MADRE's Mission, Human Rights Model, and History

Rights, Resources & Results for Women Worldwide

We know that the world has reached a tipping point in its ability to absorb the harmful impacts of unsustainable resource use, economic greed, and militarism. This planet-wide crisis is the defining issue of our time and a keen reminder that there are no single issues: global problems are interrelated and so are smart solutions.

MADRE is driven by a commitment to solutions. We use human rights to advance social, environmental, and economic justice, understanding that human rights are not a hierarchy, but an indivisible set of standards for all people to enjoy. MADRE's focus is on delivering results - meeting immediate, local needs and creating sustainable, long-term alternatives.

Over the past 24 years, MADRE has built a network of community-based women's organizations worldwide. This network encompasses thousands of women and families - in Sudan, Iraq, Nicaragua, Cuba, Haiti, Guatemala, Kenya, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Palestine and elsewhere - who are on the frontlines of our global crisis. Yet, as part of the MADRE network, they know that change is not only possible - it is already happening.

Through our programs in peace building, women's health/freedom from violence, and economic and environmental justice, MADRE researches and develops innovative social and political strategies that:

• deliver resources and support to women and families,
• use human rights advocacy to promote social justice,
• research and offer alternative solutions to educate and inspire people to action, and
• work for an equitable distribution of resources to sustain social change.

Since we began in 1983, MADRE has delivered over 22 million dollars worth of support to community-based women's organizations in Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, the Balkans, and the United States.

The MADRE Model of Human Rights in Action

As a human rights organization, MADRE does much more than document and condemn abuses. We work with women who are affected by violations to help them win justice and, ultimately, change the conditions that give rise to human rights abuses. And we challenge US policies that undermine human rights. Over the years, we have developed an internationally recognized model of human rights in action:

• Partnerships for Change:
  MADRE supports community development programs and training that enables women to play leadership roles in their families, communities, countries, and the international arena. This approach enables our sister organizations to meet immediate needs in their communities while developing long-term solutions to the crises they face.
• Humanitarian Aid:
  MADRE provides critical shipments of food, medicine, educational supplies, and other material aid to our sister organizations in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
• Human Rights Advocacy:
  While relief shipments enable our sister organizations to respond to immediate needs, MADRE's human rights advocacy program promotes long-term social change.
• Public Education:
  Based on the experiences of our sister organizations, MADRE educates its 23,000 members in the US to demand alternatives to destructive US policies.

MADRE's programs are informed by the following focus areas:

• War, Recovery, and Building Peace
• Women's Health, Sexual Rights, and Reproductive Rights
• Trade, Aid, and Economic Justice
• The Right to Food, Water, and Environmental Sustainability
• Indigenous Peoples' Rights and Resources
• Confronting Violence against Women and Children

History

MADRE was born out of a belief that together we can make a difference. In 1983 a group of women activists, poets, teachers, artists and health professionals traveled to Nicaragua to witness the impact of the US sponsored contra war. What they saw horrified and angered them. They met with women who showed them day care centers, schools and clinics that had been bombed by contras supported by the US government.

These women returned to the US with a mandate from the women of Nicaragua: to bring the stories of Nicaraguan women and children to the attention of the US public and mobilize people to demand a change in US government policy.

MADRE's Founding Director, Kathy Engel, and the women she brought together had a vision of a unique women-led, women-run international human rights organization, dedicated to informing people in the US about the effects of US policies on communities around the world. MADRE resolved to build real alternatives to war and violence by supporting the priorities of our sister organizations and linking them to the needs of women and families in the US through a people-to-people exchange of direct relief and understanding.