Democracy

Calala Women´s Fund

A Decolonial Approach: Working with the Migrant Women Community

About the project

For 15 years, Calala has been supporting organizations composed by racialized and migrant women working for their rights. Women make up a large proportion of the migrant community in Spain. Despite this, their living conditions are often precarious, and they experience discrimination in their everyday lives. Many of the women are overqualified and work under poor working conditions as domestic helpers, in childcare, elderly care and agriculture. Often, their difficult situation under residence law makes them vulnerable to abuse and gender-specific violence, usually aggravated for belonging to LGBTIQ* community. For fear of consequences for their residence, many women do not report labor law violations and violence. Calala is a women's fund which supports those women organizations in Spain and Latin America, so they can be safe, sustainable, connected and impactful. With this support, organizations are in a stronger position to advocate for racialized and migrant women and the LGBTIQ* community, ensuring that that they are not discriminated against or exploited and that their rights are recognized and exercised and creating the conditions for migrants to report violence without fear of deportation. In order to break down discriminatory structures, Calala has also begun to reflect on its own working methods and structures within the organization. Decolonization and anti-racism are on the basis for the organization's actions, and it is a process to incorporate these values into the organizational structure and mentalities. To this end, Calala works closely with the partners it supports and is guided by them. This brings in valuable, previously marginalized perspectives, such as a focus on emotional healing and collective wisdom rather than economic rationality. Through this process of self-reflection and shared learning, Calala aims not only to revolutionize the way its women's fund works, but also to inspire actors in philanthropy to take the same step.

Learn more

For more information about Calala please visit the website of the organization.

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Many women with migration experience in Spain live in precarious circumstances. Their working conditions are often poor, and the lack of residence permits, or residence permits linked to employment contracts and structural discrimination, make it difficult for them to defend themselves against abuse and exploitation. People experiencing violence at the intersection of racism and gender or LGBTIQ*-phobia in Spain have organized themselves, support each other in their fight against discrimination, violence and exploitation and advocate for their rights to be implemented and respected. However, their grassroots movements are limited in resources and funding.

Calala supports women’s rights movements that campaign for the rights of racialized women and women from the migrant’s community, including the LGBTIQ* community. The aim is to ensure that they are able to legally reside in the country, escape precarious circumstances, have access to the public benefits to which they are entitled and can work in the professions they have learned. In addition, women should be empowered to defend themselves against exploitative working conditions and to report injustices and violence without having to fear that this will have consequences for their residence.

To achieve these goals, Calala offers resources for women's rights movements. These range from actual financial support and training materials for activists to generating awareness for the issues the movement is facing. Specifically, Calala has supported organizations in different parts of Spain that advocate for political participation, labor rights and health care for migrant women. Calala also works to connect the supported organizations with each other in order to learn from them and from each other and to increase their influence. The team supports in the organization of regional and national meetings every year to promote exchange between the grantees from the migrant women's rights movement.