At our Founding Meeting in Mexico City in 2006, 30 women grassroots leaders from around the world asked ourselves 3 questions:
Why Women?
Women are hit hardest by environmental and climate crises, and many risk their lives every single day just to access basic needs– like water, food, and fuel– for their families and their communities. But when these women receive support, they are highly effective at designing and carrying out appropriate, long-lasting solutions to persistent environmental challenges they intimately know.
Why Earth?
Resources like water, food and land are proven to be leverage points for transforming larger societal trends. Communities that have access to clean water, healthy food and protected land are more likely to see improvements in economies, human rights, education, health, democracy and peace.
Why Alliance?
Too many grassroots women leaders around the world work in isolation, without access to information, training, and alliances with other leaders and organizations. And yet women leaders positioned as hubs of community networks are poised to move resources and knowledge efficiently through those networks.
OUR TIME HELPED US TO IDENTIFY SEVERAL IMPORTANT MISSING PIECES:
Women are under-resourced. Community leaders are often working without support (financial, moral, political, or otherwise).
Women are working in isolation and do not have access to a wide range of information, training, and communication tools.
Women are left out of decision-making. Women's valuable first-hand knowledge in caring for water, food, land, and air is not accounted for in policy-making, and women's participation in decision-making is painfully low.
So we designed a model that would channel training, peer support, and resources to women working on the frontlines of our communities. When we returned home, we started to build this mandate into every aspect of our work. Today WEA’s work still reflects this original vision.
