In the past decade, Astraea's International Fund for Sexual Minorities has invested over $3.25 million in innovative LGBTI human rights and social change organizations based in the Global South and Eastern Europe / Commonwealth of Independent States. The fund gives priority to groups with the least access to traditional funding- with more than half the groups funded operating with budgets below $50,000. International Fund Panel Grants are determined by a panel of activists with expertise in the specific regions eligible for funding. An International Advisory Board comprised primarily of activists living and working in the regions we fund, also provides significant input and guidance in our grants process.

INTERNATIONAL FUND PANEL, CYCLE ONE 2006-2007

The International Fund Panel Cycle One 2006-2007 issued 27 grants, totaling $139,000.

AFRICA

Alternatives-Cameroun (Douala, Cameroon) for a policy research project investigating imprisonment of same-gender loving people as a result of the 1972 adoption of sodomy provisions into the country's penal code. $5,000

Centre for Popular Education and Human Rights Ghana (Accra, Ghana) to support office expenses and volunteer stipends for human rights work in Ghana. $7,000 http://www.geocities.com/popeducation

Coalition of African Lesbians (Johannesburg, South Africa) to support hiring of an administrator to assist the director in running the South Africa-based headquarters of this regional network. $10,000

Collectif Arc-En-Ciel (Quatre Bornes, Mauritius) to support Mauritius' first LGBT drop-in center, providing legal and community support. $3,000

Dignity Association (Freetown, Sierra Leone) to support the only LGBT national organization in Sierra Leone. (Formerly known as the Sierra Leone Lesbian and Gay Association). $7,000

Engender (Mowbray, Cape Town, South Africa) for an intersex advocacy project, in collaboration with Intersex Society of South Africa, to educate medical professionals and community members about human rights issues faced by intersex people. $4,000 http://www.engender.org.za

Freedom and Roam Uganda (Kampala, Uganda) to secure office space that will provide a safe place to conduct education and organizing work for same-gender loving people in Uganda, particularly lesbians. $5,000 http://www.faruganda.org

Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (Harare, Zimbabwe) for their women's program, which is developing publications focused on sexual rights and sexual health. $6,000 http://www.galz.co.zw

Gender DynamiX (Cape Town, South Africa) to support the first--and currently only-- transgender organization in the African region. $3,000 http://www.genderdynamix.co.za

The Inner Circle (Cape Town, South Africa) for organizational development and staff/volunteer training to further bridge issues of sexuality and religion. $6,000 http://www.theinnercircle.org.za

Sexual Minorities Uganda (Kampala, Uganda) to secure office space for this coalition of Ugandan organizations working to challenge discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. $3,000 http://www.sexualminoritiesuganda.org

AMERICAS

Aireana - Grupo por los Derechos de las Lesbianas (Asuncion, Paraguay) to support organizing for lesbian rights in Paraguay. $9,000

Asociacion Queretana de Educacion para Sexualidades Humanas/AQUESEX (Querétaro, México) to support a community education and anti-discrimination campaignusing a "sexual rights as human rights" framework in a conservative rural Mexican state. $5,000

Asociacion Lucha por la Identidad Travesti y Transexual/ALITT (Buenos Aires, Argentina) for a media and publications project highlighting the group's impact on the transgender movement. The project will follow the victory ALITT secured granting civil association status through a lawsuit ruling by the Argentinean Supreme Court. $7,000

Associacao Lesbica de Minas (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) to support leadership development and organizing of Afro-descendant working class lesbians in the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. $6,000 http://www.alem.org.br

Centro de Documentacao e Informacao Coisa De Mulher/CEDOICOM (Rio deJaneiro, Brazil) to support Colectivo de Lesbicas de Rio de Janeiro, a Black lesbian project that coordinates lesbian political efforts in Rio de Janeiro and throughout Brazil. $4,000 http://www.coisademulher.org.br

Colectivo Sentimos Diverso (Bogota, Colombia) to support this LGBT youth collective in using alternative arts and media to advocate for a secular society that affirms the rights of all youth and LGBT people. $4,000

Corporacion Promocion de la Mujer/Taller de Comunicacion Mujer (Quito, Ecuador) to assist with publication and dissemination costs of a research project on lesbians, as a tool for community visibility and organizing. $4,000

Corporacion Triangulo Negro (Bogota, Colombia) to support organizing for lesbian and bisexual women's sexual and reproductive rights in Colombia. $4,000 http://www.triangulonegro.org

Desalambrando Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, Argentina) to support a program for prevention and research on domestic violence among lesbians in Argentina. $5,000

Desde Nosotras-La Casa del Encuentro (Buenos Aires, Argentina) for a monthly "lesbian fair" in a public area, with the goal of fostering lesbian visibility and denouncing sexist violence. $5,000 http://www.lacasadelencuentro.com.ar

DIVAS - Instituto em Defesa da Diversidade Afetivo-Sexual (Recife, Brazil) to support lesbian sexual rights and racial justice work in Brazil's northeast region. $5,000

