Lighting the Grid

Dear friends,

After the U.S. election, our international colleagues at WEA did not hesitate to reach out to us with words of support. They reminded us that what is happening in the U.S. mirrors experiences many of their communities have lived through for generations. In the face of oppressive governments, worsening climate change, severe resource shortages, and threatened ecosystems, women are the most acutely affected. From these frontlines women stand strong, raising our hands to protect, nurture and uphold. And we don’t give up. We are writing today to invite you to be a part of strengthening this global alliance as we step up to the next level of our reach.

More than ever before, our future hinges on the creative, strategic and nimble grassroots movements that protect our earth and keep lives safe and strong. Women are at the heart of these movements.

Women are the “backbone of the Standing Rock movement” that recently pushed the federal government to halt the destructive Dakota Access Pipeline. Women are contributing to carbon sequestration by launching massive tree-planting campaigns and grassroots clean cookstoves initiatives. Women are launching seed banks, preserving heirloom seeds, and teaching regenerative farming that will help feed our world in the climate change era.

At WEA, we work every day to light the grid of women’s grassroots movements. Our work equips women leaders with the skills and tools they need to protect our Earth and strengthen communities from the inside out. We work with women who are tapped in to what their communities need. They are masters at listening, building consensus, and mobilizing masses. We support these leaders in designing solutions to the pressing environmental challenges their regions face—and building up more leaders to do the same. One becomes two, two become four, four become eight, and eventually we have millions.

WEA invests in this strategy because it works. In a comprehensive, 30-year, data-driven study of policies in 70 countries, researchers found that mobilization by grassroots women’s movements and networks has a significantly more enduring impact on improving women’s rights and safety than policies or government actions.

And each year, more analyses show that when women are empowered, everyone benefits. Local economies improve, populations stabilize, health and education improve, and ecosystems vital to our survival regenerate. According to the Guardian (Dec, 2015), in order to spark this transformation, “women’s access to training, technology and financial resources is essential to enhance their vital role in contributing to solutions.”

We invite you to weave this vital alliance ever stronger so that we can replicate the sustainable, inclusive community development models that are creating the blueprint for the future.

We can do this. Let’s activate our Earth’s most powerful immune response—brilliant, strategic, connected, committed grassroots women leaders who will never stop resisting and reimagining.

Please join us with a tax-deductible gift today.

In partnership,

Melinda, Amira and the WEA Team