In July 2021, the City Council of Dumaguete (Negros Oriental, Philippines) approved a motion that would pave the way for the construction of a 174-hectare reclamation project. Various groups—scientists, environmentalists, fisherfolk, several youth and progressive…
READ MOREWhy anti-racist struggles are critical for our liberation
An interview with Phumi Mtetwa, Regional Director, JASS Southern Africa To mark 21 March, The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (also observed as Human Rights Day in South Africa), JASS sat down with Phumi…
A riddle: What is more powerful than power? As the oceans boil, and the hurricanes beat violently against our shores, and the air sweats with the heat of impending doom, and our fists protest the…
READ MORELearning virtually: the Honduran Feminist Alquimia School in the time of pandemic
To María, Daysi, Laura, Brenda, Paty and Carme, alchemist sisters COVID-19 has disrupted all our lives to levels that we would never have imagined. We traded shared coffee and conversation in our organizations’ safe spaces…
READ MOREOne Day, One Voice 2020: PEOPLE ARE THE SOLUTION! CELEBRATING MOVEMENT BUILDING IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
This year, we are proud to be celebrating the 10th year of JASS’ annual regional campaign One Day, One Voice (ODOV), which aims to unite the initiatives of women across Southeast Asia around the 16…
A few weeks ago, chief opposition leader, Lazarus Chakwera was appointed as the new president of Malawi, generating new expectations and renewed hope. Following the election, we asked our allies to reflect on the significance…
READ MOREStanding Up as a Feminist Activist in Cambodia is not Easy!
Like many women of my generation, when I was younger, I never asked myself why women and girls live under the control of men. Or why women have less value than men in all aspects…
“I now know how to use a tablet which is not a norm in Malawi because [many believe] tablets cannot and should not be used by a local woman like me,” says woman activist leader…
“When you’re an ‘activist’ you are labelled all sorts of things, [you are seen as someone] who is ‘rebellious’,” says long-time Zimbabwean student rights activist, Evernice Munando. Students across the globe are rising up and…
A Look at Positive Women’s Organising in Malawi, 2005 to 2014 It is hard to conceive the magnitude of what Malawian women activist leaders with whom JASS works and the hundreds of women they represent…
READ MOREAuthentic Movements need Authentic Efforts
In recent weeks, much global activism has focused on action towards justice for the over 200 Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram in April this year. Under the broad banner of ‘Bring Back Our Girls’,…
READ MORESearching for the ‘A-ha!’ Moments: A Chat with Pat Made
Fungai Machirori, founder of Her Zimbabwe, sat down with fellow feminist journalist, Pat Made at the JASS Southern Africa Strategic Planning & Review to explore the ins and outs of communications for feminist movement building…
For three days in Johannesburg, JASS has been asking the big questions for feminist movement building and activism in Southern Africa: where, what, who, why and how. It couldn’t come at a more pressing time…
READ MOREOn Women’s Agency & Feminist Alternatives in Southern Africa
I read Ngugi wa Thiongo’s The Trial of Dedani Kimathi years back when I was still in lower secondary school. The character that sticks with me most since that time is the woman political activist…
Mahatma Gandhi used to say, “What is obtained with violence can only be maintained with violence”. It is with violence that the power elite successfully kidnapped democracy in our country. As much as they have…
READ MOREFeminist Social Struggles in a Globalised World: What Malawi’s Women Have to Teach Us
Written by Dr Simukai Chigudu JASS’ work in Malawi has many lessons to teach about activating the energy women have and opening safe spaces for them to interrogate issues of power, organize collectively and demand…
READ MOREFanning the Flames of Feminist Activism in Zambia
Sometimes you just don’t know where things will end up. In 2009, JASS held a series of movement building institutes (MBIs) in Southern Africa that were attended by feminist activists in the region. These institutes…
READ MOREMovement Builders’ Blood, Sweat and Tears
The Philippines has a strong nationalist movement and I grew up in this context. Movements and movement building are not novel concepts for me. The Filipino counterpart of movement is kilusan; I learned this word…
“You know how they say it takes a village to raise a child. Well it takes many people to build a movement.” At least that’s what we re-discovered over the three days JASS Southern Africa…
READ MOREStep by Step: Honduran Feminists March for People’s Sovereignty
When life can only be half-lived, it’s hard to keep hope. When soldiers, churches, governments, death, crime and fear all conspire to choke off life like the heavy blow of the midday sun or a…
Twenty-six women – Liberian and their visitors – several small children and a few men are pressed into the round, mud-walled hut. The Liberians wear matching bright yellow lapas (cloth wrap) and white T-shirts with…
“For me, cancer is a rite of passage – from darkness to light, from sorrow to joy, from despair to hope, from confusion to enlightenment. Above all, from clinging to self-pride to warming up to…
READ MOREStill a Long Way to Go for Malaysian Women?
