Fund: International Fund

Meet Our Newest International Fund Grantee Partners

We are proud to announce our latest cycle of International Fund grantee partners with new groups from Kazakhstan, Guatemala, Honduras, and Ukraine. This year so far, we have awarded over $1.2 million to 64 groups in 38 countries. The International Fund supports grassroots groups led by LGBTQI+ communities working for progressive social change, addressing oppression based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity and expression who are also simultaneously advancing the work of racial, economic, and gender justice.

All around the world, LGBTQI+ people are experiencing the impacts of fundamentalist, conservative, fascist, nationalist, white supremacist, far-right, anti-gender, and anti-rights forces. Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice is proud to announce our latest cycle of International Fund grantee partners with new groups from Kazakhstan, Guatemala, Honduras, and Ukraine. This year so far, we have awarded over $1.2 million to 64 groups in 38 countries. The International Fund supports grassroots groups led by LGBTQI+ communities working for progressive social change, addressing oppression based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity and expression who are also simultaneously advancing the work of racial, economic, and gender justice.

The Astraea Foundation’s International Fund covers six regional portfolios: Africa, Asia & the Pacific, Caribbean, Europe, Caucasus & Central Asia, Latin America; and South West Asia with grantmaking spread across two cycles. Organizations to support in this cycle were selected across four of these regional portfolios: Africa; Europe, Caucasus & Central Asia; Asia & the Pacific; and Latin America.

The many incredible grantee partners in our current International Fund grant cycle include:

  • Swaziland – Lesbian Bisexual Queer Rights Swaziland (LBQRS) was formed as a support group for lesbian women who are survivors of corrective rape and lesbian women who were forced into marriages. LBQRS engages with traditional and community leaders in rural areas to strengthen the voice of LBQ women in rural Swaziland, support survivors of corrective rape, and ensure that rural perspectives are included in the broader LGBTQI+ movement.

  • Kazakhstan – Kazakhstan Feminist Initiative (Feminita) was established in 2014 as a grassroots collective of activists dedicated to women’s rights, with a particular focus on lesbian, bisexual, queer, and trans women and women with disabilities. Their efforts foster transformation across social, political, economic, and cultural areas. In 2024, Feminita will be hosting the 3rd European Lesbian* Conference (EL*C) in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

  • Thailand – Thai Transgender Alliance (Thai TGA) was founded in 2010, and advocates for the quality of life and rights of transgender and gender-diverse people through public advocacy, research, education, network building, and media advocacy strategies. Recently, Thai TGA has focused on capacity building to develop leadership among younger activists from trans-masculine and non-binary communities.

  • Guatemala – Mujeres con Capacidad de Soñar is a group of women and non-binary people with disabilities and allies founded in 2018. Mujeres is a space for self-support and self-help with a focus on supporting young indigenous women with disabilities. They work to increase access to sexual and reproductive rights and promote awareness of oppression in terms of sexuality and gender identity. Members value the space to explore their identities and some now openly introduce themselves as part of the LBT community.

With the aim of supporting LGBTQI+ rights across the globe, the International Fund selects grassroots LGBTQI+ movements focused on context-specific tactics, cultural change, and liberation. Through flexible, trust-based, and feminist funding principles, the International Fund continues to support lesbians, bisexual and queer women, non-binary and transgender people, intersex people, and allied communities to challenge oppression and claim their human rights.

2023 Cycle A International Fund Grantee Partners*

*Note: We do not publicize a number of our courageous grantee partners because of security threats they face in their local contexts, so organizations may be missing from this list.

Africa:

Artists for Recognition and Acceptance AfRA, Kenya 

Elles Cameroon, Carmeroon 

Empowered Ladies Initiative for Equality, Kenya 

Jinsiangu, Kenya 

Ladies’s Voice, Togo 

LBQ Education Health and Advocacy, LEHA, Kenya 

Lesbian Bisexual Queer Rights Swaziland, Swaziland 

Mothers Haven

Parents, Families & Friends of the South African Queers, South Africa 

QET Inclusion, Cote d’Ivoire 

West African Trans Forum, West Africa 

Asia & the Pacific:

Asia Feminist LBQ Network, Regional  

Point of View, India 

Thai Transgender Alliance (Thai TGA), Thailand 

Sompurna, Bangladesh 

Europe, Caucasus & Central Asia:

European Sex Worker Alliance, Regional

Feminita, Kazakhstan

Labris Belgrade, Serbia

LBQ Central Asian Network, Central Asia

Lesbian* Resistance, Georgia

LGBIQA Association Okvir, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Ride Side NGO, Armenia

Trans-Fuzja Foundation, Poland

Latin America:

Brújula Intersexual, Mexico 

Cattrachas, Honduras 

Chola Contravisual, Peru 

Diversidades Trans Masculinas, Peru 

Mujeres con Capacidad de Soñar a Colores, Guatemala 

Taller de Comunicacion Mujer, Ecuador 

 

 

Feminas Peru

Feminas Peru advocates for increased trans women empowerment through information, community activities, political and social advocacy to exercise citizenship.