Fundacion de Desarrollo Humano Integral CAUSANA (Quito, Ecuador) for a lesbian human rights project to train government agencies on LGBT human rights issues. Additionally the project develops lesbian leadership and mobilizes communities to challenge human rights violations, including the forced hospitalization of lesbians in "rehabilitation" clinics. $3,000

Grupo de Mujeres Safo (Managua, Nicaragua) to support this lesbian and bisexual women's organization in their community support, education and organizing efforts, in one of the few countries in Latin America still criminalizing homosexuality. $7,000

Instituto Runa (Lima, Peru) for this organization's transgender rights project, seeking to monitor and document human rights violations, especially those encouraged, perpetrated, or neglected by police forces. $5,000 http://www.runa.org.pe

Las Otras Familias (Santiago, Chile) for website development and staffing to increase effectiveness of advocacy for lesbian mothers in Chile. $5,000 http://www.lasotrasfamilias.cl

Movimiento de Accion Lésbica Feminista (Aguascalientes, México) to support this group located in a rural area to develop a culture of human rights, lesbian feminist thought and organizing, all of which will counter sexist, homophobic, and transphobic prejudice and violence. $5,000

Mujer Sin Limite (San Pedro Sula, Honduras) for this lesbian and bisexual women's group's programming and organizational development, in its first year as an autonomous organization. $6,000

Mulabi - Espacio Latino Americano de Sexualidades y Derechos (Buenos Aires, Argentina) for development of materials on intersexuality, to be used for sexual rights advocacy within the Latin America region. $5,000

Organizacion de Transexuales por la Dignidad de la Diversidad (Rancagua, Chile) to support this female to male (FTM) transgender organization's work to secure social and legal rights for transgender people in Chile. $5,000 http://www.hombrestransdechile.cl

Red de Respuesta Lesbica "Cattrachas" (Tegucigalpa, Honduras) for this lesbian network to mobilize for sexual diversity and human rights in Honduras and throughout the Central America region. $5,000

Rompiendo el Silencio (Santiago, Chile) to support publication and dissemination of a lesbian feminist magazine grounded in cutting edge journalism and featuring articles related to lesbian issues within and outside the country. $5,000 http://www.rompiendoelsilencio.cl

Vida-Integracion-Desarrollo-Amor/VIDA (Lima, Peru) to support this lesbian and bisexual women's organization's work to implement anti-homophobia and anti-lesbian/LGBT violence community education "tours" throughout the country. $2,370

ASIA

Arus Pelangi (Jakarta, Indonesia) for a counseling program specifically tailored to the needs of gender and sexual minorities in Indonesia. $4,000 http://www.aruspelangi.com

Blue Diamond Society (Katmandu, Nepal) for the Mitini project, which supports, educates, and organizes lesbian and bisexual women in Nepal. $6,000 http://www.bds.org.np

Common Language (Beijing, China) to support this lesbian and bisexual women's organization's programs, including a hotline, website and educational sessions. $7,500 http://www.lalabar.com

Equal Ground (Colombo, Sri Lanka) for this LGBTQI group's development of a resource center, three trilingual publications and counseling training for hotline staff and volunteers. $5,000 http://www.equal-ground.org

Pratyay Gender Trust (Kolkata, India) for an oral history project (showcasing the stories of kothis and hijras) intended to combat violence and secure sexual rights for gender non-conforming communities in West Bengal, India. $4,000

Sappho for Equality (Kolkata, India) to support organizing for equal rights of lesbians, bisexual women and transgender people in India. $5,000 http://www.sapphokolkata.org

Vikalp Women's Group (Vadodara, India) for the Parma Project, a sexual rights resource center in a rural part of India. $4,000 http://www.vikalpwomengroup.com

Women's Support Group (Nawala, Sri Lanka) for a drop-in center, organized by Sri Lanka's first LBT organization, serving lesbians, bisexual women and transgender people. $5,000 http://www.wsglanka.org

Women Coalition of Hong Kong SAR (Hong Kong, China) to support this lesbian and bisexual women's organization's leadership development and organizing work. $4,000 http://www.wchk.org

EASTERNEUROPE

Bulgarian Gay Organization Gemini (Sofia, Bulgaria) to support their LGBT rights awareness-raising campaigns. $4,000 http://www.bgogemini.org

Deve (Belgrade, Serbia) for a lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual women's creative writing project, to be used as a tool to raise consciousness of discrimination and human rights within the lesbian and gay community and the Serbian population at large. $4,000 http://www.deve.org.yu

Gayten LGBT (Belgrade, Serbia) for the group's transgender initiative, the first of its kind in the Eastern Europe/Commonwealth of Independent States region.Grant will support lectures and workshops on transgender issues, weekly support groups and development of materials for their website. $5,000 http://www.gay-serbia.com

Kampania Przeciw Homofobii (KPH) (Warsaw, Poland) for Poland's national LGBT organization to provide professional counseling support to lesbian and bisexual women. $4,000 http://www.kampania.org.pl

Lezbijska Grupa KONTRA (Zagreb, Croatia) to support legal, media and other types of advocacy to defend and secure human rights for LGBT people in Croatia. $8,000 http://www.kontra.hr

