Dear Friend, Land grabs don’t just damage communities. Attacks on human rights don’t just threaten physical bodies. They, and other acts of violence our partners face, come with mental and emotional trauma. But you can accompany social movements as they heal minds, bodies, and Mother Earth — through Grassroots International’s Martín-Baró Initiative for Wellbeing and Human Rights. What Is the Martín-Baró Initiative?
The Martín-Baró Initiative (MBI) connects the struggle for human rights and transformative change with efforts to foster community health and wellbeing, particularly among those severely harmed by political repression, structural violence, and social injustice. Its focus is on centering healing justice1 in grassroots movement work.
In 2021, thanks to donors like you, MBI supported eleven movement organizations in Brazil, Guatemala, El Salvador, Haiti, Nigeria, and Palestine — and also in the United States. Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Center, a grassroots organization in Nigeria that links women’s rights and environmental justice, has used MBI grant funds for holistic healing. Our 2021 MBI grant supported their Building Women’s Resilience Through Trauma Healing Project, which promotes healing processes in three regions that have endured violence and conflict. The program has provided more than 40 women with counseling and storytelling sessions to heal shared trauma, as well as various social, mental, emotional, and physical health treatments. Our goal for 2022 is to continue to support all the groups we funded in 2021, and also add additional grantees, if we can raise enough resources. The Martín-Baró Initiative is supported entirely by contributions from people of conscience like you. Will you affirm your commitment to healing justice work, and make a bold contribution to support this vital and radically transformative aspect of social movement work? |
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P.S. Healing justice work is absolutely essential, and is also a profoundly under-resourced aspect of movement work. Please help us in our efforts to uplift and resource healing justice. [1] For more on healing justice, check out this blog on our website. |
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