working to:

 

• Address stigma and discrimination against women living with HIV/AIDS
• Empower women living with HIV to participate effectively and take the lead in the HIV response in their various communities.
• Amplify the voices of women living with HIV

The 16 Days of Activism to end Gender Based Violence and the World AIDS day grant is under the AWDF small grants programme. They are usually one off activities and events to commemorate the days in question

 

Key population

Events and activities should target certain key populations such as migrant women; rural women, women living with HIV, young women, women working in quarries and mines and female sex workers.

 

Time frame for the call

The current call is opened from 20^th August to 22^nd September 2014. Applicants are to send in proposals with innovative but effective strategies to address issues relating to gender based violence and HIV/AIDS.

 

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicant Organisation must have been in existence for at least 3 years
• The organization must be duly registered, at least with its local government structure
• The organization must be led by a woman
• The organization must have the needed organizational structures
• The organization must have an appreciable financial management system
• The organization must be capable of reporting back on the outcomes of the project
• The organization must be highly recommended by a donor agency, a grantee or partner of AWDF or the local government office
• The applying organization must complete the necessary application forms
• The organisation must not have an annual budget of more than $50,000

 

Grant Size

The grant size is a $1,000. Therefore eligible projects should have a budget of not more than $1,000.

Grant Period

The grant period will be for 4 months from the date of award.

 

Expectation

The grantee is expected to send in one report. The report should be comprehensive highlighting the various activities, lessons learnt and clearly defined achievements at the end of the project. Photographs of project activities in j-peg format should also be attached to the report. The organisation must be capable of measuring the results of the project and must be able to document stories and lessons learnt for sharing with AWDF

 

How to Apply

Interested organisations should send in their proposals to the AWDF secretariat in Accra, Ghana, using the required grant application guideline.

 

GRANT GUIDELINES:

World AIDS Day – HERE.

16 Days – HERE.

 

The African Women’s Development Fund

Office: Plot 78 Ambassadorial Enclave, East Legon

Post: P.M.B CT 89 Cantonments, Accra, Ghana

Email: awdf@africlub.net/awdf; grants@africlub.net/awdf

Website: www.africlub.net/awdf

Tel : + 233 289669666

 

NOTE: Please note that this is a very competitive process and it is only organizations with innovative but effective strategies who will be supported. Again organizations must clearly demonstrate their ability to communicate their achievements in their reports. Only successful applicants will be contacted.

 

[tp lang=”en” not_in=”fr”]On International Women’s Day this year, the writer Yewande Omotoso led a writer’s masterclass at AWDF House with internationally acclaimed writer Ama Ata Aidoo as our special guest. Using excerpts from Ama’s talk with the participants, Yewande has created this podcast which we love and is a useful resource for writers and creative people everywhere.[/tp]

[tp lang=”fr” not_in=”en”]Lors de la Journée internationale de la femme cette année, l’écrivain Yewande Omotoso a dirigé la masterclass d’écriture à la Maison AWDF avec l’écrivain de renommée internationale Ama Ata Aidoo qui était notre invitée spéciale. En utilisant des extraits de discours de Ama avec les participants, Yewande a créé ce podcast que nous aimons et qui est une ressource utile pour les écrivains et les gens créatifs partout dans le monde.[/tp]

 

AFRICAN WOMEN IN CINEMA

AWDF would like to extend a big congratulations to Yaba Badoe who has been nominated for the ‘Distinguished Woman of African Cinema Award’ alongside Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche and Lupita N’yongo! The award is given by the International images Film Festival for Women(IIFF) biennially, IIFF being a programme of Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe which is celebrated in five countries – Zimbabwe, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda and Somalia with the support of the EU-ACP programme for ACP cinema. WFOZ “zooms in on women”.

AWDF is proud to have been able to support two of Yaba Badoe’s projects, “The Witches of Gambaga’ and ‘The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo!’

 

Yaba Badoe, born in 1955, is a Ghanaian-British documentary filmmaker, journalist and author. She left Ghana to pursue an education in Britain at a very young age. A graduate of King’s College, Cambridge, Badoe worked as a civil servant at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ghana,before beginning her career in journalism as a trainee at the BBC. She also was a researcher at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana. She has taught in Spain and Jamaica and has worked as a producer and director making documentaries for the main television channels in Britain. Among her credits are: Black and White, an investigation into race and racism in Bristol, using hidden video cameras for BBC1; I Want Your Sex, an arts documentary exploring images and myths surrounding black sexuality in Western art, literature, film and photography, for Channel 4; and the six-part series Voluntary Service Overseas for ITV.

