Native Americans have been marginalized for too long

KWO is one of my favourite organizations in the world. You know every donation goes directly to support women and their families in the refugee camps and conflict-affected communities in Karen State

KWO is an indigenous women’s organisation serving women and girls in our community in Burma and in refugee camps in Thailand.  

The Karen Women’s Organisation (KWO) currently has a membership of more than 70,000 women living in Karen State, Burma and in refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border. KWO is a leading indigenous women’s organisation working in protection and our programs directly serve women, girls, children, and the most vulnerable people in our community. We promote women’s leadership, gender equality and community ownership in all aspects of our work. KWO is active in four main sectors: Organising and Information Sharing Program, Education Program, Health Program and Social Welfare Program.  KWO is led and staffed entirely by women in our community. KWO participates in the struggle to stop all kinds of oppression of women and of children. We believe in a federal Burma, where all communities have gender equality, the protection and promotion of indigenous people’s rights, human rights, and justice. 


WHAT WE DO

Within our 4 program areas we provide: service delivery, advocacy, awareness raising, and capacity building threaded throughout our daily work and our funded projects. Our work varies from the delivery of hygiene kits for mothers with new-borns, conducting community health and nutrition education, to ensuring safe accommodation for women suffering violence, developing Women’s Protection Laws, to training young women from our Communities to become leaders. 

KWO believes that empowering women will help reduce human rights abuses and encourage an end to discrimination against women. We believe that women have a right to be properly represented in politics and society at large. And we believe that the whole community is better off when women play an equal role with men in decision-making. The 17 individually funded Projects which KWO currently implements in refugee camps and Karen State, run under our 4 programs, and have over 100,500 beneficiaries.

WHERE WE WORK
KWO lives and works in the 7 districts of Karen State, Burma which is in Southeastern Burma and in 7 refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border.

ORGANISING AND INFORMATION SHARING PROGRAM  - KWO’s Organising and Information Sharing Program provides services, advocacy and capacity building to support women’s empowerment, mobilize the community, and sustain the organisation. KWO believes that broad community and organisational education contributes to building a fair and tolerant civil society. We conduct training, events and activities around: women’s rights, indigenous rights, democracy, political awareness, a Federal system for Burma, child protection, human rights, project management, leadership skills, public speaking, financial policy and procedures, KWO policy, landmine awareness, etc.

The Organising and Information Sharing Program Co-ordinators are all Karen women who live in their communities. Work under this Program includes: to conduct community consultations to identify needs, share information in the community about the current situation, including through KWO publications, update KWO’s membership list, co-ordinate with the KWO Social Welfare Program to organize the distribution of humanitarian aid (food and materials) in emergency situations, oversee and monitor all funded KWO projects implemented in the area, arrange and attend meetings for KWO and our network, coordinate with other agencies on issues that affect the community, assist researchers and field trips for visiting individuals, advocate on behalf of vulnerable groups in the community, conduct individual and joint advocacy efforts on the local, national, regional, and international stage.  We currently implement 4 funded projects under this program.

EDUCATION PROGRAM 
KWO’s Education Program provides services, advocacy and capacity building to promote education in our community. We provide schooling where there are gaps in existing education mainstream services in the refugee camps, and in areas in Karen State. We particularly target girls in the community to ensure they have equal access to education, protection, development and care. We also place a significant emphasis on education that promotes and preserves Karen indigenous culture.

Our Education Program Co-ordinators are all Karen women and are part of the community. Every day they work to promote education, to identify children struggling at schools or at home and provide support to the family, and assist with school fees when possible. They monitor and support KWO’s funded education projects in their areas, visit all community schools and give encouragement to students and teachers. They conduct home visits and encourage parents to send children to school, and assist the poorest of the poor children to get into schools. They attend events organized by schools to share positive messages about the benefits of education for all. They meet with education leaders at all levels and advocate for inclusive education, improved child protection mechanisms, and the importance of girls education. We currently implement 7 funded education projects under this program.

SOCIAL WELFARE PROGRAM 
KWO Social Welfare Program provides services, advocacy and capacity building in all sectors of Karen society. We provide direct care and assistance to community members and we work to solve social problems in our community, particularly those that affect women. Due to the failure of Burma’s successive governments to provide care and security for the people, many ethnic groups, like the Karen, have established well-organised and high-functioning social systems. The KWO Social Welfare Program does a lot of the work that a free and democratic national government would normally be offering to the people.

Our Social Welfare Program Co-ordinators are all Karen women and live in their community. Their duties include: identifying and providing care to the most vulnerable members of the community including the elderly, people with disability or chronic illness, and families in trouble; providing assistance in emergencies; help to organize community events and ceremonies; home visits; build capacity and opportunity for women to earn income especially through traditional crafts; be advocates for the best interests of women in justice cases; fight for improvements in laws relating to women and child protection, justice system reform and better enforcement mechanisms both in the refugee camps and within Southeast Burma.

Overall our Program’s main area of focus is to prevent, and respond to Violence Against Women. Under the Social Welfare Program, and its funded project, we provide an enormous amount of training for women, for KWO leaders and staff, for local community leaders, and for the broader community. We currently implement 4 funded projects under this program.