Organisation Q (Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina) to support this LGBTIQ and peace-building organization, including their development of a human rights documentation center, legal counseling clinic, and library. $10,000 http://www.queer.ba/udruzenjeq/en/udruzenje.htm

SKUC-LL (Ljubljana, Slovenia) for their LGBT library and archive project, which serves as a critical activist and academic resource for organizations and activists based throughout Eastern Europe. $5,000 http://www.ljudmila.org/lesbo

MIDDLEEAST

Aswat-Palestinian Gay Women (Haifa, Israel) to support development of materials, education and organizing focused on gender, gender identity and sexuality from a Palestinian feminist gay women's perspective. $10,000 http://www.aswatgroup.org

Social Change Opportunity Fund The Social Change Opportunity Fund (SCOF) is an initiative that issues grants to LGBTI organizations with impressive track records conducting timely social change work in their countries.Applications are by invitation only and are solicited from past recipients of Astraea's International Fund Panel Grants.SCOF supports organizations working on concrete projects towards institutional and policy change.

Blue Diamond Society (Katmandu, Nepal) is the main national LGBT organization in Nepal, working for the health, human rights, and well-being of sexual minorities (including Meti, Dohori, Ta, gay, bisexual, lesbian, Hijra, Singary, Fulumulu, Kothi, Kotha, Strian, Maugia, and Panthi people) in Nepal.Grant supports a campaign co-organized with Global Rights, to promote inclusion of protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the constitutional reform process in Nepal. $10,000 http://www.bds.org.np

Colombia Diversa (Bogota, Colombia) is Colombia's main national LGBT organization.Working for the full inclusion, respect, recognition, and mobilization of LGBT people, their key areas of work include human rights policy change on issues affected LGBT communities, human rights documentation, media education, and work in alliance with social, women's and human rights movements.Grant supports their human rights project, which will document and publicize human rights violations against LGBT people in four cities, and build their communications and education strategies to mobilize people to advance LGBT rights. $75,000 over 3 years http://www.colombiadiversa.org/

Kampania Przeciw Homofobii (KPH) (Warsaw, Poland) works to monitor and defend the human rights of sexual minorities in Poland.With seven branches throughout Poland, KPH is the largest LGBT organization in the country. Grant supports KPH's LGBT human rights project and anti-discrimination center, which seek to fight discrimination based on sexual orientation in Poland, and in coordination with other anti-discrimination efforts in Eastern Europe. $75,000 over 3 years http://www.kampania.org.pl

Labris-Lesbian Human Rights Organization (Belgrade, Serbia) was the first lesbian organization formed in the former Republic of Yugoslavia.Through media campaigns and public education, they work to end violence and discrimination against lesbians in Serbia, although their impact is felt by LGBT people overall.Grant supports Labris' work to promote the inclusion of anti-discrimination measures in policy and human rights education of key public national and regional institutions (including the media, health care institutions, university policies, political parties, and police). $75,000 over 3 years http://www.labris.org.yu

Mulabi Espacio Latinoamericano de Sexualidades y Derechos (Buenos Aires, Argentina) is a sexual and gender rights advocacy organization that also serves as a regional resource throughout Latin America.Grant supports their human rights work addressing the needs of transgender and gender non-conforming communities. They run a violence prevention project for gender non-conforming children and adolescents, as well as a project seeking legal recognition and an end to institutional violence by health care and other institutions towards transgender and intersex people. $75,000 over 3 years

International Emergency Fund Astraea's International Emergency Fund is a rapid-response grantmaking mechanism, providing timely support for organizations to address urgent and strategic emerging political opportunities and crises affecting LGBTI communities.Following is a sampling of grants in this area.Some grants have been omitted from this listing, reflecting safety concerns of grantees.

Arus Pelangi's (Jakarta, Indonesia) work includes legal representation of LGBT people, public education, discussion groups and networking with other LGBT groups in Indonesia.Grant supports their emergency investigation and mobilization regarding the murder case of a transgender person in Purwokerto. $1,800 http://asia.geocities.com/arus_pelangi

Aswat-Palestinian Gay Women (Haifa, Israel) supported unanticipated safety and security costs, after threats to their historic Home & Exile in Queer Experiences conference. $3,000 http://www.aswatgroup.org

Fundacion Ecuatoriana de Accion y Educacion para la Promocion de la Salud (Quito, Ecuador) is an organization dedicated to research, advocacy and the development of citizen initiatives to achieve full recognition of human rights, gender equality, social and economic justice, and the elimination of all forms of discrimination. Grant supports their emergency work to defend the protections of sexual orientation and diversity in Ecuador's constitution. $10,000

Hemaya Lebnaneya Lil Milthayeen (Beirut, Lebanon) for their relief work in coordination with other social justice organizations on behalf of families and individuals displaced during the 2006 war with Israel. $5,000 http://www.helem.net

Ishtar MSM (Nairobi, Kenya) is a community-based organization working to establish a network of men who have sex with men in Nairobi to share resources and information in order to fight discrimination. Grant supports a response to homophobic arrests in Kisumu. $300

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