The ELAS Fund, which has been supporting the black women movement in Brazil since it was founded in 2000, will also be taking part in the black women March, which will take place in Brasilia on November 18. As well as supporting the AMNB - Articulation of black women Brasileiras in communication actions to publicize the March, the ELAS Fund has mobilized resources to support the organization of the women's movement to take part in the national march.
"We consider it important to support the March of black women because the struggle of black women is one of the oldest struggles of the Brazilian women's movement, a struggle of resistance and transformation that goes back to the times of slavery. It is one of the most important struggles because it touches on deep cultural problems in Brazilian society, which are racism and sexism, and because it shows how these two problems combine to promote the social, economic and political marginalization of a population that represents 25% of the Brazilian population," says K.K. Verdade, executive coordinator of the ELAS Fund.
"Since its inception, ELAS has thought of itself as an anti-racist institution, with governance in both the Founding Member Assemblies and the Deliberative and Fiscal Councils black women and white women. Since its inception, the Fund has also given priority to supporting black women as well as those who have little access to financial resources or are discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or social class. For the ELAS Fund, supporting the March of black women is an ethical and political principle. Our forms of support began last year: they have ranged from financial support for different groups and organizations of black women and now for the March itself, through the efforts made by myself and Executive Coordinator K.K. Verdade to get other institutions to support the March," says Amalia Fischer, general coordinator of the ELAS Fund.
Flores de Dan (Salvador),
Grupo Cidadania Feminina (Recife),
Geledés (São Paulo), Cunhã Coletivo Feminista (João Pessoa), Associação de Mulheres Quilombolas de Capoeiras (Natal),
Grupo Cultural Balé das Iyabás (Rio de Janeiro) and
Rádio Mulher (Rio de Janeiro) were some of the groups that invested resources donated by the ELAS Fund in their participation in the March black women, in mobilizing women for the action and in discussing their agendas. "The support was very important for us to help mobilize women for the March," says Sinara Rúbia, from Balé das Iyabás. With support from the ELAS Fund, the Association of Quilombola Women of Capoeiras (AMQC) promoted Black Women's Day in Capoeiras, calling local women to join the movement. "The funds were used to support the construction of the March, through the Black Women's Day that we held in the community, where we discussed the March," says Cidileide Bernardo, from AMQC.
Além do apoio aos grupos de mulheres, o Fun