HEALTH PROGRAM 
KWO’s Health Program provides services, advocacy and capacity building to promote better health in our community. Our Health Program activities address common community health issues, like nutrition and hygiene, and we focus on the health needs of women and of children. KWO collaborates with existing community health organisations to support local health workers, to care for patients and the community. We do not offer medical or clinic-based services ourselves.

Our Health Program Co-ordinators are Karen women who live in their communities. Their work includes: to advocate for better access to health services, accompany patients to hospitals or clinics, organise village and stream clean ups, identify health needs of the most vulnerable people and provide support in the home, conduct health education campaigns in the community, share information with families about good health practices, encourage communities to set up kitchen gardens, organise access to clean drinking water, improve village sanitation and the use of built toilets, promote KWO’s key health messages for women’s reproductive health, improve access to safe sanitary materials for all women and girls, monitor any funded KWO Health projects being implemented in their area, educate parents about good nutrition and childcare, advocate for recognition of skilled Traditional Birth Attendants, and for birth registration and birth certificates for all children. We currently implement 2 funded projects under this program.

Karen Women's Organization

A Native-led nonprofit dedicated to assisting Native nations in strengthening their governance and sovereignty.

Native Governance Center

 The oldest, largest nonprofit legal org asserting and defending the rights of Indian tribes, organizations, and individuals.

Since 1970, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) has provided legal assistance to Indian tribes, organizations, and individuals nationwide who might otherwise have gone without adequate representation. NARF has successfully asserted and defended the most important rights of Indians and tribes in hundreds of major cases, and has achieved significant results in such critical areas as tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, natural resource protection, and Indian education. NARF is a non-profit 501c(3) organization that focuses on applying existing laws and treaties to guarantee that national and state governments live up to their legal obligations.

The Native American Rights Fund is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, with branch offices in Washington, DC, and Anchorage, AK.

NARF is governed by a volunteer board of directors composed of thirteen Native Americans from different tribes throughout the country with a variety of expertise in Indian matters. A staff of approximately 16 attorneys handles over 50 major cases at any given time, with most of the cases taking several years to resolve. Cases are accepted on the basis of their breadth and potential importance in setting precedents and establishing important principles of Indian law.

With credibility built over 50 years of service, NARF has become a respected consultant to policy makers and others engaged in drafting legislation. As a consensus builder, NARF works with religious, civil rights, and other Native American organizations to shape the laws that will help assure the civil and religious rights of all Native Americans. NARF attorneys, many of whom are tribal citizens, use their understanding of Indian legal issues to assist tribes in negotiating with individuals, companies, and governmental agencies.

Since NARF’s inception, Indian law has changed dramatically. It has become a recognized specialty with a well-documented body of statutes and case law. However, that has not made it a simpler field. In the 1970’s and the early 1980’s, courts were generally receptive to Indian rights cases. However, since the mid to late 1980’s, an increasingly conservative federal bench has made Indian rights cases more difficult to win. Combined with the huge cost of litigation—in time and in money—this means NARF and its Indian clients are always attuned to opportunities for negotiation, consensus, and settlement.

Native American Rights Fund

Indigenous & non-Indigenous collaboration promoting practice of Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ (Cayuga) language & lifeways in ancestral homelands

The Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ Learning Project is a collaboration of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people working to promote awareness and practice of Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ (Cayuga) language and lifeways in their ancestral homelands and beyond. We hope to carry the idea of sgę́:nǫˀ gó:wah, the Great Peace, into our work, cultivating peace and cooperation through education and community outreach. Our partnership is based on a vision in which Indigenous and non-Indigenous people travel separate but parallel paths to engage in peaceful coexistence. 

The Gayogohó:nǫˀ Learning Project is a fiscally sponsored project of the Center for Transformative Action (CTA). CTA, an educational 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, is legally and financially responsible for all our project activities.

**The Problem**

Gayogohó:nǫˀ people were largely displaced from their ancestral homeland (around Cayuga Lake) in the late 1700’s, when George Washington sent a military contingent to destroy crops and villages of the Gayogohó:nǫˀ and other members of the Hodinohsó:nih.  Residents were scattered to Ohio, Canada, and Buffalo Creek, and later to Oklahoma and Six Nations of the Grand River reserve in Canada. Only a few remained in their ancestral lands. 
  
Land fraud by white settlers and the State of New York further exacerbated the separation of the Gayogohó:nǫˀ people from their land, which is an integral part of their language and identity. Many Gayogohó:nǫˀ people were forced into residential schools and Indian Day Schools. Non-indigenous governmental structures hindered the passing-on of traditional culture and language. 
  
Barely 250 years later, the Gayogohó:nǫˀ language is considered critically endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger.  As of December 2021, there are less than a dozen first-language speakers remaining – one of whom is a member of our group. Most live on the Six Nations reserve in Canada. A few hundred people have learned or are learning Gayogohó:nǫˀ as a second language, but with efforts, such as those of our group, that number continues to grow.
  
The impacts to mental and physical health of separating indigenous peoples from their language, culture, and land are well-documented. Language and culture revitalization efforts provide paths by which to address the health, socio-economic, and ecological impacts of colonization.
 
