Meet the 7 powerful stigma-busting projects and collectives inroads is partnering with our Bloom grants in 2023-24!

They are a diverse group of initiatives from fearless abortion justice grassroots groups dedicated to advancing stigma-free abortion access and dismantling stigma through artistic efforts, advocacy, research, and education in their communities. They were selected at the end of 2023 and will carry out their projects in 2024.

Zomba Centre for Creative Arts – Malawi

ZOCCA is a grassroots organization dedicated to using creative arts to promote social change and challenge societal norms. Based in Malawi, ZOCCA empowers artists and activists to address pressing issues, including reproductive rights and abortion stigma, through various art forms such as visual arts, theater, music, and storytelling. ZOCCA’s mission is to create a stigma-free society where reproductive choices, including abortion care, are respected and accessible to all individuals.

With the support of this grant, ZOCCA aims to challenge and reduce abortion stigma in their home city of Zomba and its surrounding communities. They plan to create an inclusive and supportive environment that encourages dialogue and understanding about abortion and empowers artists and performers to use their creative talents for social change and reproductive justice. Lastly, they want to contribute to building a more stigma-free society where abortion care is accessible and accepted as a valid reproductive choice.

Colectivo Algaraza – Mexico

The Algaraza Collective is made up of young people committed to the defense of human rights and restorative justice. Most of the members are people who were in prison, so they are a reference for the scope of restorative processes in social reintegration. They carry out advocacy and strategic support with people in conflict with criminal law, inside and outside of prison in the state of Morelos, Mexico, and we strengthen the path towards social justice through community work with girls, boys, and adolescents. Understanding social reintegration processes as a community process and not an individual one, where people in conflict with the law, communities, and victims are involved, from a human rights perspective. Its objective is to strengthen the path towards social and restorative justice through peacebuilding processes, which arise as a response to the structural violence they face and the urgent need to build restorative strategies in Morelos.

With the support of this grant, the collective plans to research the experiences around abortion of women and people with the capacity to gestate, in contexts of deprivation of liberty (prison) and people released from the criminal justice system (post-criminal) in Mexico, to reflect on the stigmas related to abortion in that area. In addition, they want to build a technical guide regarding abortion in confinement (prison) and post-criminal contexts as a result of the research work.

Colectiva Feminista Akelarre – El Salvador

Colectiva Feminista Akelarre is a collective of diverse women that emerged in 2015 in El Salvador. Their main objective is to defend, promote, disseminate, train, and conduct research on rights issues, emphasizing sexual and reproductive rights. Their work seeks to generate alternative spaces for training from a feminist perspective.

With the support of this grant, they plan to create a guide that is collectively built based on the good work practices of recent years, and that can be replicated in other communities. They also plan to host a camp, which will be a space of trust for those who participate, and it will serve as a first training and learning school specifically focused on breaking the stigma of abortion in El Salvador.

Tamboras Insurrectas Colectiva Feminista – Colombia

The collective Tamboras Insurrectas was born in 2015 in Cali, Colombia. Their work is developed through social mobilization in the streets, to the rhythm of music, performance, and dances, to express their indignation in the face of injustices, violence, and social indifference, as well as the joy of resisting. They also work in education and pedagogy with girls, adolescents, and young people about access to abortion and the elimination of the decriminalization of abortion in Colombia. They articulate their work with feminist collectives and organizations, and are part of the Causa Justa movement for the decriminalization of abortion in Colombia, which brings together organizations from all over the country. 

With the support of this grant, they plan to reach new groups of young people from the most vulnerable areas of Cali, as well as people who already have an interest in the sexual and reproductive rights of women and people with the capacity to gestate, providing learning spaces.

They will work to expand its space of influence, a task it will do delicately as they are aware of the large presence of anti-rights groups in the city where it is located. Little by little, they want to add new voices that publicly defend and validate the right to abortion. They will do this by inviting artists, women leaders, and people who influence their communities to participate in their activities, get informed, and embrace the cause of socially destigmatizing abortion.

Youth Advocacy Network Sri Lanka

Youth Advocacy Network Sri Lanka (YANSL) was founded in 2015 and it is a youth-led network working on sexual and reproductive health and rights, safe abortion, and gender-based violence related issues in Sri Lanka. YANSL mainly works on training, capacity building, awareness raising, and advocacy for SRHR and safe abortion.

With the support of this grant, they plan to create spaces to encourage conversations to bust abortion stigma with YANSL and other young people and aim to build a network of advocates and activists for safe abortion advocacy to strengthen the efforts of feminist activists working on safe abortion access in the country. 

Engage & Share – Côte d’Ivoire

Engage & Share is an organization that aims to promote sustainable and inclusive community engagement of young people in tackling the challenges facing women and girls. To achieve this, we train young people to be catalysts for sustainable change in their communities to address the challenges facing women and girls. Our mission is to promote the collective and individual commitment of young people to the development of their communities, by tackling the priority challenges that stand in the way of economic and social development and respect for human rights.

With the support of this grant, we would like to carry out a survey on the factors that lead to the stigmatization of safe abortion and their impact on women’s access to post-abortion care in Sinfra, to find out how many young women, including sex workers, have been refused access at health centers for abortion, and to present the results of the survey to Sinfra’s civil society organizations and health providers so that we can work together to tackle these challenges. We would also like to hold a focus group with women to determine the realities they experience in terms of access to post-abortion care and the stigma attached to safe abortion. We would also like to hold a values clarification workshop on safe abortion, facilitated by a consultant, and close with advocacy to the director of Sinfra General Hospital and his staff to present the women’s recommendations for reducing the stigma attached to safe abortion in health centers.

 Anonymous Group – Restricted Country 

This collective runs a feminist reproductive justice hotline in a country where access to safe,  legal, and stigma-free abortion is severely restricted. Due to the nature of their work, they wish to remain anonymous.

With the support of this grant, they will be able to keep the telephone line working 24 hours a day to keep sharing accurate and stigma-free abortion access information and supporting access to reproductive healthcare, with duly trained personnel and fair compensation to the team involved. They plan to increase the level of knowledge of this vital service through the implementation of a communication plan to facilitate access to stigma-free safe abortion in their communities and to partner with other feminist organizations to support the needs of people calling.

——————————————————

We received over 180 powerful applications! We thank every person and group who shared their vital work and supported the participatory community-led selection process 💚 We feel very grateful and inspired to be part of a community with so many passionate and fearless individuals and organizations determined to do vital work to build a world free of abortion stigma.

Unfortunately, we could only fund a small percentage of the projects proposed despite receiving many strong applications. We are committed to mobilizing resources to support the transformative abortion justice work inroads members are leading all over the world. We invite donors to support the abortion justice ecosystem!