We, the Board and staff of the Global Fund for Women, continue to keep our sisters and colleagues in Chile in our thoughts and prayers. The 8.8 magnitude earthquake was 35 times stronger than the recent 7.0 quake in Haiti.  The death toll is now in the hundreds; Constitucion and Conception were the hardest hit. The  destruction to homes, buildings and entire villages is, in President Michelle Bachelet’s words, “catastrophic”.  

We strongly encourage our grantee partners in the affected area to use their funds to attend to immediate humanitarian needs; and prioritize requests related to the crisis. If necessary, in the coming months we will accept grant applications to address the gender-specific needs in rebuilding and reorganizing communities affected by the devastation. 

The Global Fund for Women is not a direct relief agency. Our mission as a grantmaking organization is to strengthen women's organizing and women's groups and ensure they have the funds and resources they need in the long term. One way you can help is to make a donation to our Crisis Fund.

The African Women's Development Fund presents a book launch of Voice, Power and Soul: Portraits of African Feminists on Wednesday, February 24th, 6-8pm at the Global Fund for Women office. Read more

Nicaraguan feminist activist and board member Myrna Cunningham is one of the authors of a critical UN report released last week focused on the current state of the world’s indigenous peoples. Read the report

Fifteen years ago in Beijing, then first lady, Hillary Clinton, stated firmly, "Women's rights are human rights." Today, after eight years of non-existent U.S. support for women's reproductive rights, Secretary of State Clinton is reviving women's hopes around the globe by affirming the Obama Administration's support for the International Conference on Population and Development Action Plan. Read More

A shorter version of this piece by Kavita Ramdas, Global Fund President and CEO was also featured in Ms.Magazine online.

In 2000,the Dutch government signed up to the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and to fulfill this commitment, launched a €70 million worth ‘MDG3 Fund: Investing in Equality .’ GFW was one of the grant recipients of this fund last year, for our grantmaking in Asia/Oceania. Read our update published on the Dutch Ministry's web site that highlights our goals for this grant.

GFW Board member Gay McDougall, who is also a UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues has called upon the Chinese Government to enable an autonomous assessment of the ethnic tensions that erupted this July in Urumqi, in the Xinjian Uyghur Autonomous region.

By Layal Haddad, Al-Akhbar - Tuesday November 24th, 2009

In the beginning it was Palestine, then came the marginalized and the poor, and after that was born the female (woman) to complete the triangle of struggle of Zeina Zaatari. A triangle that made her the most famous feminist activist in Lebanon and the Arab World. She did not live a childhood stained by patriarchal chauvinism, nor did she suffer gender discrimination in her family. To the contrary. This Sidonian¹ woman was born and raised in a progressive family, whose members had been for years involved in leftist and nationalist political parties. Her mother was even arrested once as she was caught distributing political pamphlets to stores at night in the streets of Saida. This mother taught Zeina to break all social chains.

Last week, Global Fund CEO and President Kavita Ramdas shared her perspective on the Afghanistan troop surge during a discussion on KQED Radio's "California Report." (KQED is the bay area NPR affiliate. Listen to the segment

Global Fund CEO and President Kavita Ramdas will be among the 400 distinguished guests at a White House State Dinner on Tuesday, November 24 for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India.This is the first state dinner hosted by President and Mrs. Obama and one of the highest honors extended to a foreign dignitary. Guests to the highly coveted event include ambassadors, ministers and dignitaries representing India and other countries. Attendees include: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and UN Ambassador Susan Rice.

Funder's Concerned About AIDS (FCAA), a funder affinity group released its latest report on 2008 HIV/AIDS grantmaking among 345 US-based private philanthropic institutions. The report ranks the Global Fund among the top 25 US-based funders of grants that addresses HIV/AIDS and is also among the top 10 US-based funders supporting HIV/AIDS work internationally.

GFW is also the single largest women-focused funder on HIV/AIDS issues internationally, out of the 72 foundations included in this report.

The reports seek to inform stakeholders about the overall distribution and trends of European and US HIV/AIDS philanthropic funding, facilitate greater co-ordination and transparency among funders, and encourage expanded philanthropic support for HIV/AIDS work.

In the report, the FCAA also highlights long-time Global Fund grantee partner, The Legal Aid Division of the Shaanxi Women's Federation, to be featured in their publication as an example of "Innovative Funding" on HIV/AIDS.