**Our Approach**

Our project seeks to complement and amplify existing Gayogohó:nǫˀ (Cayuga) language revitalization efforts from within Gayogohó:nǫˀ ancestral lands by supporting educational programs and access to language resources, and increasing opportunities to hear and see the Gayogohó:nǫˀ language in public spaces. Through this work of tangibly teaching and using the Gayogohó:nǫˀ language in the place it developed, and by creating opportunities for dialogue around difficult topics such as colonization, we hope to increase understanding of the history and current status of Gayogohó:nǫˀ people, language, and culture. A key part of our work lies in providing support for Gayogohó:nǫˀ people and others working to revitalize the Gayogohó:nǫˀ language. Through our work, we hope to both explore and spread awareness of ways in which Gayogohó:nǫˀ and other Hodinohsó:nih languages and cultures are connected to the land of the Finger Lakes and explore ways in which all people might cultivate healthy relationships with the land.
 
**Our Team**

**Stephen Henhawk** – Gayogohó:nǫˀ, otahyǫ́:ni: (Wolf clan) Historian and first-language speaker. Stephen grew up in a traditional Gayogohó:nǫˀ household at Ohswé:gęˀ (Six Nations of the Grand River reserve in Canada). Stephen is our language teacher, historian and conveyer of the inspiration behind the Gayogohó:nǫˀ Language Project. The inspiration itself comes from the wisdom and strength of all Gayogohó:nǫˀ people who came before who maintained language and culture and ties to the land against much adversity.
  
**Michelle Seneca**, project leader – Gayogohó:nǫˀ, genyahdę: (Turtle clan). Grew up on the Seneca Cattaraugus reservation in Western New York and lived for a number of years in the Gayogohó:nǫˀ community at the north end of Cayuga Lake. She currently resides in Ithaca. Michelle holds our whole project together.
  
**Jim Wikel,** advisory board member - Jim Wikel ni gya:soh (I am called). From Onǫdowáˀga:ˀ Gayogo̲hó:nǫˀ neh:ni Gahnawiyóˀgeh (Seneca-Cayuga Nation of Oklahoma). Currently resides in Salem, OR. Began learning the language in 2015 in Oklahoma. Worked in the behavioral health/addiction field since 2008. Worked with Native clients, encouraged them to learn their own languages. Recovery means getting back something you thought was lost. Ogwa:węh means "It belongs to us." I am reclaiming what belongs to us. 
  
**Noah Mark**, advisory board member – has been a student of Gayogo̱hó:nǫʼ nigawęnó:dę’ since June, 2021. The mission of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫʼ Learning Project resonates with him as someone who was born and raised on traditionally held Hodihnohso:nih lands and as a descendent of Japanese immigrants who underwent intergenerational loss of language and culture. His past work experience includes grassroots organizing and fundraising on environmental issues and sexual assault prevention, vegetable farming, and research on emerging contaminants. Currently, he serves as technical director of a citizen science-based nonprofit called the Community Science Institute. 
  
**Josephine Martell**, advisory board member –  has lived on Gayogohó:nǫˀ lands for the past ten years and is of French, Scottish, and German heritage. Josephine is a social scientist who studies how message framing and language affects decision making and behavior, and leads the Office of Research Development at Cornell University in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She has over 20 years of experience in policy, research, advocacy, and grant writing. Josephine is a passionate mother of three children and an avid trail runner.
  
**Karen Melamed Smith**, advisory board member – has lived on Gayogohó:nǫˀ land for forty years. With a background in music, philosophy and education, she served as the education director of the Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA) from 1998-2018 and continues to teach piano and to perform with Music’s Recreation. Of Eastern European Jewish heritage, she has always wondered about the interrelationships of heredity, culture and place and feels honored to learn and support the language that is rooted here.

**Shirley Brown,** advisory board member
  
 
**Contact information** 

[gayogohono.learning.project@gmail.com](mailto:gayogohono.learning.project@gmail.com) 
   

Gayogohó:no’ Learning Project

To flow reciprocity to help protect and regenerate the essential bio-cultural ways of Original Nations and Sacred Territories

Your donation to the Fountain's Flow Fund help us to support our ongoing activities and initiatives. 

*We look forward to sharing our continuing work with you! To be sure to stay up to date, please check the box for email collection to give us permission to add you to our mailing list!*

Flow Funds

We are women from around the planet, dedicated to spreading truth of our divine kinship to our Divine Mother. 

We members of the Founding Circle welcome You to our Global Movement: Divine Mothers Love, Unifying Humanity. This movement is very swiftly and emergently arising from our loving and wisely deepening hearts/souls in response to the desperate need for a new direction and leadership for our human family. It is our intention that loving compassion, kindness, and generosity of spirit envelope our Earth, all Beings, and our Human Family so that Healing and Awakening can spontaneously and easily take place more and more and more. . .

