Mama Cash supports more than 130 organisations, networks and women’s funds annually. Since they started in 1983, they have distributed almost 60 million euro in grants and thus successfully helped thousands of feminist organisations worldwide, amplifying the voices of people in need: girls working in clothing factories who will no longer allow themselves to be exploited; indigenous women who are forming an opposition against the multinational companies destroying their homes and the environment; sex workers who are fighting back against sexual harassment; and women with HIV who want to defend themselves from forced sterilisation.
These organisations do not only lack money; they often lack collective moral support, as well. Therefore Mama Cash provides these women not only with liquid assets but also a wealth of information, and giving them opportunities to expand their network. “Knowledge is power,” they say.
The unique thing about Mama Cash is that they offer their partners long-term funding without restrictions. They listen when activists tell them what is needed, and they are true pioneers when it comes to the inclusion of funds for sex workers and trans people. Activists can’t change the world for free.
As we find ourselves in the middle of a pandemic, women from all over the world are affected by its consequences disproportionately.
Women make up the majority of healthcare workers, which means they are also our frontline workers, our first-string of defense in this ongoing battle. As schools continue to remain closed, there is now a growing amount of extra tasks at home, most of which end up on the shoulders of women & girls. And on top of that, cases of domestic violence in times of home quarantine are piling up.
The space for activism is rapidly shrinking in some countries and help is needed. Mama Cash has therefore created a special fund to provide grantee-partners with the financial support that can enable them to keep doing their important work during this crisis. The Recovery & Resilience Fund will support women’s, girls’, trans and intersex people’s rights groups which have been addressing and continue to address the immediate & long-term needs of their communities ♡
We got the chance to ask the Mama Cash team about their vision for the future – and we hope that you’ll be just as inspired as we are by their profound answers ☆
Mama Cash dreams of a better world for women, girls, trans people & intersex people. If you could begin to describe it, what would such a world look like?
That is a world in which you’re free to love who you choose and express your gender how you feel – without fear of discrimination, harassment, or violence. It’s a world in which care work, domestic work and sex work are recognised and treated as work, and all women have safe working conditions and earn a fair wage.
In this world, public discourse and politics are not dominated by a small (usually male) group, but everyone gets to participate in spaces where decisions are made that affect their lives. And last but certainly not least, in this equal world, women, girls, trans and intersex people will have access to clean air, safe water and land – the resources they need to sustain themselves. This is the just and joyous world the groups we support are creating!
It’s been said that the idea for Mama Cash began with five feminists sitting around a kitchen table in Amsterdam – was there any specific event at the time which became the catalyst to help this idea come to fruition?
In the 1970s, our co-founder Marjan Sax was a feminist, anti-capitalist activist, and part of the squatter’s movement here in Amsterdam. So when she inherited a large sum of money, you can imagine she wasn’t quite sure what to do with it at first – being in possession of that kind of wealth went against a lot of her beliefs. (As she puts it: “When entering a bank, first thing I’d do was check whether anybody had seen me.”).
So she brainstormed with friends at her kitchen table, and there was an idea to establish a house for women – but it felt too static, a one-time investment. So that’s how they came up with the idea of a fund for feminist activism: a fund would be able to keep growing and serve as a catalyst for change for many years to come.
Though it can’t have been a very easy trail to blaze, being the very first international women’s fund in the world to exist… What have been some of the biggest hurdles the team has faced along the way?
In the last several years, one of the biggest hurdles for the work we do and more specifically for the groups we support has been the backlash against gender equality, racial justice, and other rights. We’d been seeing progress in these areas, but now far-right movements and parties are fighting back, and they’re organised. We see the rolling back of rights that were already fought for and won by feminist movements – abortion rights, for example, are under attack again around the world.
On top of that, many governments are making it harder for activists to organise – for example, banning funding from international donors like ourselves, so we have to get really creative to get money to them. Several of our partners are anonymous for this reason – if their government knows they get money from us, they could have a serious problem.
