The Collective Power and Solidarity grants are designed to support collaborative efforts between two or more groups, collectives, or grassroots organizations, sharing a mutual interest in an abortion stigma reduction focus area, combining their different strengths, skills, and expertise to work on a joint abortion stigma reduction project.

We are excited to share more about the diverse Grantee Partners collaborating to develop 3 powerful collaborative projects over two years.

Mano Diversa Bolivia & Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir Perú.

Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir Perú has 12 years of sustained work for the defense of sexual and reproductive rights from a Catholic, feminist, secular, and human rights theological approach. Since 2014, they have been working on the dissemination of the Therapeutic Abortion Protocol with health professionals and grassroots social organizations and developed a system to monitor the implementation of legal abortion in hospitals. With extensive experience in research, capacity-building processes, and political and social advocacy at the national and local level in the regions of Ayacucho, Cajamarca, Lima, and Ucayali.

MANODIVERSA, founded in 2010, is an organization dedicated to developing actions in favor of respect, the exercise of human rights, and Comprehensive care for the needs of all people of diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. It is the local first organization of people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities that is working to achieve diverse abortion services and eliminate the associated stigma of diverse abortion. Generating evidence and developing experience in integrating a diversity approach to abortion services for bisexual women, lesbians, trans men, and non-binary people.

Collaborative Project: Stigma-Free Diverse Abortion Project

This project aims to reduce abortion stigma and improve access to sexual and reproductive health services and abortion within the LGBTI+ community in Peru and Bolivia.

Key Activities:

1. Carry out a binational diagnosis on the situation of access to abortion services free of stigma, for trans, non-binary people, lesbian and bisexual women.

2. Hold 3 binational diagnostic events for 150 people.

3. Design and implement a binational communication campaign that reaches 250,000 of the general population, with the results of the binational diagnosis.

4. Carry out 10 virtual and face-to-face social advocacy actions implemented by feminist activists and LGBTI groups (5 per country) with 1,000 participants.

5. Preparation of a methodological proposal and audiovisual and virtual support materials for strengthening sessions. 

6. Carry out 8 physical or virtual capacity-building sessions for feminist activists, LGBTI groups, young people, and INROADS member organizations, on stigma and dignified care, DSDR, and diverse abortion.

The Philippine Safe Abortion Advocacy Network (PINSAN), Filipino Freethinkers (FF), & Lunas Collective.

The Philippine Safe Abortion Advocacy Network (PINSAN) works for the decriminalization of abortion in the Philippines. It is a network of human rights advocates, that connects local representatives from diverse women’s/human rights organizations, lawyers, and youth activists openly working on the issue of unsafe abortion as a public health concern and feminist issue. PINSAN advances the right to safe abortion by destigmatizing, demystifying, and decriminalizing abortion in the country. 

Lunas Collective was launched in March 2020 to respond to the growing number of cases of gender-based violence and unmet needs for contraceptives during the COVID-19 lockdown and quarantines being implemented across the Philippines. Since then, Lunas Collective has organized over 200 volunteers from across the country and has provided care and support for over 300 individuals through the helpline and online care events

Filipino Freethinkers (FF) represent freethinkers’ perspectives on issues that are important to them (reason, science, secularism) and represent freethinker and non-religious interests in human rights advocacy issues (feminism, abortion, reproductive rights, LGBTQI+ rights, education, democracy, freedom of speech, digital rights, etc.)

FF is a co-founder and member of PINSAN since 2015. Together with PINSAN and WGNRR, they have implemented several projects that aim to reduce abortion stigma such as Telling Truer Stories (an art anthology, contest, and workshop series for safe and legal abortion), Feminist Fridays (a series of feminist workshops for beginner advocates), Pasya music album (a music album for the decriminalization of abortion co-created by abortion storytellers).

Collaborative Project: Community of Care for the Decriminalization of Abortion in the Philippines Project

This project aims to equip and strengthen abortion rights advocates working for legal and stigma-free abortion by developing safe community care practices and spaces for abortion support in the Philippines.

Key Activities:

1. Inception Phase: Project planning and development of project monitoring and evaluation framework and the development of training modules and training needs analysis.

 2. Skills Building: Training participants with courses on digital security, women human rights defenders training, feminist care, and psychosocial support, paralegal counseling, among others. 

 3. Collective Care sessions: Self-care is a feminist political strategy to ensure the feminist movement sustainability. We will hold self-care workshops and feminist care workshops for advocates who want to support people seeking abortion services or care. 

4. Community Actions: The collaborators will take up space in key advocacy spaces and ensure that when we do, we are well-coordinated, strategic, and impactful. We will campaign during the Days of Actions. These actions will be designed to counter abortion stigma at various levels. We will also allocate small grants for community-based initiatives on countering abortion stigma activities within communities in Metro Manila and nearby provinces. 

5. Evaluation: Monitoring and evaluation activities will be implemented to assess the impact of the training sessions and advocacy and community interventions.