Please read our Mission, Vision & Purpose again to fully immerse yourself and join us:

MISSION

Divine Mothers Love in all its magnificence, power, beauty, and glory is moving us, compelling women to lead now. Our voices and actions burst forth in an Ocean of Great Compassion such that nothing can resist this unfettered and infinite Love. From the Womb of Creation, we are here to inspire!  We are here to lead! We are here to guide our human family into unity, respect, healing, and love! We are birthing the creation of our new civilization. Love in action, everywhere, all at once…

VISION

Women everywhere envision a flourishing Planet where Love’s joy, beauty, peace, harmony and celebration abound.  We cherish and treasure our Mother Earth in all her majesty.  We cherish and treasure humanity in the truth of our divinity: ancient and sovereign - imperishable and everlasting.  We thrive in enlightening partnership with all of creation and the expanding cosmos.

PURPOSE

Women are taking our riteful place bringing love into action to birth a world where violence and war no longer exist.  To the drumbeat of all our loving hearts, we take the helm of transcendent leadership – cultivating integrity and trust to restore balance in our families, our communities, and with Mother Earth.  In responsibility to our human evolution and devotion to the generations ahead of us and behind us, we establish sovereign peace beginning now.

Divine Mothers Love

The Fountain aims to envision, create and restore a global economy of reciprocity, inspired by nature and the sacred.

Mission, Vision, and Values

Our Vision
We envision a restored global economy of reciprocity inspired by Nature and the Sacred in which all beings thrive.

Mission 
Our mission is to enable collaborative action that bridges the original principles of ancient cultures into a new vision for sacred economics in service to sacred territories.

Our Values
The Fountain’s work is inspired and guided by the original principles including: Reciprocity | Respect | Responsibility | Relationship

What Is The Fountain ?

Imagine a global economic system truly aligned with care for the earth and the whole of life for the benefit of current and future generations, guided by the ancestral wisdom and technologies of cultures that have lived this way for the larger course of human history. This is the work of The Fountain.

There is growing awareness of the extraordinary wisdom originally developed and perennially sustained by the world’s ancestral indigenous peoples – peoples whose cultural genesis can be traced back to the original times. 

It is in the return to the sacred origins and principles of this ancestral wisdom – calling for the unification of all peoples with the earth – that a return to balance and sustainability is to be found. The vision of The Fountain, and the extraordinary sacredness of its origin and seed, is of partnership between sharing original teachings, conscious collaboration, and being in action to activate sacred economics and sacred territories.

Through the deep understanding, experience and relationships contained in its ecosystem, The Fountain exists to catalyse this journey to reconnection and ultimately to unification through its vision, mission, and values. 

The path forward is to restore a global economy of reciprocity inspired by nature and the sacred – bringing together conscious investors, philanthropists, whole system entrepreneurs, leaders on transformational economics and finance and holders of indigenous ecological knowledge. A multi-disciplinary, intercultural exchange united in service to the earth and future generations.

Our current programs
Mother Earth Delegation of United Original Nations 
Gathering of elders from around the globe working in unity and in service to Mother Earth

Sacred Land Trusts for Sacred Territories 
Protection of sacred sites of key importance for Earth’s preservation

Houses of Original Thought
Restoring esoteric knowledge of Mother Earth

Pagamentos
Ancient forms of ritual and specially prepared offerings that restore and harmonize Earth’s energies

Original Principles Alignment Protocol
Educating business leaders on original wisdom and ways of being

The Fountain Flow Fund 
Flexibly flowing resources to where they are urgently needed especially to original nations and their associated programs

*\~ \~ \~ \~ \~*

*PS - We look forward to sharing our continuing work with you! To be sure to stay up to date, please check the box for email collection to give us permission to add you to our mailing list!*

The Fountain For The Natural Order Of Our Existence

Providing strategic legal response to protect human rights and defend freedoms

Chapter Four Uganda is an independent a non-profit organisation working to defend civil liberties and promote human rights for all. 

Established in 2013, the organisation works in the courts, legislature and communities to provide bold and innovative legal response through strategic and public interest litigation, first line legal representation, human rights research and documentation, legislative and strategic advocacy, and general counsel support. We work with human rights defenders, pro-democracy actors and civil society organisations - with keen focus on the most vulnerable, underrepresented, and discriminated sections of the society. 

Over the past decade, Chapter Four has grown into a dependable source of integrity, purposeful public interest, and an impartial advocate for justice for all no matter their world view, social, political leaning, or sexual orientation/gender identity. 

Chapter Four Uganda

We develop community-led, circular solutions to end plastic pollution in remote coastal areas, grounded in local heritage.

We are an East African circular economy movement that in 2018 built the world’s first 100% recycled plastic sailing dhow.  Built from 10 tonnes of beach plastic, it was covered in 30,000 pieces of discarded flipflops collected from Kenyas beaches, hence its name 'The Flipflopi'. 

We employ a “full-systems” approach to beating plastic pollution through 

(1) education and awareness campaigns, 

(2) waste-plastic innovation rooted in heritage, and 

(3) influencing legislative change to ban single-use plastics. 

Over the course of three expeditions, the Flipflopi sailing boat has proved to be an exceptional campaign tool to catalyse engagement and action all three of the above focus areas. Watch our latest video, "[Stubborn Optimism - A Plastic Revolution" 
](https://youtu.be/RjVd7RR\_vPs?si=5XrC37OrODfvgnZJ)The 2019 Lamu to Zanzibar expedition, conducted in partnership with UN Environment, brought international media attention - 890 million people saw our message, we hosted the presidents and government ministers on the boat, and played a central role in national plastic bag bans that came into effect in both Kenya and Tanzania shortly after our campaign.

