Carole Seymour-Jones
Young Feminist Activism
Organizing creatively, facing an increasing threat
Young feminist activists play a critical role in women’s rights organizations and movements worldwide by bringing up new issues that feminists face today. Their strength, creativity and adaptability are vital to the sustainability of feminist organizing.
At the same time, they face specific impediments to their activism such as limited access to funding and support, lack of capacity-building opportunities, and a significant increase of attacks on young women human rights defenders. This creates a lack of visibility that makes more difficult their inclusion and effective participation within women’s rights movements.
A multigenerational approach
AWID’s young feminist activism program was created to make sure the voices of young women are heard and reflected in feminist discourse. We want to ensure that young feminists have better access to funding, capacity-building opportunities and international processes. In addition to supporting young feminists directly, we are also working with women’s rights activists of all ages on practical models and strategies for effective multigenerational organizing.
Our Actions
We want young feminist activists to play a role in decision-making affecting their rights by:
-
Fostering community and sharing information through the Young Feminist Wire. Recognizing the importance of online media for the work of young feminists, our team launched the Young Feminist Wire in May 2010 to share information, build capacity through online webinars and e-discussions, and encourage community building.
-
Researching and building knowledge on young feminist activism, to increase the visibility and impact of young feminist activism within and across women’s rights movements and other key actors such as donors.
-
Promoting more effective multigenerational organizing, exploring better ways to work together.
-
Supporting young feminists to engage in global development processes such as those within the United Nations
-
Collaboration across all of AWID’s priority areas, including the Forum, to ensure young feminists’ key contributions, perspectives, needs and activism are reflected in debates, policies and programs affecting them.
Related Content
Workshop Methodology
Coming soon:
Workshop Methodology
Want to bring people together to strengthen resistance? This methodology for workshops offers group exercises to increase collective knowledge and power, with options to adapt to your needs.
I am experiencing violence in one or more of my relationships. Can AWID advocate on my behalf?
Unfortunately, no. AWID is not a direct service or individual advocacy organization.
It would be better for you to seek legal advice and contact a women’s shelter or referral centre in your area.
The HotPeachPages is an online resource that offers links to women’s shelters around the world. AWID cannot vouch for the accuracy or quality of its listings, but it may be a good place to start if you don’t know of organizations in your area.
WITM - Refreshed INFOGRAPHIC 1 FR
Vous êtes-vous déjà demandé à quoi ressemblaient les budgets des organisations féministes ?
En 2023, le budget annuel médian des organisations féministes et de défense des droits des femmes était de 22 000 USD. Cette médiane masque de profondes inégalités : quelques groupes accèdent à des ressources considérables, tandis que la grande majorité survit avec des budgets très limités.
Un examen plus attentif des budgets réels révèle une immense diversité et une grande disparité dans les revenus.
Explorez les données relatives à la taille des budgets féministes
Qu'en est-il de la justice climatique? Est-ce vraiment le moment d'effectuer autant de vols internationaux ?
Nous nous posons la même question et nous pensons qu'elle n’admet pas de réponse simple. Le Forum de l’AWID pourrait être, pour de nombreux participant·e·s, l'un des rares voyages internationaux qu'ils·elles effectueront au cours de leur vie. La pandémie nous a révélé les possibilités mais aussi les limites des espaces virtuels pour la construction de mouvements : rien ne vaut une rencontre en personne. Les mouvements ont besoin de connexions transfrontalières pour renforcer leur pouvoir collectif face aux menaces qui pèsent sur eux, notamment la crise climatique. Nous sommes d'avis que le prochain Forum de l'AWID pourrait ouvrir un espace stratégique afin d'organiser ces conversations et explorer les alternatives qui se posent aux voyages internationaux. L'élément hybride du Forum est une composante importante de cette exploration.
Cristina Bautista
« Si nous nous taisons, ils nous tuent, et si nous parlons [ils nous tuent] aussi. Alors parlons. » - Cristina Bautista, 2019
Cristina Bautista était membre de la communauté autochtone du peuple Nasa, qui vit dans la région nord du Cauca en Colombie. Elle participait à la résistance en tant que leader, défenseuse des droits fonciers, travailleuse sociale et gouverneure de la réserve autochtone Nasa de Tacueyó.
