The Power in Funding Women

One of the most important actions as women has been to find ways for our work to be funded. In a global society which actively prioritizes preventing women from having funds, with most if not all paid work reserved for men, we are well aware that the lack of funding is intentional - to hold us back, to prevent change from happening. Funding makes working together possible. It makes saving lives in our communities possible. It makes change possible. 

The work we are doing to form connections, address emergencies and create communities respectful of women and girls has proven that change is possible. This is why we are resisted, intentionally held back from implementing change. The end of violence. The end of servitude. The end of poverty. The end of wars. The caring for our planet. News of possible funding sources is intentionally kept from us while we are vilified for doing the work we do, called selfish and discriminatory for working unapologetically for a world in which women and girls are respected and free. The development of this money system and expectation that we work for free is the base of this patriarchal domination.

The development of funding sources is an act of sisterhood, a determination that no one is left behind, building channels collectively to change lives as we work for the world we continue to envision and create together. We are up against a world leadership determined to maintain status quo, a world of multi billionaire war mongers and of people with nothing, no food, no housing, no education, no peace. A world in which men continue to hold power, a world in which half of our global humanity lives in poverty, a world in which funding and resources for women are intentionally kept from us to prevent change. 

We know from the stories documented within World Pulse what is needed, where, and who is working for change. We are given ways to reach each other directly, finding ways to work together. We open pathways for transformation, knowing and celebrating that we are making this happen globally.

We know from these stories that transformation happens through emergency funding and through sustained funding. Lives are saved. School costs not covered by governments are paid. Menstrual pads are made available.  Girls attend school and graduate as leaders in their communities. Shelters are provided for women to be able to escape violence. Small businesses are started. News is shared of progress from within 233 countries. World Pulse is our home base as 85,000 of us send news, have access to news, find ways to work together.

In 1968 a small group of women were offered anonymous funds to cover the rent in a building in Montreal, to form a Women’s Centre. Securing funding for that centre meant that we were able to offer life saving and life changing support to hundreds of women. Similar centres formed throughout Canada and we found ways to be in touch and work together. This is the work that gets done when funding is available. We were not paid for our time. So much more could have been done if we had been free to work for freedom for women full time. Violence against women and girls is happening everywhere still. Half a century later the lack of funding intentionally prevents change.

Women find ways past roadblocks, across distances, facing building costs, materials needed, time needed to meet the ongoing flood of emergencies, prioritizing time to bring women news of basic rights written long ago into UN declarations, creating time with each other to end the violence.

To our donors, your money is used to transform lives. It is used to provide housing and food, to keep girls in school, to address poverty, to provide healing from the violence. It is being used to raise a generation who have information, skills and knowledge of each other. It is being used to save lives. It is being used to create a world of peace. It is used to make this transformation possible.

The stories on World Pulse show how money is used to change lives. These stories are a documentation of the work that is being done and of the work that could be done if funds were available. Every person brought food, every girl kept in school, every woman able to flee violence, every centre providing care, every centre training women and girls in technology, every centre creating a way to earn money, every centre bringing women and girls together to heal and to plan a safe path forward is a celebration of what community leaders here in World Pulse have been able to provide. 

It is the stories here on World Pulse that show clearly what funding makes possible. One of the most radical and valuable ways that we can work together within this global system of extreme inequity is to continue to build the bridges that bring funding to the women within World Pulse who are doing the grassroots work, as here we know the stories of what is needed and where, and here we celebrate together when dreams continue to be transformed into real change.