In 2020 Flipflopi Co-founder was awarded Kenya’s highest civilian honour for his contribution to preserving Kenya's Swahili culture and his environmental campaigning.  

In 2022, Flipflopi was awarded the FCDO’s prestigious SMEP Grant to tackle marine ecosystem health challenges which led to the creation of an innovative community-centered programme that is ‘closing the loop’ on waste plastic in the Lamu Archipelago (on the coast of northern Kenya) by combining indigenous knowledge of boatbuilding with modern innovation.  In a 24 month perirod we have collected 288 tonnes of plastic from the enviroment within the Lamu region. 

In 2022 we set up a Heritage Boat Building centre that runs pioneering classes teaching Dhow building and traditional craftsmanship to mixed gender classes of young people from Lamu County.  Students on these 12 week courses have built everything from ornately carved traditional Lamu chairs to Swahili Dhows – all from recycled plastic lumber instead of wood.  

In 2023, The Flipflopi team met UK Monarch King Charles whilst on a visit to Kenya, presenting him with an elegant traditional Swahili throne made entirely from recycled beach plastic.  It made headlines around the world. 

To date Flipflopi activity has principally taken place within Kenya, and to a lesser extent, in neighbouring countries Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.  In 2025 we are turning our attention to globally scaling the many valuable lessons we have learned about how to create a circular economy for plastic waste.

In 2025 we begin our most ambitious campaign yet – first we will construct a 120 tonne, 24 metre long traditional Lamu Dhow (again, built entirely from recycled plastic) and then we embark on a global expedition that will convene the action we need globally to see a WORLD WITHOUT SINGLE USE PLASTIC. 

The Flipflopi Project

Treesistance supports groups of Indigenous forest guardians protect their territories,  old growth rainforest and all life within.

Treesistance is a dynamic movement and impact blueprint dedicated to safeguarding the Amazon and forests worldwide. Their approach merges Indigenous knowledge with cutting-edge science to create disruptive models that deliver tangible environmental impact. By forming groups of Indigenous Forest `Guardians, using GPS technology and implementing strategies to halt deforestation , they pioneer forest crime prevention. Empowering Indigenous communities to protect their lands safely and effectively.

The Treesistance Forest Guardian Fund

Supporting Iya Tahirah ensures her wisdom, resilience, and sacred legacy continue to uplift future generations.

Honor the Elders recognizes Iya Tahirah Abubakr as an exemplary Elder and Wisdomkeeper and is pleased to be raising funds to provide a gift in recognition of her lifelong service to her community. We believe that when we provide needed support to Elders and wisdomkeepers, the whole community benefits. 

Through the Grandmother Project and Honor the Elders, we provide services and gifts to exemplary Elders and wisdomkeepers whose work is aligned with the purpose of Nourishing Futures, who have lived a life of service to their communities, and whose life circumstances require financial resources to help cover the basic costs of food, shelter, health care, and medicine. All funds raised will be re-gifted to Iya Tahirah Abubakr, in honor of her life of service.

**Who is Iya Tahirah?**

Iya Tahirah AbuBakr, born River Lee Adams, was raised in Pocahontas, Mississippi as the eldest of seven children in a family of sharecroppers who turned hardship into strength and purpose. At seventeen, she left Mississippi for New Orleans, and in her early twenties moved to New York City, where her community activism within the Black Liberation Movement laid the foundation for a lifelong path of service as a social worker and community leader.

Her spiritual journey led to initiation into **Ifa** by **Ifa Priestess Yemọja**, grounding her in the ancestral Yoruba traditions of West Africa. A graduate of Social and Cultural Anthropology from IU Indianapolis, and trained in shamanism with **Malidoma Somé**, she emerged as Iya Tahirah AbuBakr—medicine woman, diviner, shamanic practitioner, and founder and co-founder of the St. Croix Council of Elders.

Iya Tahirah has dedicated her life to the service of humanity, with a deep commitment to nurturing youth and leaving the Earth better than she found it. Supporting Iya Tahirah ensures her wisdom, resilience, and sacred legacy continue to uplift future generations.

 **What is going on with her health?**

On Wednesday, November 26, 2025, Iya Tahirah was found alone in her home and rushed to the hospital, having suffered physical injury from a fall that was a result of an [ischemic stroke.](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24208-ischemic-stroke-clots) 

At first, the prognosis was dark (she only had days to live). We believe now that this was a combination of her condition (we estimate 36 hours between the stroke and when she was found), and the doctor’s inability to see beyond the facts (age, race) and into the truth. Iya Tahirah has shown that she is cogent, lucid, and generally aware of what is going on. She has begun the long walk to recovery and she needs our support, now. 

If you want to know more about Iya's current condition, you can [go here.](https://www.gofundme.com/f/supporting-iya-tahirahs-healing-journey)

Iya Tahirah Abubakr, Honor the Elders Exemplary Elder

We serve pottery communities by developing conditions for their well-being, agency and autonomy. 