Feminas Peru advocates for increased trans women empowerment through information, community activities, political and social advocacy to exercise citizenship.

Empoderamiento de mujeres trans a través de la información, las actividades comunitarias, la incidencia política y el activismo social, para ejercer ciudadanía

Raras no tan raras

Raras no tan raras exists to shed light and raise awareness of the issues facing sexual/gender diverse women from the Colombian Caribbean region, especially from the department of the Atlantic in Colombia, and their resistance.

Raras no tan raras exists to shed light and raise awareness of the issues facing sexual/gender diverse women from the Colombian Caribbean region, especially from the department of the Atlantic in Colombia, and their resistance.

Visibilizar y sensibilizar sobre las problemáticas y resistencias de las mujeres sexo-género diversas de la región Caribe colombiana, especialmente del departamento del Atlántico, Colombia.

EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community (EL*C)

The Eurocentralasian Lesbian* Community – EL*C is a lesbian feminist and intersectional network that works for the well-being of lesbians throughout Europe and Central Asia.

The Eurocentralasian Lesbian* Community – EL*C is a lesbian feminist and intersectional network. The EL*C started out of a self-organised space three years ago, recognizing the multitude of needs surrounding the rights, the visibility and the well-being of lesbians throughout Europe and Central Asia. Our conferences are our lighthouses – shaping connections, sharing knowledge, finding common languages and understandings of our diversities, building bridges that reach and impact far beyond the time and space at which they take place.

Women in Front Cameroon

Women in Front Cameroon’s long term goal is to promote female leadership and the visibility of LBTQ people in the LGBT community.

A long terme, nous voulons favoriser le leadership féminin et la visibilité des LBTQ dans la communauté LGBT.

Women in Front Cameroon’s long term goal is to promote female leadership and the visibility of LBTQ people in the LGBT community.

Armario Abierto

Armario Abierto advocates for initiatives that enable the construction of fairer living conditions and support and ensures that people who embrace diverse genders and sexual identities live lives free from violence.

Armario Abierto is an independent, non-governmental, private and non-profit organization born in 2010 in Manizales. We advocate for initiatives seeking to contribute to the construction of fairer living conditions and support and ensure that people who embrace diverse genders and sexual identities live lives free from violence. Our actions focus especially on women who identify as lesbian, bisexual and transgender, as well as those who who are in vulnerable positions due to the conditions in which they engage in sex work.

Somos una organización autónoma, no gubernamental, privada y sin ánimo de lucro que nace en el año 2010 en Manizales, desde la cual se promueven iniciativas que buscan aportar a la construcción de condiciones de existencia más justas y respaldar la garantía de vidas libres de violencias para las personas que asumen identidades de género y/o ejercen sexualidades diversas. Enfocamos nuestras acciones especialmente en las mujeres que se identifican como lesbianas, bisexuales y transgénero, así como en aquellas que por las condiciones en las que ejercen el trabajo sexual se encuentran en situación de vulnerabilidad.

Group COME OUT

The vision Group COME OUT works for is a society where LGBTI* people have the opportunity to reach their full potential.

The vision Group COME OUT works for is a society where LGBTI* people have the opportunity to reach their full potential. Their overall mission is to empower young LGBTI* persons and members of their families, and to advocate for their interests, through programmes of support, education, creation of physical safe space (community centre) and making their environments safer (families, schools, social circles, other public services), creative engagement, public campaigns and partnerships.

Caribeñxs

The objective of Caribeñxs is to convene and organize lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, trans women and other non- hegemonic identities to articulate the different stripes of feminism in Monteria.

The objective of Caribeñxs is to convene and organize lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, trans women and other non- hegemonic identities to articulate the different stripes of feminism in the city of Monteria and the department of Cordoba; to contribute to the transformation of the structural violence based on gender and prejudice against diverse sex/genders through raising
awareness, political advocacy, acknowledgment and granting of rights, through community training settings based on gender theory and art, exchanging experiences and generating a public cultural feminist agenda.

Convocar y organizar mujeres lesbianas, bisexuales, pansexuales, trans y otras identidades no hegemónicas que se enuncien desde los feminismos de la ciudad de Montería y el departamento de Córdoba, para aportar a la transformación de las violencias estructurales basadas en género y por prejuicio hacia las identidades sexo/género diversas, desde a visibilización, incidencia política, el reconocimiento y divulgación de derechos, a través de escenarios de formación comunitaria en teorías de género y artes, intercambio de experiencias y la generación de una agenda pública cultural feminista.

Ahwaa

Ahwaa’s vision is to serve as the primary resource for the Arab LGBTQI+ community: a platform to organize, obtain and receive support in a secure and engaging environment.

Ahwaa’s vision is to serve as the primary resource for the Arab LGBTQI+ community: a platform to organize, obtain and receive support in a secure and engaging environment. Ahwaa will assist local LGBTQI+ organizations and grassroots movements in connecting with their target stakeholders, ensuring that our community has a trusted partner online for safety, urgent support, and kinship.