Défenseuse infatigable des droits du peuple Nasa, Cristina s’est exprimée haut et fort contre la violence à l’égard de sa communauté. Dans un discours devant les Nations Unies, elle appelait à protéger les vies des femmes autochtones et à les impliquer dans différents domaines de la vie. En 2017, Cristina était membre du Bureau des Nations Unies pour les droits humains des personnes autochtones. Le Fonds de contributions volontaires des Nations Unies pour les populations autochtones lui a octroyé une subvention en 2019.
« J’aimerais mettre en lumière la situation actuelle du peuple autochtone en Colombie, le meurtre de leaders autochtones, la répression de la contestation sociale. Au lieu d’aider, l’accord de paix a renforcé la guerre et l’exploitation de territoires sacrés en Colombie… Actuellement, nous travaillons en tant que femmes, dans presque toutes les nations autochtones, à un avenir meilleur pour nos familles. Je ne veux pas voir plus de femmes vivre dans ces conditions en milieu rural. Il nous faut des opportunités qui permettent aux femmes autochtones de participer à la vie politique, à l’économie, à la société et à la culture. J’acquiers une réelle force aujourd’hui, en voyant toutes ces femmes ici, et en voyant que je ne suis pas seule. » - Cristina Bautista, 2019
Cristina a été assassinée le 29 octobre 2019, ainsi que quatre autres membres de la garde autochtone désarmée, dans une attaque potentiellement menée par des membres de « Dagoberto Ramos », un groupe dissident FARC.
D’après Global Witness, « le nombre d’assassinats de leaders communautaires et sociaux·les a terriblement augmenté en Colombie au cours de ces dernières années ».
« La communauté nasa a prévenu à maintes reprises les autorités au sujet des menaces qui pèsent sur leur sécurité. Malgré les efforts déployés par les gouvernements colombiens successifs, les peuples autochtones continuent de faire face à d'importants risques, surtout les dirigeants communautaires ou religieux comme Cristina Bautista.» - Point presse des Nations Unies, 1er novembre 2019
Love letter to feminist movements: A Letter from Inna and Faye
Dear feminist movements,
Love is what keeps our feminist fire burning. Along with care for our communities, anger and rage in the face of injustice, and the courage to take action.
In September 2022, we stepped with great excitement into our leadership roles at AWID, as Co-Executive Directors. We felt the warmth and embrace of the feminist sisterhood as you welcomed us.
Reflecting on our most precious memories as feminists, we recall powerful moments of togetherness at street protests, sharp analysis, and brave voices shaking the status quo at gatherings. We held those intimate conversations into the night, laughed for hours, and danced at parties together.
Feminist fires need to be fed, especially in difficult times when there is no lack of external challenges, from the climate crisis and the rise of right-wing forces to exploitative economies and persisting patterns of oppression within our own social movements. It's these fires, burning ablaze everywhere, that light our ways and keep us warm, but we can’t disregard the exhausting effects of political violence and repression directed against many of our struggles, movements, and communities.
We understand the desire to change the world as an essential ingredient of feminist organizing. We can never forget that we are the ones we have been waiting for, in building alternatives and shaping our future. Yet, vibrant feminist energy cannot be taken for granted and must be safeguarded in many ways. In this, we will continue to be vigilant. Greater and equal access to care and wellbeing, to healing and pleasure, are not only instruments to prevent burnout and sustain our movements, though that is an important function; first and foremost, they are the way in which we hope to live our lives.
We are thrilled to roll up our sleeves and work with you. AWID’s new strategic plan “Fierce Feminisms: Together We Rise” reflects our conviction that now is the time for us to be fierce and unapologetic in our agendas while making an effort to connect across movements and truly get to know each other’s realities, so that we may rise together - because, for us, this is the only way.
Our plans include the long-awaited AWID Forum! We look forward to meeting you all in person and online in 2024. We are hearing from you the need to connect and recharge, to rest and heal, to be challenged and inspired, to share good food, and to laugh and dance together. Few things in this world are as powerful and transformative, as feminists from all parts of the world coming together, and we truly hold our breath for this moment, because we know the magic that we can create together.
Our membership engagement has taken on a life of its own through the AWID Community (our online platform for members), and our focus on building connection and solidarity resonates with many of you. Please join and connect with us and others in feminist movements around the world. We know the importance of connection in a time and space where the rules are not made for us, and we hold close our community, where each of us matters.
Together with our fantastic AWID colleagues, we promise to do our best to support feminist movements, as is the mission and purpose of AWID. Please hold us to account.