We’re also seeing women human rights defenders and environmental defenders being harassed, imprisoned on false charges, and in some tragic cases – like environmental activist Berta Cáceres in Honduras – even killed for their work. So the challenge for us is to figure out how we can provide activists in these really challenging contexts with the support they need to continue their work.
Blazing a trail comes with its own set of unique adventures to embark upon. What have been a few uniquely inspiring moments in Mama Cash’s influential history?
The feminist groups we support have had some incredible achievements over the years. Our former grantee-partners Malawi’s Girls Empowerment Network (GENET) were working to end child marriage, and actually succeeded in changing the minimum age for marriage to 18. In Pakistan, we support a group called the Home-Based Women Workers Federation, which is made up of women who produce things like clothing, shoes, and jewelry for large supply chains from home – but because they work at home, it’s not recognised as work, so they don’t have any protections or rights like minimum wage. But the HBWWF fought for ten years to change this, and they won: in the Sindh province, home-based work is now treated under the law like work in a factory or anywhere else.
In the midst of COVID-19 and the effects it has had on our livelihoods & our sense of community, many find it difficult to stay consistently engaged in their personal activism. How has the Mama Cash team stayed in touch with their own “radical élan” during this time of duress?
Our mission has always been to support feminist movements around the world – so this is what we remain committed to regardless of the circumstances, because we believe supporting these activists is crucial no matter how much attention they’re getting in the news or not. At the same time, we noticed that the groups we support were facing new and particular challenges due to COVID-19 – so we established a Recovery & Resilience Fund to help them be able to get through the pandemic, sustain themselves, and have the resources to continue their work.
Responding to the actual needs of movements on the ground – and allowing them to use their grant flexibly, for whatever they say they need – has always been a priority in our work and the current situation shows why that’s so important. We can’t and shouldn’t expect activists to be filling out reports right now, we should be asking them what they need from us and how we can be of service.
Alongside donating to charity organizations like Mama Cash, what would you suggest are other tangible actions people can take (i.e. in their day-to-day lives) towards gender equality?
Educate yourself! Most of us grew up in societies where sexism was a subtle or not-so-subtle norm, so we’ve internalised those ideas around what a man or woman should do, act like, or look like (as well as the idea that there are only two genders). And in the process of unlearning those norms, talk to the people around you. People are more likely to listen to their peers, people they know. So if someone makes a sexist comment or joke at the dinner table, say something. The personal sphere is where we all have the power to make a difference.
If you have the time and energy, see what initiatives there are locally that you can join and support. And maybe if you notice an issue and nobody else is doing anything about it, you can initiate something yourself! People often are hesitant to see themselves as activists, but anybody can take action on an issue that matters to them: it doesn’t have to be a big national campaign or a protest to be meaningful.
And show solidarity with other movements. Gender equality, racial justice, disability rights – these are all interconnected, and we’re all going to need each other’s support to build inclusive movements and create a truly equal world.
We at Amazingy believe that there will be a brighter future beyond COVID-19, and we are putting most of our energy & focus into supporting that future – does Mama Cash have any specific goals in mind for the next few years to come?
Well, we just received the great news that we are going to continue to receive funding from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the next five years! One of the projects we received funding for is focused on environmental justice, because we see that women are more heavily affected by the effects of climate change – but they’re also leading the movements to fight the destruction and exploitation of natural resources that are contributing to climate change. So our main goal is to keep getting more money to feminist movements like these.
Another goal is to change the way we work to be more in line with our values as a feminist fund. We want to challenge the traditional power dynamics between non-profit organisations like ourselves and the communities we aim to serve. So starting next year, we want to actually include activists in the process of deciding who gets a grant. That way, we’re not holding all the power, and the activists themselves can have a say.
One last question: how did you come up with the name “Mama Cash”? ?
Our founders were fans of the 60s pop group Mamas & the Papas, and the leader singer Cass Elliot was also known as “Mama Cass” 🙂
Tags: Charity, Interview
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