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Ending Gender Violence

Gender violence, including physical and sexual abuse, is widely used to intimidate, oppress, silence and subjugate girls, women, disabled and LGBTIQ people across the globe. It devastates those who are targeted and destroys the social fabric of families, communities and societies.

In short, gender violence is one of the most significant barriers to women, girls and LGBTIQ people accessing their human rights.

Together with our partners, we help people to heal from gender violence and become powerful advocates to end it. We build clinics and counseling centers. We equip women with tools to prevent abuse in war and disaster. And every day, we affirm that gender violence doesn’t have to be a fact of life.

How We Work

Grantmaking

We invest in the experience and leadership of women, girls and LGBTIQ people. We fund work that provides immediate protection and care and that shifts mindsets around gender violence.

Organizational Strengthening

We provide our partners and allies with training, tools and infrastructure to mobilize at the local and international levels and to take concrete steps to end gender violence.

Legal Advocacy

We facilitate our partners' efforts to document gender violence, and we enable them to present their demands before relevant decision-makers and change laws and policies.

How do we know when we've succeeded?
  • Our partners' work has transformed harmful social norms, attitudes and cultural practices.

  • Our partners have access to policy spaces from the local to global levels and leverage with decision-makers to change policies.

  • There is increased recognition of women's solutions to end gender violence and understanding that gender violence can be prevented.

  • Violence, stigma and discrimination are reduced.

Highlights of Our Work

Gender Persecution – Using International Law to End Gender-Based Violence

MADRE is leading global and grassroots efforts to end gender-based violence, and our work is gaining momentum in local communities and is being taken up by centers of power, including by the International Criminal Court and members of the UN Security Council. Learn more about how our focus on the crime of gender persecution can help strengthen justice for gender-based violence.

Afghan women workshop together
Iraq: Mobilizing Communities against Sexual Violence

In communities rebuilding from war and ISIS occupation, the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq confronts sexual violence head-on. They reach out to survivors and their families with aid and counseling, seek to change laws that discriminate against women and LGBTIQ people, offer safe passage to people under threat, and operate an underground network of shelters.

Colombia: Counseling and Healing Care

Taller de Vida, a community-based organization, provides care and mentorship to young women and girls who were recruited as child soldiers during Colombia's war. Many were sexually exploited and need support to heal. Taller de Vida offers workshops rooted in music, dance, theater and more to break through silence and stigma. Young survivors come to know that they are not alone, and they gain the confidence to speak out against the abuses they’ve experienced.

Your Support in Action

"I have a voice and I know my rights. It is important for women to know their rights, laws, how the political system operates, and how to defend their rights. As women, we are going to rise up and move forward."
How You Can Help

Care in Crisis for Women and Girls

project

Syrian women and girls are suffering widespread rape and forced marriages. They face the mass displacement, starvation and armed attacks threatening millions. In partnership with grassroots Syrian women's groups, MADRE is delivering urgent aid. And we are training women to document, denounce and eventually prosecute rape as a weapon of war.

Region: 
Middle East / Syria

Shelter Without Walls

project

Indigenous women on Nicaragua's North Atlantic coast face poverty, discrimination and violence. What’s more, these acts of violence are often met with impunity. MADRE works with a grassroots women's organization called Wangki Tangni. We work with communities to confront issues of violence and train women to document violations.

Region: 
Latin America and Carribean / Nicaragua

Freedom for All

project

Thousands of Haitians today face violence and discrimination because of their gender identity and sexual orientation. MADRE partners with grassroots Haitian women’s and LGBT groups, including FACSDIS and SEROvie, to create safe spaces to organize and to advance new protections against violence.

Region: 
Latin America and Carribean / Haiti
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