Book review: Ellas Poderosas: Historias y voces de mujeres de América Latina

Ellas Poderosas: Historias y voces de mujeres de América Latina was published with support from the GFCF, and the 2023 Generosas Award was presented during the #ShiftThePower Global Summit in Bogotá in December 2023. This book review originally appeared in Alliance Magazine. 

Maria Amalia Souza, Founder and Head of Strategic Alliances and Partnerships at Casa Socio-Environmental Fund

Ellas Poderosas: Historias y voces de mujeres de América Latina (Stories and voices of women from Latin America) is more than a book. It is an account of hope and resistance during one of the darkest times of modern human life. It is about resilience and the power of cooperation among women from across Latin America who, facing hardship and a crumbling support system exasperated by the COVID-19 pandemic, came together in community.  

The Ellas Generosas prize was founded in 2019 by Fondo Ellas (a Uruguay-based organization dedicated to community philanthropy with a gender perspective), to highlight the value of women’s work for humanity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the prize evolved to become a collector of stories from across the region, demonstrating the severity of the situation, and how women were reinventing themselves on behalf of their communities. In 2023, Fondo Ellas introduced three new categories to the prize: Community protection of the environment, Gender violence, and Sexual and reproductive rights.  

The collected work Ellas Poderosas includes stories from 21 groups of women, from 100 applications across 15 countries. The winners in each category include:  

Community protection of the environment  

Kemonela, the Council of Chi Not Weavers in Guatemala. Opening with the quote: “The woven cloths are the books that colonization couldn’t burn”, this group’s achievements are incredible and varied. From organizing a National Movement of Weavers to elaborate a law that secures the intellectual property of their ancestral knowledge; to forming a strong part of the movement preserving native seeds and blocking the entrance of GMO seeds into the country; to creating schools for young girls in rural areas. 

Gender violence  

Fundo Agbara is the only Brazilian Fund for Black women. Established by a group of women from the periphery of Campinas, during the COVID-19 pandemic they began a series of successful crowdfunding campaigns to help women who suddenly lost their jobs and income. The campaigns were so successful that its founders formalized the fund. “We are democratizing Brazilian philanthropy”, Fundo Agbara explains. Founded only in 2020, so far, it has: mobilized almost $600,000 in support of over 2,500 Black women, organized eight national level programmes to potentialize Black women initiatives, offered training to over 300 women leaders, organized large food distribution campaigns for emergency support to women in extreme vulnerability, and until 2025 plans to grant another $500,000 to 175 initiatives led by Black women. 

Sexual and reproductive rights  

Chicas BiLess from León, Guanajuato, México “support younger groups and collectives to strengthen and access resources for their work.” In 2022 Chicas BiLess organized the Congress of Guanajuato state to assign part of its budget to programmes and projects that serve the LGBT+ population, the first state to have such a programme in the country. In 2023 it achieved the reversion of a state decision to dismantle the Law to Protect Diversity, returning it to the Human Rights Commission for revision and approval. 

In truth these prizes are a path to help the world learn about the incredible resistance of Latin American women. As editors, Florencia Roitstein and Andrés Thompson, describe, “We looked for models of community action led by women and focused on the protagonist role of women and girls in accessing new technologies, protecting the environment, fighting for human rights and the prevention of violence against women. And more, we sought actions that were supported by the mobilization of local resources and community philanthropy.”

Society at large believes that poor, vulnerable, excluded people are helpless and, without outside guidance and support, they can’t find a path forward. Philanthropy, in many ways, is also based on this premise. What I loved most about this book, is how it reveals the flaw in this way of thinking. What these women achieved alone, during the darkest period of our collective lifetimes, is stupendous. They didn’t wait for help, they picked up their pieces, and showed us the power women can generate when they come together for a purpose. These stories are an inspiration, and I can’t wait for them to be known the world over. 

Reviewed by: Maria Amália Souza, Founder and Head of Strategic Alliances and Partnerships at the Casa Socio-Environmental Fund 

Ellas Poderosas: Historias y voces de mujeres de América Latina edited by: Florencia Roitstein and Andrés Thompson  

Published by: The 2023 Generosas Award  

To order: redmeridafeminista.org