There is no need for a women’s rights movement in Malaysia. This recent pronouncement of Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has earned the ire of feminists and social activists in Malaysia. Ironically, Prime Minister…
READ MOREMalawi: 10 things we would write about if we had the time
After a whirlwind of activity over roughly 14 days, we leave Malawi bone-tired but also excited about the depth and breadth of JASS’ work, our partnerships with MANERELA+ and women leaders from a wide spectrum…
READ MOREOne Step Forward: Filipino Women Protest against the New Anti-Cybercrime Law
Young women activists are posting their comments on the “freedom wall” during a protest action in Manila. The women’s movement in the Philippines, along with social movements that have been actively campaigning to repeal the new anti-cybercrime…
The dusty roads twist and turn. The setting sun signals the end of another day. The roads are chock full of mini busses ferrying weary workers home, street side sellers with tomatoes, ground nuts, sweet…
Musasa-JASS Wellbeing Circle in Zimbabwe. What makes a “bad woman”? Does she laugh too loudly or speak out of turn, drink too hard or dance all the time, have too much sex or no sex…
I love you not for your skin or how your hair done I love you not for your face or how you dress yourself I…
READ MOREWhat is Theory of Change (TOC) thinking and its added value for social change movements?
Within the past five years “theory of change” has been promoted and popularized by some of the world’s largest charitable foundations as a way for social change organizations to describe and evaluate their work. Look…
READ MOREA Brief Virtual Discussion on “NGO-isation” and its discontents
Hope Chigudu said: NGO-isation? I am not sure that I know what this term means but what I know is that there is a way in which we do things as NGOs that makes some…
READ MOREYoung Timorese Women Clear Up Confusion around LGBTI
How does a woman have sex with another woman? Can a transgender person change both their internal and external sexual organs? Why would a gay person marry someone of the opposite sex and have children…
READ MORETaking the Power Within and Crossing the Line: Reflections from JASS in Malawi
Hope Chigudu shares reflections about building women’s voice in Malawi and powerful stories of the ways in which grassroots women internalize the power framework and use it to challenge, resist and rebel against various forms…
READ MOREWise Advice for Activists from Ugandan Sex Workers
In time for International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, Hope Chigudu shares lessons learned from our sisters – activists, sex workers, feminists in Uganda… They hate writing. They like music, dance and…
READ MOREJASS SEA: Strengthening Solidarity and Sisterhood
JASS SEA women from Cambodia, East Timor, Malaysia, Philippines, and Indonesia are in Bandung, Indonesia for a regional political planning focused on strengthening and amplifying the alternative agendas produced by grassroots organizing and young feminist…
READ MORELive Radio Broadcast from Guatemala: Indigenous Women Exercising Their Right to Communicate
Right now I am privileged to be in Guatemala, as part of a team hosting this fabulous gathering of Indigenous women from all over Mesoamerica. Members of JASS and Sinergia Nój will be sharing our…
READ MORELearning to Live Under Dictatorship Without Accepting It
JASS Mesoamerica Team + Feminist in Resistance, Tegucigalpa, Honduras Ever since I can remember, my country has had democratic governments. That is, until now. We have always been told that democracy is the way to…
READ MOREHow Honduras’s Military Coup Gave Birth to Feminist Resistance
Adelay Carias is a Honduran feminist, researcher and writer, member of Feminists in Resistance and Las Petateras, and a contributor to the Center for International Policy’s Americas Program. I remember the coup d’état as if…
We’re in Detroit where more than 8000 grassroots and union organizers and activists of all stripes are debating, performing, strategizing. It’s an awesome multigenerational, multiracial, multi-everything mix with great vibes, smart politics and incredible T-shirts.…