For the past 40 years, you - feminist movements - have shaped AWID’s history, and pushed us to be braver, creative, and radical. 40 is a fabulous age, and we look forward to another 40 years with you all. We are looking forward to the partnerships, calls to justice, collaboration, policy influencing, and badass feminist power that you all bring in navigating the ever-increasing backlash on gender, racial and environmental justice. We have so much to learn from you and from each other, as we collectively build the worlds we believe in.
Cindy Clark and Hakima Abbas, thank you for paving the way for us and preparing us to fill your enormous shoes. We always appreciate all those on whose shoulders we stood and continue to stand. We understand ourselves to be part of a broader movement landscape, feminist histories, presents, and daring futures.
AWID’s Board of Directors, we are grateful to you for the support and feminist love you show us, and for your commitment to Global South leadership and the co-leadership model. We send our love and respect to each and every AWID colleague, we feel honoured to be working with such an exceptional feminist team of dedicated professionals.
This is our first time writing a love letter together, how could we conclude it without expressing love, care, and respect for each other? It’s a pretty intense relationship we’ve stepped into! We both bring our different and diverse perspectives and skills to our work, and as individuals, we also bring our lived experiences and authentic selves.
Together with you all, we are a story in the making, a part of a beautiful woven - and often beautifully challenging - tapestry that continues into the future. We had fun starting this journey together with each other and with you, and we very much hope to keep the romance alive.
In solidarity, with love and care
Inna and Faye
Save the date!
21 February 2023, Member Mixer 5 on Feminist Politics with Faye and Inna.
Not a member yet? Find out more about AWID Membership.
Crear | Résister | Transform: A Walkthrough of the Festival! | Content Snippet EN
As heteropatriarchal capitalism continues to force us into consumerism and compliance, we are finding that our struggles are being siloed and separated by physical as well as virtual borders.
And with the additional challenges of a global pandemic to overcome, this divide-and-conquer strategy has been favorable for the proliferation of exploitation across many areas.
Yet, From September 1 to September 30, 2021, Crear | Résister | Transform: a festival for feminist movements! took us on a journey of what it means to embody our realities in virtual spaces. At the festival, feminist activists from across the world came together, not only to share experiences of hard-won freedoms, resistances, and cross-borders solidarities, but to articulate what a transnational form of togetherness could look like.
It is this togetherness that has the potential to defy borders, weaving a vision for a future that is transformative because it is abolitionist and anti-capitalist. Spread out over a month, across digital infrastructures that we occupied with our queerness, our resistance, and our imaginaires, the festival showed a way to deviate from the systems that make us complicit in the oppression of others and ourselves.
Though Audre Lorde taught us that the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house, Sara Ahmed showed us that we can misuse them. Because we had to make space for assembly, in spite of all the other demands on our time, it became possible to imagine a disruption to the reality of heteropatriarchal capitalism.
Now, if we understand assembly as a form of pleasure, then it becomes possible to make the link between transgressive pleasure and transnational/transdigital resistance. Between the kinds of pleasure that challenges borders on the one hand, and queerness, campiness, land and indigenous struggle, anti-capitalism, and anti-colonial organizing on the other.
This issue attempted to capture a sense of how the festival’s exercise in assembly took on multiple shapes and imaginations. Beyond direct collaborations with some of its speakers and dreamers, we brought on a plethora of other voices from the Global South to be in conversation with many of its themes and subjects. Below is a map of some of the festival’s panels that most inspired us.
2007: se intensifica la participación de la sociedad civil con la creación del WWG sobre FpD
En octubre de 2007 se creó el Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development [Grupo de Trabajo de Mujeres sobre Financiación para el Desarrollo, WWG on FfD en inglés], una alianza entre organizaciones y redes por los derechos de las mujeres cuyo objetivo es defender y promover avances en cuanto a igualdad de género, empoderamiento de las mujeres y derechos humanos en los procesos de la ONU relacionados con la FpD.
Tercer Diálogo de Alto Nivel sobre la Financiación para el Desarrollo, 23 al 25 de octubre de 2007
- En el tercer panel de alto nivel, la participación de la sociedad civil se incrementó exponencialmente. Además de las seis mesas redondas, hubo audiencias para la sociedad civil y el sector empresarial.
- AWID leyó en plenaria la declaración de la sociedad civil que pedía a los gobiernos prestar una mayor atención a la importancia de las organizaciones por los derechos de las mujeres como agentes del desarrollo y a la necesidad de promover nuevos mecanismos de financiación para las mujeres en los países en desarrollo y los menos desarrollados. Esta declaración exhortó a los gobiernos a brindar un mayor apoyo a la arquitectura de género de la ONU para que el sistema en su conjunto pudiera avanzar en sus compromisos en materia de igualdad de género, empoderamiento de las mujeres y derechos humanos, incluyendo los derechos económicos, sociales, culturales y ambientales de todas las personas.