Pottery making tradition in Mexico is a millenary way of being in the world. Innovando la Tradición has worked alongside traditional potters only for twenty years. In the midst of its extinction, our goal is to make sure they have the conditions to continue another four thousand years by strengthening capacities in indigenous potters to challenge the future by creating bridges to the modern economy, developing skills, discover new narratives of indigenous identity, and making an archive of their knowledge.

The question we want to answer is: How can indigenous knowledge become a source of answers to the most pressing problems of our civilization?

Our mission is structured in what we call In Mexico, milpa. The milpa refers to an ancient Mesoamerican intercropping method of planting corn, squash, and beans together, as well as a variety of chiles and quelites, or young, edible greens. The way these species interact creates a balanced ecosystem that utilizes available resources—water, light, and soil—and produces a highly nutritious diet.

The Milpa of Innovating Tradition is made up of Four Movements, four guiding principles, four interconnected and complementary areas, not unlike the Mesoamerican milpas, that offer a comprehensive solution to the decline of traditional pottery and of the know-how of the communities.

Each Movement contains ideas like seeds that grow into pilot projects, then long-term projects.

MAIZE | LEARNING COMMUNITY OF POTTERS

An educational space where potters share their knowledge and develop skills in new fields of interest. This space is all about trust, collaboration, fellowship, and harmony, where we all have something to teach and something to learn.

The future vision of this movement is to create a bachellors degree and the University of the Earth.

BEANS | HOUSES OF CLAY

Our goal is to transform the dominant narratives, starting local, through a network of spaces (Houses of Knowledge) focused on pottery, hand-made objects, and the know-how of the villages. These spaces for workshops, sales, and exhibitions also allow potters, designers, researchers, educators, and enthusiasts to come together.

The future vision is to create an Indigenous Art Center in the city of Oaxaca where indigenous knowledge is showcase and strengthen, where artisans can develop economical autonomy, that has beautiful accomodation to host an international residency program and a gorgeous open kitchen to promote local gastronomy. This infrastructure will be connected to a series of spaces in the villages  to revitalize the learning process and social recognition.

The Bachellors degree and the University will be hosted in this network of spaces.

SQUASH | KNOWLEDGE IS HANDMADE

We document and share how we do what we do—our tools, processes, and principles—, as well as the artisans’ know-how, thereby fostering more collaborative projects and companies based on solidarity.

The future vision for this program is to have an archive of materials in the shape of books, collections, technical manuals, documentary films and digital material to inspire new generations and preserve old techniques from the wise potters that hold precious secrets in their fingers and memories.

CHILI | COOPERATIVA 1050°

As a social and cooperative enterprise, we take pottery to all corners of the world, opening new paths for more people to touch its deep wisdom and beauty. With a solidarity economy we achieve deep transformations in families of potters, supported by fair, stable and dignified economies. At the moment our cooperative integrates 15 women leaders from 7 villages and 3 states: oaxaca, puebla and chiapas.

Our future vision for the cooperative is to create an example of economía solidaria within capitalism that does not puts money at the center, but relationships.

We dream of having a cooperative integrated by all the pottery villages of Southeast region of Mexico.

It is funded by the Valle de Huajes Network, a group of more than 70 individuals in Mexico and the US.

Innovando la Tradición

Improving health in the Peruvian Andes by training and empowering indigenous women as community health workers. 

Sacred Valley Health is a community-based, public health nonprofit that partners with vibrant, indigenous communities in the Andes of Peru. **Our core purpose is improving  health and well-being in underserved, marginalized communities through a community health worker program that empowers local women with education, resources, professional development, and economic opportunities.** 

Sacred Valley Health works with **marginalized partner communities to increase access to health knowledge and health care while \***providing vocational training to women and elevating them as leaders within their communities\*.\*\* It is often the case in indigenous communities, like SVH’s partner communities in Peru, that older women viewed as community elders are a respected voice when it comes to dictating community norms. ​​Our vision is that by empowering cohorts of women with health education and vocational training and by providing culturally relevant health information and care to the vibrant, indigenous partner communities we partner with, we can help people living in these communities to experience greater health and well-being.  

Since its inception in 2012, Sacred Valley Health has trained more than 100 women as health workers, launched a very successful train-the-trainer program, and developed a customized, comprehensive health education curriculum for visual Quechua-speaking learners. Most importantly, Sacred Valley Health has become a trusted, reputable partner in the local health landscape - among community members, health officials, funders, and other nonprofits - by using a collaborative, participatory approach in their work.

Sacred Valley Health

Empowering remote conflict affected communities by removing barriers to learning and providing culturally relevant education.

**After the Earthquake and Airstrikes – Education Is Their Lifeline**

As Indigenous communities in Myanmar and Thailand prepare to welcome the traditional New Year Water Festival, many children are doing so after surviving both a devastating **earthquake** and **relentless military attacks**. For them, this should be a time of renewal, joy, and cultural celebration—but instead, they face displacement, fear, and extreme hardship.

**Why Your Support Matters**

These children have already endured unimaginable suffering. Their homes, schools, and communities have been destroyed. Yet, despite everything, they continue to dream of a future where they can learn, play, and grow in safety. Through our grassroots network, we

provide essential aid, including:

-  **Emergency shelter & food for displaced familie**
-  **Safe spaces for children to learn & heal**
-  **Trauma-informed education & psychosocial support**
-  **Urgent medical care & basic necessities**

**Your Donation Makes an Immediate Impact**

Unlike large international organizations, our community-led approach ensures that **100% of donations go directly to those in need**. We can quickly distribute support to families onthe ground, reaching the most vulnerable children when they need it most.

