Learn more about the strategies of the Black Women Alliance for the End of Violence
Aliança Negra pelo Fim da Violência [Black Women Alliance – All Against Violence] is a program initiated by ELAS+ Giving for Change, in partnership with the Ford Foundation, that seeks to strengthen organizations that work with projects to combat violence and racism in Brazil. The objective of this partnership is to make an impact on the spheres of government and the management of public safety, in the judicial sphere for the solution of conflicts, and on the public debate regarding the preservation of Black lives. Meetings will also be promoted to support domestic and international political articulation among Black leaders.
Three strategic lines of operation have been defined for supporting these initiatives: 1) The fight against institutional racism and the genocide of the Black population; 2) The combat against violence toward Black women and Black trans people, and 3) The communication of racial antiviolence. To develop these projects, financial support of more than 5.4 million Brazilian reais is being provided over the course of three years.
The starting point was the release of a public call for proposals for organizations and networks that work in the fight against racism in the country. With this invitation, project proposals were received from all five regions of Brazil, especially from the Southeast (41%) and the Northeast (39%), followed by the North (9%), South (7%) and Midwest (4%). The proposals were submitted mostly by formal organizations: 69%. Just 31% of the inscriptions were received from non-formal organizations.
Significant participation was also noted from leaders of lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and intersex groups, with 44% of the proposals being from LBTI.
After evaluation of the projects, twelve organizations and four networks from the Northeast, North, South and Southeast regions were selected, all with experience in working in the fight against racism for seven years or more. They are developing projects for fighting institutional racism and genocide of the Black population, the combat against violence related to race, gender and sexuality, and the production of racial antiviolence narratives. They are organizations that work in the areas of prison systems; the regulation of Black traditional communities’ territories [mostly rural areas occupied by the descendants of enslaved people who bought their freedom or had escaped from farms and slavery system in Brazil]; the demand for rights in favelas and the poor outskirts of urban areas; the promotion of policies for actions to confront oppression and violence; combatting inequality; the fight for human rights; work for governmental policy enactment; denouncing violence against Black women and Black trans people; and the development of projects for anti-racist communication.