In addition to making films, Badoe is a creative writer, her first novel, True Murder, being published by Jonathan Cape in 2009 Her short story “The Rivals” was included in the anthology African Love Stories (Ayebia, 2006), edited by Ama Ata Aidoo. Badoe directed and co-produced (with Amina Mama) the documentary film The Witches of Gambaga, which won Best Documentary at the Black International Film Festival in 2010, and was awarded Second Prize in the Documentary section of FESPACO 2011.Her next film project is entitled The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo.

AWDF supports its grantee organisations in Liberia to fight Ebola

With the current onslaught of the outbreak of Ebola in Liberia and the threat it continues to pose, AWDF is supporting three of its grantees in Liberia to help intensify educational activities around the prevention of Ebola. In all, AWDF has awarded $20,000 to three women’s rights organisations in Liberia to undertake a series of educational activities to intensify prevention education and knowledge around this deadly disease.

The groups are listed below:

1. The Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Market Women’s Fund (SMWF) has been awarded a grant of $10,000 to join the national government and partners to ease the spread of the ebola virus by creating mass awareness among market women across the country. SMWF will be working in 7 markets across the country.

The SMWF is a grantee of AWDF that seeks to improve the infrastructure of markets in Liberia and create a knowledge-based environment for women traders. It provides them with credit, health care, childcare facilities, storage facilities, sanitary facilities and literacy opportunities.

 

2. New Liberian Women Organisation/Skills Training Centre has been awarded a grant of $ 5,000 to undertake a series of educational activities on the Ebola outbreak within selected communities in Careysburg city, Bentol city, Yeantown and Cruzerville. NLWO will be using community appropriate methodologies such as music and dancing to reach out these communities

New Liberian Women Organisation/Skills Training CentreLiberia works with young, unemployed women empowering them through skills training and advocacy. The organisation currently operates in Ghana and Liberia. The main beneficiaries of the organisation are Liberian Refugee women and children.

 

3. Women and Children Development Association of Liberia (WOCDAL) has been awarded a grant of $ 5,000 to sensitize members of 3 densely populated communities in Montserrado County in Liberia on the prevention of Ebola. The awareness activities will cover Newkru Town (Duala, St. Paul Bridge, Point 4 and Red Hill) and Caldwell (Mombo Town East, Mombo Town West, New Georgia Junction and Samukai Town). This project is intended to spread relevant messages about the Ebola virus and help a selected group of community members become focal persons for deepening knowledge on the prevention of Ebola. WOCDAL will be using singing, dancing and dramatic performance as an awareness creation strategy to reach out to these communities.

WOCDAL is one of the AWDF grantees in Liberia. WOCDAL seeks to improve the wellbeing of children and young women. They have a skills training center for out of school young women as well as a school for needy children. WOCDAL operates in five counties namely: Montserrado, Margibi, Bong, Lofa and Nimba-Grand Dedeh.

Ma’ami,

you would love these women.

Maybe not at first,

maybe not all at once,

but oh, you would love them.

They would speak to your heart

and

the things you wouldn’t say

couldn’t say?

Like “maybe I should have left my husband.”

Maybe I should have loved myself enough

To say, out loud, because it is important:

“I married a wonderful man,

but the wonder didn’t last.”

 

They would celebrate you

and hug you out of the dark places

where you hid your doubts about a faithful God

Your questions about a faithless man

Your prayers for your straying children

Your tears at four a.m

and five a.m

and eleven p.m

and midnight.

 

They would tell you

“ah, mama, you look amazing today!”

Or, “take that trip, mama,

it will teach you what deserving is.”

You deserve – peace in the home you built

with your own two hands

The joy of your grandchildrens’ laughter

A good husband

Or at least, a better one than

the wonderful man you married

loved, fed, clothed – stayed with.

 

I have questions, ma’ami.

Why did you stay?

Did you not have sisters

to hold you as you shocked yourself with your own tears?

Did no one tell you;

this is where you can go

When none of the children pouring off the playground

at pick-up

are yours

because your husband has stolen them?

Where were your sisters

to teach you how

you sweep up the dust,

throw out the trash

that a kicked-out man will leave?

 

I have so many questions, ma’ami.

There is so much I don’t know.

Why did they leave you alone?

These big-talking, prayer-hawking

women who claimed your strength

was enough excuse.

