Grassroots International

Location: Boston, MA USA
Website: www.grassrootsonline.org
Watch: Grassroots International YouTube

Mission:

For 40 years, Grassroots International has been a steadfast and responsive supporter of global movements. Their mission is to connect with global movements that defend land, territory, water, food, seeds, and the Earth, to address the root causes of injustice and oppression, and build alternative systems that nurture human rights, ecological justice, and collective liberation.

Channel Grants:

2005: Channel made a grant to support Grassroots International’s work with two Palestinian women’s organizations, the Rural Women’s Development Society (RWDS) and Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counseling (WCLAC) to increase women’s voting and candidacy for public office and to promote the legal and social status of women and girls.  RWDS organizes women into community clubs for them to gain leadership experience, participate in the process of development, and become active voters and candidates in municipal and parliamentary elections.  WCLAC advocates for women and conducts workshops on issues of family law, particularly sexual violence.  RWDS, based in the village of Jamaeen in the West Bank, created and operates a growing community library that, in addition to offering a learning space for families, provides a forum where women, often isolated, can come together, organize themselves and develop leadership skills. The Jamaeen women have gone on to run for village council and municipal posts.

Channel also made a grant in 2005 via Grassroots International to support the Via Campesina/International Peasant Movement for community-led, post-tsunami recovery and restoration of farming and fishing livelihoods in Indonesia and Sri Lanka.