Author: African Women's Development Fund

AWIEF was founded by Irene Ochem. Her passion for female innovation, technology and entrepreneurship and her strong belief that Africa’s transformation can only be achieved through enhanced economic empowerment, strengthened economic role and leadership for its women and girls led her to found AWIEF in 2015. The grant will be used to add value to the work being done by women that are involved in green energy production by offering a business start-up and accelerator program with the intention of designing and refining business ideas; and preparing established enterprises to make them investment ready.

ARUWE was started by a group of 5 Women in 2000 as Nsangi Rural Development Association (NRDA) to eliminate discriminatory practices inhibiting women’s potential in the social-economic development, particularly rural women. In 2008 NRDA transformed into ARUWE, and changed from a community-based organisation into an NGO. ARUWE’s mission is to empower Women to initiate and manage their social-economic development processes through strengthening community participation, advocacy and service provision. The purpose of the grant is to empower women in Jupangira Sub County (Nebbi District) – Uganda to be food and income secured.

AFECOJU is a young feminist-led organisation founded in 2016 by 5 women’s rights activists with expertise or interest in rural development. The aim of setting up the organisation was to help fight against the violence, marginalization and exclusion of women in society. The grant will be used to support AFECOJU’s activities for the 2020 Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence in the province of Inkisi/Kisantu – DRC. The project will use culture, arts and sports as well as movement building strategies to create awareness and a movement around the importance of ensuring women and girls’ mental health and wellbeing and the need to address VAWG.

ABANTU for Development was established in October 1991 by a group of African women from across the continent based in the United Kingdom. ABANTU Ghana empowers women to participate in decision-making at all levels, to influence policies from a gender justice perspective and to address inequalities and injustices in social relations. Abantu in partnership with Lavish design will use the grant to support the participation of 20 Ghanaian aspiring photo-journalists in the proposed cross-cultural photography workshop which would provide invaluable capacity building to their craft.

4Her Initiative Sierra Leone was formed in September 2017 by a team of 5 like-minded young women who believed in women winning if given the space. It was established as a revolutionary force to break societal barriers associated with the female gender and build their social capital, increase financial independence and enhance their participation in leadership and good governance. The grant will be used to conduct intensive community engagements to help prevent VAWG and advocate for women survivors of violence’s mental health and wellness and also for them to access mental health and safe home services.

Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF) was started in 2016 by Dr. Kemi DaSilva in response to the high incidence of sexual violence (including rape) and human trafficking of young women and girls (YWG) in communities across Nigeria. WARIF will use the grant to implement a COVID 19 Volunteer Response Programme in 5 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Lagos State as part of their contribution to the ongoing Campaign against Violence Against Women and Girls in Nigeria.

Women Against Violence and Expediency Handling Initiative (WAVEHI) is a national organisation founded by Lara Rowland in 2017 to empower women, girls and vulnerable persons. With this grant, the organisation will hold a series of virtual sexual abuse conversations online to create an agenda and interest around how to prevent sexual abuse in the community and provide information on support systems and resources available to survivors of violence.

TeachHer is a local women’s rights organisation which was started in 2015 by Chioma Agwuegbo. TeachHer is a training, coaching, mentoring and research community for women as they are usually not the primary focus of Science, Technology, and Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) advocacy. This grant will be used to support TechHer’s activities towards the ongoing VAWG Campaign in Nigeria through digital storytelling to demystify VAWG and survivors experience, provoke discussion on VAWG and address VAWG related stigma.

New Initiative for Social Development (NISD) was set up in 1998 by a group of professional and academics in Nigeria. The organisation considers itself as a gender advocate organisation that seeks to for the social and economic development of Nigeria. This grant will be used to train 320 women community champions to educate and support efforts at eliminating VAWG. The project will also train staff of the State Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) to become more effective

GCAF was established in 2000 with a mission to provide a supportive environment that educates and inspires underserved girls in Africa using arts. The organisation specializes in life skill development, creating livelihood opportunities for young people, dignifying young women by encouraging creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship through arts. With this grant, GCAF will support the “WE believe you” virtual campaign.