Read more and download the publication here

Noted Kyrgyz feminist activist and leader Dr. Nurgul Djanaeva, who recently also joined the Global Fund Board, was interviewed last week on AWID about the status of women in Kyrgyzstan. Nurgul is President of the Forum of Women's NGOs of Kyrgyzstan and author of the book Kyrgyzstan Women in Transition. Read the interview

Last month, Global Fund President and CEO Kavita Ramdas participated in the 2009 Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) Conference held here in San Francisco. The conference title this year was "Reset Economy. Reset World." Kavita Ramdas addressed one of the breakout sessions on investing in Women and Girls. Read the session transcript

Visit the conference web site

Read the article

Global Fund CEO and President Kavita Ramdas was cited in last week's Huffington Post analyses on a vital resolution adopted by the UN Security Council that seeks to protect women and children from horrific violence in armed conflict and post-conflict situations. Read the Article

Global Fund for Women CEO and President, Kavita Ramdas, was recently interviewed by the Seattle Times on the impact of war on women and girls in Afghanistan.  Read her interview

The same week, Muadi Mukenge, GFW Program Director for Sub-Saharan Africa, spoke to a gathering of students and faculty at the University of Illinois, Chicago about the ongoing crisis in the Congo, including the exploitation of the country's rich mineral resources by the west and its connection to the epidemic of sexual violence in the region.  Read the coverage on her lecture

Last week the Lebanese Association of Women Researchers held a landmark international conference in Beirut titled Arab Feminisms: A Critical Perspective. Zeina Zataari, Global Fund’s senior program officer for the Middle East and North Africa, participated in the forum and presented a strong critique of women’s movements in the region. Read more

Visit the conference web site.

Read a report of the conference in the Daily Star, a Lebanese paper.

Former Global Fund Board Member and well known Cambodian activist and politician Mu Sochua continues to endure risk of wrongful arrest back home - she returned from a trip to the US on October 2. Women's e-News's latest news update highlights the impending crisis facing Sochua. Read the update

More Info:
Read a blog update by a Global Fund staffer on the crisis facing Mu Sochua.

"If only there were more women leaders, surely things would change."  Terry Greenblatt, a former activist-in-residence at the Global Fund and Executive Director of Urgent Action Fund, imparted those words of wisdom to an audience of Rotarians recently. Now the Rotary Club may seem an unlikely venue for this message but Terry Greenblatt is used to shaking things up.

In 2002, Greenblatt addressed the United Nations Security Council representing Israeli and Palestinian women leaders along with fellow activist, Maha Abu-Dayya Shamas. They asked that women be included in the Middle East peace process.  She told the council, "Even when we are women whose very existence and narrative contradicts each other, we will talk - we will not shoot."   Greenblatt continues her work of advocating for women's human rights, peace and justice in Israel as CEO of the Colorado-based Urgent Action Fund, which makes rapid response grants to international women's rights organizations. Read Article

Global Fund CEO and President Kavita Ramdas is among the speakers at the illustrious Technology, Education and Design Conference (TED).  Kavita’s provocative and challenging presentation will illustrate how women and girls can use tradition to subvert tradition. 

With a conference theme, "The Future Beckons", this first-ever TED conference in India will be held in the south Indian city of Mysore from November 4-7th. Read the news release and visit TED's web site to learn more about the conference. Read More

Cool Link: TED-India's web site

Shalini Nataraj, Global Fund's Vice President of Programs, discusses militarism and how it impacts women as well as how the Global Fund and women around the world are addressing it. Read this compelling interview by AWID's Masum Momaya. Read article

Five years ago, I was in Kabul visiting Afghan women’s groups, including the Afghan Institute for Learning, that had once operated underground schools for girls under the Taliban. The energy of Afghan women and girls was infectious - I answered questions about Shahrukh Khan, joined them in Bollywood songs and listened as they discussed voting in the upcoming 2004 elections.

Global Fund was highlighted in a Forbes article on  women taking the lead in philanthropy.  The article highlights how despite the economic downturn, the Global Fund awarded almost half a million more in grants than it did the previous year. Read article

On August 4th, Cambodian women's rights activist and GFW board member Mu Sochua, was found "guilty"  of defaming  Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.  Human rights groups around the world denounced the verdict as unjust and politically biased and Sochua's supporters arrived in Phonm Penh to rally for her.  One supporter was Stephanie Guyer-Stevens, a Women's eNews correspondent who was with Sochua when she was found guilty. Read a compelling eyewitness account by Women's e-news, about Sochua's courage and leadership. Read article

More Resources: Read an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle about Sochua written by GFW's Shalini Nataraj and listen to a KPFA 94.1 FM interview with Mu Sochua on the crisis facing her along with a historical overview of the Cambodian women's movement.