Zarana Papic
Snippet - COP30 - Links
$2.7 trillion for the military. $300 billion for climate justice. We're here to flip the script.
Get started with these resources.
COP30 Political Education Toolbox Play the Climate Justice Organizing Deckgame
Read the Feminist Economic Alternatives Brief Download the Climate Justice Zine
CFA 2023 - breadcrumbs Menu _ awid-forum-fr
Ayanda Denge
“I am a wonder… Therefore I have been born by a mother! As I begin to stutter, my life has been like no other…” - Ayanda Denge (read the whole poem below)
Ayanda Denge was a transwomxn, sex worker, activist, poet. She was Xhosa, from Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. After travelling through different cities of the country, she moved to Cape Town.
As a committed and fervent social justice activist, she fought for the rights of sex workers, trans persons, and for those of people living with HIV and AIDS. She was also a motivational speaker on cancer awareness, and campaigned for affordable and social housing, especially for poor and working-class people. Ayanda stood tall as a mountain against different and often abusive faces of discrimination.
“Being transgender is not a double dose, but it’s a triple dose of stigmatisation and discrimination. You are discriminated against for your sexual identity, you are discriminated against for your work, and you are discriminated against for your HIV status.” - Ayanda Denge, 2016
She was acting chairperson at the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) and also worked as an Outreach Coordinator at Sisonke, a national sex workers’ movement in South Africa.
“From us, from our regional head office, to SWEAT where I sit on the board, to Sisonke, a movement of sex workers in Cape Town. We all amalgamate, we have one cry and it’s a cry that is recognised internationally by international sex workers. We want decriminalisation of sex work.” - Ayanda Denge, 2016
She lived in the Ahmed Kathrada House, which was being occupied by the Reclaim the City campaign for social housing. In 2018, Ayanda was elected house leader. On 24 March 2019, she was stabbed to death in her room. The year prior, another resident was killed.
Reclaim the City draws a connection between the safety of the house residents and the Provincial Government withholding electricity and the human right to water:
“We cannot separate the safety of women and LGBTQI people living in the occupation from the refusal by the Western Cape Provincial Government to turn the electricity and water back on at Ahmed Kathrada House.
The house is pitch black at night. We need lights to keep each other safe. It is as if the Province wishes to punish poor and working class people, whose only crime is that we needed a home. While they may disagree with our reasons for occupying, they should be ashamed of themselves for putting politics before the safety and dignity of residents of this city.
Rest in Peace comrade Ayanda Denge, we shall remember you as we carry the torch forward in the struggle for decent well-located housing.”
Poem by Ayanda:
I am a wonder…
Therefore I have been born by a mother!
As I begin to stutter,
My life has been like no other.
Born in pain
Nourished by rain
For me to gain
Was living in a drain.
As I shed a tear
I stand up and hold my spear.
Voices echo, do not fear
Challenges within a year,
Challenges of hurt are on my case;
Community applauds as they assume I have won my race;
But in reality my work strides at a tortoise pace;
On bended knee I bow and ask for grace.
For the Lord
Is my Sword;
To remind humanity
That he provides sanity.
Why Lord am I this wonder?
The Lord answers me with the rain and thunder,
For questioning my father
Who has in the book of lambs
A name called Ayanda.
From the streets my life was never sweet
The people I had to meet;
At times I would never greet;
Even though I had to eat;
I’d opt to take a bow
Rather than a seat
Listen to the poem in Ayanda’s voice
“For my life represents that of a lotus flower, that out of murky and troubled waters I bloomed to be beautiful and strong...” - Ayanda Denge, watch and listen
Tributes:
“Ayanda, I want to say to you that you are still a survivor, in our hearts and minds. You are gone but you are everywhere, because you are love. How beautiful it is to be loved, and to give love. And Ayanda, that is the gift that you have given us. Thank you for all of the love, we truly did need you. Going forward, I promise to you that we will all commit to continue with the struggle that you have dedicated so much energy and your time to. And we will commit ourselves to pursuing justice in this awful ending to your life.” - Transcript of a message, in a farewell Tribute to Ayanda
“Ayanda was an activist by nature. She knew her rights and would not mind fighting for the rights of others. For me, it was no shock that she was involved with many organizations and it was known that she was a people’s person. It did not need to be the rights of LGBTI but just the rights of everyone that she stood for.” - Ayanda’s sister
Carta de amor a los movimientos feministas #10
Nunca supe que tenía una familia cercana que me ama y que quiere que crezca. Mi mamá siempre ha estado presente para mí, pero nunca imaginé que tendría miles de familias por otros sitios, con las que no estoy relacionada por lazos de sangre.