Where were they?

At this point:

wry laughter over longer hair

from cracked skull and month-long hospital stay.

Or this:

office-opening in Central Business District

and ‘Head-of-Firm’ on the door.

Did they love you at all?

Who did they think was holding your hand?

 

I have things I want to tell you, ma’ami.

Do you recognise the woman I’m becoming?

I would hold your hand now.

Do you see how your granddaughter laughs?

She will ask me about you

And I will hug her and tell her

at first, easy things, like

how I saw your face

In these women, in this place.

How it made me wish you were still here,

so I could be the one who finally told you:

You have to be more than a good woman, ma’ami

You have to be a selfish woman

and this is how…

 

This work was developed during the African Women’s Development Fund and Femrite African Women Creative Non-Fiction Writing Workshop in Uganda, July 2014.

The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) and the African Grantmakers Network (AGN), co hosts of the 3^rd AGN General Assembly, invites nominations for the 2014 African Philanthropy Awards. This award recognises excellence and innovation in philanthropic practice in Africa. Suitable candidates for this award are African philanthropic institutions and individuals who show a tangible commitment to lasting and institutional change, who are committed to genuine partnership with local, national or international communities, and who advance a vision/voice of African agency and self-determination.

The recipient of the 2014 African Philanthropy Award will be recognised at an awards ceremony held during the AGN Assembly which will take place from the 17^th-19^th November 2014, in Accra, Ghana. Nominations can be made online by filling in the Online Nomination Form on the AGN website or by registered post to ‘2014 African Philanthropy Awards, African Grantmakers Network Secretariat, Postnet Suite 100, P/Bag X121,Midrand, 1685, South Africa. The deadline for submitting nomination forms is 31st August 2014. Only emailed submissions received by close of business on the deadline date and posted submissions bearing a postmark of the deadline date will be considered.

Theo Sowa, CEO of AWDF and Board Chair of the AGN states, “Philanthropy in Africa is a time honoured tradition. This award is an opportunity to recognize those individuals who give selflessly – not just in terms of money but also their time and talents. Many of you will know such individuals. I will urge you to take 10 minutes to recognize these people by nominating them for the 2014 African Philanthropy Award.”

 

FIND ORIGINAL LINK HERE: Uganda Coalition Press Statement on Anti Homosexuality Act Ruling.

Civil Society Coalition sur les droits de l’homme et du droit constitutionnel[/tp]

On the 30th of July, the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) in partnership with the Ugandan Women’s Association (FEMRITE) will hold a public dialogue and literary event at Hotel Africana in Kampala, Uganda. The theme for the event is ‘African women speaking for ourselves: What difference does it make?’ This event is open to the general public and starts at 3.30pm.

Speakers at the event will include Dr Hilda Tadria, Executive Director of MEMPROW and Board member of AWDF; Theo Sowa, CEO of AWDF; Yewande Omotoso, author of Bom Boy; Mamle Kabu, author of The Kaya Girl; Hilda Twongyeirwe, Executive Director of FEMRITE; Hon. Mary Karoro Okurut, Founder of FEMRITE; Lina Zedriga, Director of Women, Peace and Security at Regional Associates for Community Initiatives and Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, Communications Specialist at AWDF.

Also speaking and performing at the event are the participants of the 1st regional creative non fiction workshop organised by AWDF and FEMRITE. These are:

Abena Kyere – Ghana
Adegbeye Olutimehin – Nigeria
Alexis Teyie – Kenya
Amina Doherty – Nigeria
Beatrice Lamwaka – Uganda
Comfort Mussa – Cameroon
Deborah Frempong – Ghana
Eunice Kilonzo – Kenya
Fafa Yvonne Quashigah – Ghana
Florence Khaxas – Namibia
Hannah Wanja Maina – Kenya
Jennifer Thorpe – South Africa
Kagure Mugo – South Africa/Kenya
Kechi Nomu – Nigeria
Moiyattu Banya – Sierra Leone
Njoki Wamai – Kenya
Rita Nketiah – Ghana
Ritah Atwongyeire – Uganda
Tendai Garwe – Zimbabwe
Valérie Dginia Bah – Benin/Haiti

The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) has since it began operations in 2001, invested in various systems and processes to ensure transparency and accountability in all our activities. In order to achieve the latter objective, our performance has always been subject to scrutiny by a number of internal and external stakeholders such as our donor community, our grantee partners, other Non-Governmental Organisations, employees, the media, citizens and consultants and service providers . Stakeholders want to feel confident that AWDF is effectively and ethically managed, and is yielding the desired results.