**Stand With Them Today**

As they enter a new year marked by both resilience and struggle, let’s show them they are not alone. Your generosity can bring hope, stability, and a sense of normalcy back into their lives.

**CRED's Mission**

CRED's mission is to provide Indigenous rural and minority children with access to quality education, promote community awareness of its value, remove financial barriers, improve health and sanitation, and support teachers with training, resources, and funding to strengthen learning outcomes.

**The Need**

Children, teachers, schools, and communities face challenges from political instability, conflict, and poverty. Schools struggle with limited resources, safety issues, and lack of support, while children and teachers face disrupted learning, unsafe conditions, and economic hardship.

**The Solution**

CRED provides community-driven, culturally relevant education, providing resources, teacher training, and safe learning spaces. By improving access, health, and resilience, RISE empowers communities to overcome barriers and create stable, quality education for Indigenous children.

**Our Impact**

Last year alone, 398,341 Students received learning materials. 23,033 Teachers were trained and provided stipends. 4,325 Schools leadership' capacity developed. 35,384 Community Members participated in education events. And much much more!

Centre for Rural Education Development

NDN Collective is an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous power.

DEFEND
We must continue to defend our people, communities, and nations against negative resource extraction that poisons our people, pollutes our water, destroys our land, contributes to climate change and violates our human rights. Doing this through organizing our communities, making our voice heard, and utilizing a wide variety of tactics is imperative in shifting the political and financial systems that are impacting our communities.

DEVELOP
We must continue to develop Indigenous communities in a regenerative and sustainable manner based on our values and connection to land, culture and identity. We need to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. We are doing this through regenerative community development, renewable energy investments and social enterprise development.

DECOLONIZE
We must continue to decolonize our minds, communities, and sovereign nations. The decolonization of our communities and people is directly related to our ability to prosper. Through the revitalization of our Indigenous ceremonies, culture, languages and life ways we will continue to strengthen our identity, and break free from the oppressive systems that disconnect us from achieving the healing growth and connection to spirit that is integral for us as Indigenous people.

NDN Collective 

Flower Hill Institute is a Native-owned, community-directed nonprofit. 

Flower Hill Institute is a Native-owned, community-directed nonprofit. Our objectives include preserving and enhancing cultural resources, preparing youth to inherit leadership, improving economic self-sufficiency, agriculture, food sovereignty and security, and improving outcomes to climate change.

Flower Hill Institute

350.org works with people across the world to oppose those wrecking our climate and to fight for a sustainable future.

350.org’s global teams have been able to secure highly important victories, including, but not limited to the following (page numbers are associated with the [FY23 Annual Report](https://350.org/annual-report/#financial)):

**Empowering the Climate Movement:**

- **Supported 490 network groups** globally, underlining the organization's commitment to nurturing a vibrant climate movement community (Page 7).
- **Mobilized 94,701 people** in climate actions and events, showcasing the massive scale of collaborative effort and community engagement (Page 7).
- **Trained 7,709 activists**, demonstrating 350's dedication to empowering individuals within the movement through education and resources (Page 7).

**#StopEACOP Campaign** (Africa):

- Successfully led to **significant financial withdrawals** from the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, with **7 additional banks and 8 insurers** withdrawing support, marking a critical victory achieved in collaboration with over **260 civil society organizations** (Page 11).

**Türkiye Coal Divestment** (Asia & Türkiye):
- Influenced **QNB Finansbank, The Turkish Economy Bank, and Şekerbank** to commit to divesting from coal, a result of strategic advocacy and partnership with local organizations (Page 16).

**Power Shift in Germany** (Europe):
- Achieved the formal severance of **26 municipal utilities** from the gas lobby group "Zukunft Gas", highlighting the strength of collective action and grassroots mobilization (Page 22).

**Vaca Muerta Pipeline Funding Halted** (Latin America):
- Blocked financing from the Brazilian Development Bank for the Vaca Muerta gas pipeline expansion in Argentina, a testament to 350's effective advocacy and partnership with regional environmental groups (Page 26).

**Community Engagement and Legal Wins in the Amazon Basin** (Latin America):
- Successfully suspended public hearings and environmental licenses for gas exploration activities in the Azulão Field, showcasing the power of legal action and community mobilization in collaboration with the Amazon Coalition (Page 26).

**Global Advocacy and Solidarity at COP27**:

- In Egypt, during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), 350 significantly amplified the call for "Loss and Damage" to be recognized as a crucial agenda item. This was done in solidarity with global partners, linking environmental and human rights struggles and showcasing the critical role of grassroots activism from Pacific communities to African nations in shaping international climate policy (Page 9).

**Promotion of Community-Centered Renewable Energy**:
- Across Africa, with a spotlight on Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo, 350 advanced community-centered renewable energy systems. They emphasized equitable access and justice through the release of a renewable energy report on Africa Day. In collaboration with local partners, such as 350 G-ROC in Ghana, they advocated for sustainable energy solutions, showcasing a direct engagement with communities facing energy poverty and championing renewable alternatives (Pages 12, 14).

