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Dear Friends, Warm Greetings from the Global Fund for Women. On behalf of the entire staff and Board of the Global Fund for Women, we are writing to express our solidarity during this time of uncertainty and violence in your country and region. We are attaching the public statement issued by our Board of Directors on July 16, 2006, on the current state of world affairs. Although we are not a relief agency, the Global Fund understands that your organizations are under immediate pressure to respond to crises in your communities. We hope our partnership with groups like yours can contribute to relief efforts that bring a gender and human rights perspective to communities affected by the current crisis. In response to the need we have heard from local women's groups in Gaza and Lebanon, we are providing some emergency grants to groups in those regions that are working to provide immediate relief for internally displaced people. Please do inform us of any current initiatives you may feel are similarly worthy of our support and we will do our best to respond. If your group currently has an open grant from the Global Fund, feel free to use the funds from this grant for whatever activities you believe are most critical at this time of urgent need. For example, you may decide that your current grant would be better used to purchase water, food, clothing, or materials for building shelter or livelihood tools. Your group does not need to seek our approval prior to reallocating funds under emergency circumstances. We simply ask that you notify us when submitting your final report. Additionally, if you spend your grant before the one-year grant period is over, you may reapply for funding, submitting a renewal proposal with a final report to help us close your previous grant. Please feel free to let us know if there are special initiatives being undertaken to respond to the current crisis for which you need our assistance. We will make every effort to expedite your request. Through the press, radio, fellow grantees, advisors and our friends and family in Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel, we are closely watching the violence unfold and hoping for an end to the injustice being inflicted on innocent civilians. We know that this must be a particularly difficult time for you as Israeli women's groups working towards a more peaceful future in which there is justice and peace for both Palestinians and Israelis. As you know, our main objective as a women's fund is to strengthen women's organizing efforts and groups around the globe. We very much hope you will feel free to share with us how best the Global Fund can support the efforts of your organization and community. In solidarity, Kavita N. Ramdas, President and CEO |
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