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Doria Feminist Fund is thrilled to announce its fourth cohort of grantee partners.
This year, Doria launched the call for proposals for its fourth grantmaking cycle. The only feminist fund that provides direct grants to activists, led by and tailored for feminist activists, from the MENA region.
All Doria grantees were selected through a feminist review process by a grants committee made up of feminist activists from across the MENA region, who reviewed each application carefully, and selected each application based on Doria’s eligibility criteria, strength of the application, and alignment with Doria’s strategic objectives.
Join us in welcoming our grantees to the Doria Feminist Fund community! Doria grantees are offered grants for a period of one year, in which they will be closely accompanied by the Doria team for capacity building support, feminist mentorship, and opportunities for strengthening and growth of their projects. We are excited to begin this journey together!
We’re proud to announce Doria’s 2024 Grantee Cohort:
Project A, Lebanon
The proposed research on GBV against elderly women in Lebanon is crucial for the MENA feminist movement as it addresses a significant gap in existing knowledge, focusing on the intersectionality of gender and age. By providing insights into the unique challenges faced by older women, the study promotes inclusive advocacy, empowering women of all ages. Overall, this project enhances the feminist movement's understanding and response to the diverse experiences of women, fostering a more comprehensive and inclusive approach to gender equality in the MENA region.
Haltek, Lebanon
HalTek, a non-profit organization, leverages technology to offer practical solutions and innovative ideas that tackle challenges faced by individuals with diverse abilities. Their primary focus is on enhancing health and education facilities, promoting gender equality for women with disabilities, and fostering inclusive communities for disability justice. Their vision strives for a society where individuals of all abilities have access to health and education facilities. They aim to provide women with disabilities equal opportunities and foster inclusive communities for disability justice.
Group A, Yemen
Raising awareness and education about deaf women's issues and rights, and providing support and assistance to deaf women in various aspects of their lives. They are working to develop innovative educational programs aimed at enhancing the skills of deaf women in areas such as sign language and effective communication, advocating for rights, and promoting legislation and policies that protect their rights and ensure their participation in the society. They are also providing legal support and counseling for deaf women facing legal challenges.
Group B, Palestine
Palestinian Jewelry Brand established in March 2021; dedicated to empowering women by advocating for their sexual health and rights. They are passionate about creating beautiful and meaningful jewelry pieces that serve as symbols of this mission. Each piece is designed with the intention of sparking conversation and promoting awareness about important women's health issues. They believe that by wearing their jewelry, women can feel confident, proud, and empowered, while also making a statement about the importance of reproductive rights and access to healthcare.
Group D, Jordan
Group E is a non-profit organization that empowers females; girls and women, through football. They work to shift the mindset and the stereotypes and cultural norms that assume that football is a male-dominated game only. The approach is to transform the schools’ yards into a well-equipped sports venue at girls' public schools across Jordan while providing safe space and proper football training to the ongoing generation.
Group C, Syria
They are raising awareness, educating, and empowering young women and girls in the MENA region about digital blackmail, highlighting its dangers, the legal framework for protection and action, and the available support systems. They are working on a three-episode social media show (reels style) designed to explain blackmailing and provide actionable advice on how to fight back and a Booklet offering detailed guidance on the legal avenues and support mechanisms available for victims of digital blackmail in the MENA region.
Kurdish Feminist Collective, Iraq
A feminist group and collective that aims to form an important collective focusing on the rights of Kurdish women as part of a stateless nation. The team aims to expand the feminist struggle by emphasizing the language, culture, politics and social rights of Kurdish women living in this geography. The are raising awareness of women's rights in a social, cultural and political context by bringing together their individual work in feminist ethnography and biography.
Baddi Bisklet, Syria
A women's team that are seeking to promote a cycling culture among women and girls in the North and East of Syria. Their goal is to fight societal traditions that consider cycling by women as flawed and unacceptable. They believe in the importance of empowering women and motivating them to acquire bicycle skills as a means of mobility and independence. ‘’Darb Al Horriya – درب الحرية’’ – Freedom Path is a project aiming to encourage women to exercise and cycle as a means of achieving personal and environmental empowerment and combating violence against women.
Yemen Peace Window, Yemen
The platform Yemen Peace Window, started as a cultural idea to enhance the role of women in the cultural aspect, but due to the high severity of massive violations against women, they decided to advocate for the most vulnerable women and girls. Using digital aspects and technology is one of their priorities, they are helping in spreading the WeRise application, which helps children and adults to understand the feminist concepts in a simplified and smooth manner. They are conducting a training on digital security and advocacy for protection from blackmailing and educating girls about their rights.