Descubrí que la familia no son solo las personas relacionadas por lazos sanguíneos, sino la gente que te ama de forma incondicional, a quienes no les importa tu orientación sexual, ni tu estado de salud, ni tu estatus social, ni tu raza.
Al pensar en los momentos invaluables en que escuché a mis hermanas de todo el mundo que son firmes feministas –gente a quien no he conocido físicamente, pero quienes me apoyan, me enseñan, luchan por mí– me faltan las palabras: las palabras no pueden expresar cuánto las amo a ustedes, mis mentoras, y a las demás feministas. Ustedes son una madre, una hermana, una amiga para millones de chicas jóvenes.
Ustedes son maravillosas, ustedes luchan por personas a quienes no conocen –y eso es lo que las hace tan especiales–.
Mi corazón se alegra de expresar esto por escrito.
Las amo a todas y seguiré amándolas. Nunca he visto a ninguna de ustedes en forma física, pero parece que nos conociéramos desde hace décadas.
Somos feministas y estamos orgullosas de ser mujeres.
Vamos a seguir diciéndole al mundo que nuestra valentía es nuestra corona.
Una carta de amor de FAITH ONUH, una joven feminista de Nigeria
Snippet Kohl - Plenaria | Organizarse para vencer
con Nazik Abylgaziva, Amaranta Gómez Regalado, Cindy Weisner y Lucineia Freitas
2013: le sixième Dialogue de haut niveau examine les progrès des OMD
- Le sixième Dialogue de haut niveau sur le financement du développement, organisé les 7 et 8 octobre 2013, était axé sur l’évaluation des progrès accomplis dans la réalisation des OMD et l’identification des lacunes dans la mise en œuvre de ces derniers afin de les traiter lors des discussions sur le nouveau cadre de développement.
- Un rapport publié pendant la session par le Groupe de réflexion sur le retard pris dans la réalisation des objectifs du Millénaire pour le développement a identifié les lacunes constatées dans la réalisation de l’OMD 8 (Mettre en place un partenariat mondial pour le développement) comme un facteur déterminant des difficultés rencontrées dans le processus de mise en œuvre de l’ensemble des OMD. Le rapport a notamment montré qu’il était indispensable de concentrer davantage d’efforts sur l’établissement de partenariats mondiaux plus solides qui puissent garantir des engagements contraignants en faveur du nouveau cadre de développement pour l’après-2015.
Nadia Vera
Snippet - COP30 - Global Day of Action - EN
Global Day of Action
Movements marching globally for climate justice.
📅 Saturday, November 15, 2025
📍 Multiple Locations
CFA 2023 - Who, where, when - ES
Cuándo: del 2 al 5 de diciembre de 2024
Dónde: Bangkok, Tailandia, y en línea
Quiénes: Aproximadamente unxs 2.500 feministas de todo el mundo participarán en persona, y otrxs 3.000 participarán de manera virtual
Dónde: Bangkok, Tailandia, y en línea
Quiénes: Aproximadamente unxs 2.500 feministas de todo el mundo participarán en persona, y otrxs 3.000 participarán de manera virtual
Fleurir sous l’ombrelle du monde : les féministes de MENA au Forum de l'AWID
Dans le monde entier et au sein des mouvements sociaux, les personnes désireuses d’innover ont tendance à se sentir seules et impuissantes face au « statu quo du mouvement ». Historiquement, les Forums de l’AWID ont joué un rôle dans le soutien de ces innovateur·trices en leur offrant une plateforme où leurs idées et pratiques sont accueillies et renforcées par les pensées et actions d’autres personnes de différentes régions et communautés qui les ont déjà explorées. Sara Abu Ghazal, féministe palestinienne au Liban, nous parle de ce qu’ont représenté les Forums pour toute une nouvelle génération de féministes de la région MENA (Moyen-Orient et Afrique du Nord) qui ont introduit de nouvelles façons de s’organiser, de nouvelles conceptions du féminisme et de nouvelles questions dans le paysage régional des droits des femmes.
