Generosas Award presented at the #ShiftThePower Global Summit

The Latin American and Caribbean women’s rights movement is at the forefront of the most important social changes happening in the region and, at the same time, philanthropy seems to be turning its back on it. Women from all corners of the region are organizing in groups, in collectives, in institutions, to create collective responses to the most relevant social problems that are threatening life, nature and democracies throughout the region. And while doing so, they discuss the power systems that generate them.

That is why in 2019 ELLAS – Mujeres y Filantropía created the Generosas Award with the purpose of making the voices of women – who fight for a society with other codes of cooperation, action, consumption and production – heard. The award seeks to make visible the various models of community actions led by women and that are focused on their protagonism in the access to technologies, environmental protection, the struggle for the enforcement of human rights and the prevention of gender violence. Furthermore, the award seeks to ensure that these actions are supported by the mobilization of local resources and community philanthropy.

With the same conviction as in 2019, in 2023 ELLAS once again launched the Generosas Award for women’s rights and gender justice in Latin America and the Caribbean. This time, the call was addressed to organizations, collectives and women’s groups working with a gender perspective in any of the following areas:

1. Community-based environmental protection (climate justice, land rights, food sovereignty, good living).
2. Sexual and reproductive rights.
3. Gender-based violence (femicide, human trafficking, racism, conflict situations, migration).

The more than 100 applications from 15 Latin American countries were thoroughly analyzed by the Evaluation Committee (formed by women leaders of the feminist movement in the region). For each of the three categories, the following applications were selected:

Community-based environmental protection

Award: Kemonela´ – Consejo de tejedoras de Chi XOT (Guatemala)

Special Mention: Lekil Lum (Mexico)

Sexual and reproductive rights

Award: Chicas Biless (Mexico)

Special mention: Fortalecimiento y Capacitación – FOCA (Mexico)

Gender-based violence

Award: Associação de Mulheres Negras Agbara / Fundo Agbara (Brazil)

Special Mention: AZmina (Brazil)

The awards were presented in Bogotá on 6 December as part of the #ShiftThePower Global Summit, recognizing that women’s power is an essential part of the #ShiftThePower movement.

Read more on the 2019 winners here: La Rebelión de lo cotidiano. Generous Women Changing Latin America.