**Advocacy for Fracking Ban in Colombia**:
- In Colombia, 350's advocacy efforts contributed to the potential establishment of the first fracking ban in the Global South. This was achieved through collaboration with local organizations like the Corporación Regional Yariguíes (CRY), emphasizing the need for a just transition away from fossil fuels towards sustainable energy practices. Their work included educating hundreds on the impacts of fracking, demonstrating a deeply localized approach to global environmental advocacy (Page 27).

**Building and Strengthening Global Movements for Climate Action**:
- From the United States to Indonesia, 350 nurtured the development of global social movements to tackle climate change. They empowered communities through collaborations with diverse groups, including Indigenous communities in the Amazon Basin and youth activists in Asia. By sharing resources, offering training, and facilitating cross-regional partnerships, 350 highlighted the collective strength and diversity of the climate movement (Pages 3-4, 19, 26).

**Raising Awareness and Mobilizing Support for Renewable Energy**:
- Through targeted initiatives in Asia, specifically in Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Türkiye, 350 led efforts to raise awareness and mobilize support for the transition to renewable energy. They supported local communities in adopting solar and micro-hydro power solutions, as seen in the Climate Rangers Community's efforts in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and the Green New Deal initiative in Bangladesh. These campaigns underscored the importance of transitioning away from fossil fuels through local action and international solidarity (Pages 18, 19, 16).

350org

Providing transformative education to strengthen the movement for Palestinian rights
 

Makan was founded in 2015 by Tamara Ben-Halim and Dr. Tareq Baconi to nurture and amplify the voices of human rights advocates, drive a rights-based narrative forward and ultimately help change the mainstream discussion on Palestine/Israel to one that upholds freedom, justice, and dignity. Today, Makan equips students, grassroots leaders, and organisations within the ecosystem of Palestinian rights and social justice with the tools, knowledge and confidence they need to transform the existing narrative on Palestine/Israel in Britain and beyond, and to advocate for human rights. We connect people to one another, facilitate spaces for learning and exchange, and build community in order to strengthen the ecosystem around us. To date, Makan has: - Supported over 10,000 people globally through our online talks and events  - Directly built the capacities of over 2,900 human rights supporters in Britain & Ireland, Palestine, Europe and the US through our intensive educational training programme - Reached hundreds of thousands of people through our educational content on social media - Become a critical educational resource at the forefront of the ecosystem on Palestine/Israel, and built an excellent reputation for our credibility, our rigorous content & workshops, and our collaborative nature as an organisation.

Makan Rights 

We connect and support communities for regenerating local ecosystems and societies worldwide. We need help to continue our work!

Global Ecovillage Network connects communities and facilitates spreading of ecovillage-based approaches for environmental and social restoration, locally worldwide and globally. We link existing initiatives for mutual support and sharing best practices; we support new ecovillages and provide education and capacity building; we engage in post-disaster regions for community-led rebuilding and work with local and regional authorities; we foster fundamental behaviour shifts in community for systemic change.
GEN International connects 6000 grass-root communities in 114 countries, as well as builds connections with NGOs, academia and  policy-makers to facilitate the global transition to a peaceful and resilient future for all. 


Global Ecovillage Network - International

Protecting the Amazon rainforest and our climate in solidarity with Indigenous peoples

Since 1996, Amazon Watch has defended the Amazon rainforest and our climate in solidarity with Indigenous peoples. Long-term, trusted partnerships with Indigenous peoples — the best stewards of the rainforest — are the foundation for Amazon Watch’s campaigns for climate justice, corporate accountability, and the permanent protection of the rainforest.

The Amazon is home to more than 511 distinct Indigenous peoples. As our planet’s largest tropical rainforest, it stabilizes our global climate and an immense amount of Earth’s biodiversity and flowing freshwater can be found there. This vital ecosystem and the Indigenous peoples who have stewarded it for centuries face grave threats from deforestation, resource extraction, land grabs, and destructive development projects. The Amazon is facing a tipping point and won't be able to sustain itself as a rainforest if we remain on our current path of destruction.

To move to a turning point, Amazon Watch is carrying out campaigns in partnership with Indigenous peoples to secure Indigenous rights to ancestral territories, halt oil drilling and mining in the biome, and mobilize solidarity funds directly to Amazonian peoples at their request. Their work combines on-the-ground legal, advocacy, and communications expertise and long-term trusted partnerships with Indigenous peoples and organizations.

🌳Amazon Watch’s Amazon Defenders Fund (ADF) provides direct solidarity funding to Amazonian peoples and organizations free of bureaucratic barriers. The ADF supports Indigenous-led initiatives including community organizing, women’s leadership, communal economies, protection of Earth Defenders at risk for resisting destructive development, and crisis response including to wildfires and oil spills. The ADF is built upon a multi-decade track record as a trusted partner among Indigenous nations. You can learn more at amazonwatch.org/get-involved/amazon-defenders-fund.

Amazon Watch

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We are a nonprofit, so instead of charging fees we rely on the generosity of donors like you.

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Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live, and let's change the way we treat each other.

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