Recover, Lebanon
With a current focus on mental health, members of Recover came together to establish a youth-led initiative whose mission is to address health disparities and inequity prevalent in the region, through a feminist intersectional lens, especially due to discrimination based on factors such as sexuality and gender. They acknowledge that mental health is impacted by structural factors and is inherently socio-ecological in nature – thus, their aim is to intervene not only at the individual level, but also at the community, organizational, systemic, and policy level.
Psychologia Group, Iraq:
They are conducting a study to explore factors associated with GBV, including individual, relationship, societal, and community-level factors. They are examining how experiencing GBV influences the mental health of the victims. The study will also aim to explore the mediating role of social support on the association between GBV and mental health problems.
Synergy Association for Victims, Syria:
Synergy Association for Victims is a non-governmental, non-profit association, aimed at seeking justice for the victims of conflict in Syria, through empowering them to represent themselves, claim their rights, actively participate in accountability efforts, and achieve justice. Synergy was founded on March 11, 2021, by a group of Syrian victims, and it adopts the community-based approach to organize the victims and survivors, enhance their capabilities, and engage them in shaping plans and policies, as well as implementing activities in order to reveal the truth, accountably, and accomplish justice.
Jin w Jinga, Iraq:
They are working on a documentary film, "Dust," that aims to shed light on the effects of climate change on women’s health, with a specific focus on breast and uterine cancer as well as pregnancy-related issues. By examining how environmental factors account for these health problems, they are seeking to raise awareness about the role of environmental pollutants in the development of these women’s health issues. Moreover, they are planning to share the case studies and stories of courageous women who have endured these challenges and highlight the societal obstacles they face.
Jeem, Lebanon:
Jeem are working on producing and publishing two serialized podcasts, on the themes of Queer Courage in Times of War, and Feminist and Queer Erotica bel Arabi. The two podcasts are a pilot phase of a Queer Feminist Serialized Podcast Channel, which Jeem intends to launch in 2025. Jeem intends to look through an intersectional feminist lens, to amplify marginalized voices that are often overlooked, especially in light of the anti-feminist backlash, authoritarian regimes, wars and conflicts that are taking place in many countries in the region.
Group D, Turkey:
They are working on a documentary miniseries that challenges the conventional molds, offering an unfiltered view of the lived experiences of these individuals. The documentary's central tenet is the artful use of storytelling and creativity as forms of protest and self-expression. Through art, painting, dance, and dialogue, the project emphasizes that the power of artistic expression knows no boundaries. It underscores that everyone, regardless of their background, has the right to wield art as a means of conveying their stories and asserting their identity.
Sustainable Stitch, Lebanon:
A group of women activists who have come together to support and uplift GBV survivors and individuals from the LGBTQ community. Their primary focus is on providing them with training in sewing and upcycling, equipping them with valuable skills that can lead to economic independence and personal empowerment. Having successfully conducted the training program, they are now actively working on designing projects that showcase the creativity and craftsmanship of their participants.
Green Dream, Iraq:
The knowledge product, titled "#Science4AIDS Awareness Initiative," is an animation video that is part of the Green Dream's initiative to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS. With a focus on education and advocacy, the video aims to disseminate important information about HIV, its transmission, prevention, and destigmatize misconceptions surrounding the virus. The creative expression of the animation is designed to engage a wide audience, making complex scientific information accessible and engaging.
Group E, Yemen:
The role of Group E is to rehabilitate, educate and empower women, to have an actual presence in the cultural and intellectual scene through activities on rehabilitation and discussion in intellectual spaces as well as qualitative training in the fields of story and novel writing and the creation of audiovisual content that aims to shed a light on the suffering of women and their lack of presence in many sectors of society.
Masbough/a, Lebanon:
Masbough/a began in 2021 as a small collective practicing and reviving methods of textile dyeing from around our regions and preserving stories around plants, land and the intersections through hands-on workshops, writing and storytelling.
Group F, Algeria:
Group F is a budding feminist organization aiming to create a collective space for feminist initiatives that challenge societal sexism and work towards a fairer, less violent world for women. The organization focuses on supporting other feminist groups in Algeria by providing legal and psychological assistance, as well as organizing self-care and well-being spaces for feminist activists and women human rights defenders.
Group G, Egypt:
Group G is an initiative, established in 2017. It empowers girls and women to write about their challenges, particularly violence and rights violations. They provide a platform for expressing their experiences through reports, articles, videos, and infographics, addressing unspoken issues without restriction. In the upcoming period, they are training a new generation of girls in journalism and feminist content production through theoretical workshops and practical exposure.
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