Annual audits are a key part of our accountability processes and the audit of our 2013 financial statements further affirmed our commitment to be transparent and accountable to ourselves and to our stakeholders. Financial statement audits are generally performed to confirm the validity and reliability of information as well as to provide an assessment of the effectiveness of internal control systems. The objective of annual audits is for the external auditors to give a reasonable assurance that the financial statements are true and fair and are free of material misstatements.

The AWDF financial statements for 2013, audited by KPMG has just been published. We are proud to say that this year’s audited financial statements are unique in that it is our first year of adopting the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS); which is the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) for the public entities.

The adoption of IPSAS has enhanced the transparency of our accounts due to the nature of the standards as well as additional disclosure requirements. It has also improved the comprehensiveness, quality, consistency and comparability of AWDF’s financial statements. IPSAS represents international best practice and therefore by adopting IPSAS, there is better comparability of AWDF’s financial statements with other international organisations.

 

Highlights of the 2013 Financial Statements

• Total revenue for the year 2013 was USD$4.26million
• Funds received from donors was USD$4.2million
• Other income from our endowment fund investments was USD$101,291
• Total expenditure for the year on grant making, other programmes and institutional costs was USD$4.2million
• Total grants awarded in our six thematic areas was USD$ 2.2million
• Our non-grant making programmes include, capacity building workshops for grantees, monitoring and evaluation, programme outreach and partnerships.
• Total non-grant making programme expenses was $1.3million
• Fundraising, communication and institutional development costs represented 15% of total expenses

 

By: Gertrude Bibi Annoh-Quashie, Finance Manager, AWDF

 

Click on the link below to view AWDF’s 2013 financial statements.

2013 Audited Accounts

Click on the link below to view AWDF’s expenses for 2013.

AWDF Expenses 2013

AWDF’s third Chief Executive Officer’s Forum was held on the 2-4^th June, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nairobi. It attracted Directors from different African countries, all immersed deeply in the common work of striving for women’s rights. Many were eager and thirsty, looking to drink from the communal sisterhood cup, missing this form of sanctuary in their busy lives. Some felt deeply connected to this feminist busyness, feeling self-indulgent in the attempt to be away from work for three days and really struggling to be still. Others were simply open to what may come.

 

The forum created a safe space for the CEO to take a step back and engage with critical issues of leadership, governance and communication. It broke through the usual NGOs habitual ways of organizing by discussing and practicing ‘self care’ a feminist practice very much related to effective leadership.

 

Through presentation, dialogue, and storytelling, the Directors agreed that the qualities of doing of a feminist organisation involve deep listening to the ‘constituency’, to emerging patterns and power dynamics within the context in which they work, leading from inside the organisation and not just responding to the outside world, working not only for, but with the people they claim to represent, learning from those that have come before them; (the sister ancestors), and from other sectors. One of the founders of AWDF, Hilda Tadria, noted that a feminist organisation is open to transparent, authentic and accountable practices while it embraces the principles of personal consciousness, creativity, responsibility and freedom. It challenges the status quo by organizing and arousing genuine activism amongst people. The Chief Executive Officer of AWDF, Theo Sowa, observed that a feminist organisation has an authentic stance to which it remains true, even in the face of challenge, opposition and backlash. ‘We need clarity about our stance, we should not be ambiguous, but rather have courage for this stance’. The Chair of AWDF, Professor Sesae Mpuchane, talked about the importance of effective governance, systems and policies.

 

Paula Fray, a South African based communications expert noted the importance of communication and visibility. She challenged the Directors to engage with the media, let go of victim mentality and seize their own power as the media is not an enemy.

 

Through much of what was spoken, the need for the Directors to take care of themselves became deeply resonant and quietly urgent. Therefore, throughout the forum, self care practices such as yoga, steaming and exercises created lightness of being, a sense of fun and wholeness. Individuals reconnected with neglected parts of themselves, those parts not used to being stretched were.

 

Above all it was clear that the Directors are working in a culture of fragmentation, of high-speed technology, of immediatism, a disempowering context, dealing with daily backlash while looking for resources and hence the importance of coaching and support.

 

The forum brought a renewed connection and hope in the work of women’s rights, new relationships was formed and a renewed certainty and vigour made the Directors reaffirm that the work they do has a future and a purpose.

By: Hope Chigudu, Coach and Organisational Development Specialist