When I think of JASS, the first thing that comes to mind is jazz music. Travis Jackson describes jazz music as “swinging, improvising, group interaction, developing an ‘individual voice’ and being ‘open’ to different musical…
Movement building in Rumphi, Tiwonge Gondwe’s village (Tiwonge has been part of JASS movement building in Southern Africa from 2007) As Sindi and I drove to Tiwonge’s town in Rumphi, northern Malawi, the light was…
At the 11th AWID International Forum on Women’s Rights and Development (November 14, 2008, in Cape Town), Geeta Misra painted the landscape for ‘The Power of Movements’ by suggesting five common elements amongst movements: a…
This time we moved from the workshop rooms to the communities. We are humbly learning from the experience of the those who live on the margin, from their perspective, from their perseverance, from their assertiveness,…
READ MOREGive Them Wings to Fly: Crossing the Line in Zambia
A dozen young women have converged on the Protea Hotel Cairo Road in Lusaka, as JASS (Just Associates) Southern Africa continues with the process of movement-building in Zambia. This part of the process is Leadership…
How can we truly engage all generations in our movements? We all have something valuable to offer, no matter what our age, and yet the ageism that often blocks us has not been explicitly addressed.…
READ MOREReflections on the Asia-Pacific NGO Forum on Beijing+15
by Mikas Matsuzawa Recently, I attended the Beijing+15 Asia Pacific NGO Forum held at the Miriam College here in the Philippines. It was my first time to participate in such an event, and my first…
“We must involve the bosses. We can not move without them. The bosses are our partners. Many of them are just victims of the system too. Most of the employers mean well. All we need…
Our lives are written on our bodies. Sisters! Women living with HIV who are leaders in the AIDS movement in their communities in Malawi came together for the start of a four-day workshop organized by…
Last week during the Sea Change Feminist Leadership School, participants created a mural of their “feminist ancestors,” women who have influences their lives as feminists and as women who cross the line. Many people brought…
Here we are in Panama — 33 women from Mexico, Central America and the US sharing and deepening our understanding of power and patriarchy with all the passion and creativity that our collective energy and…
We are almost there, making shape out of the confusion, enduring the pain, but loving each other as sisters, as we build and undo and rebuild, and we start seeing the shape of our Southern…
As the 8 women in the planning meeting go to their rooms to retire for the night , I reflect on the day’s proceedings. What have we achieved, what are we going to do, where…
READ MOREJASS Strategic Planning in Nairobi – Reflections
It has been a long and intense day, emotionally draining – but in the spirit of strategizing for Southern Africa Women’s Movement Building as JMBs, it was well worth it. The honesty that is not…
READ MOREReflections from JASS Southern Africa Planning
As I end the day, I would like to share my thoughts on the process on Planning for the Southern African Region.It has been an interesting process to be involved in, its shaping and defining…
READ MORELas Petateras at the Feminist Forum in Mexico City
JASS and Las Petateras are participating actively in the 11th Feminist Forum in Mexico City. The 6th Feminist Transformation Watch began with Radio Petatera, a radio program broadcast on Feminist International Radio Endeavor (FIRE).…
JASS and our Mesoamerican allies, Las Petateras, are attending the 11th Feminist Forum in Mexico City. Martha Sanchez, an indigenous leader from Mexico, carried the opening plenary with her outspoken and fiery commentary. The 6th…
READ MOREInternational Women’s Day: Still a long way to go!
Not yet Uhuru! March 8 was International Women’s Day. This is a day marked to ‘celebrate women and recognize the great role they play in the world’. Women are not just women they are mothers,…
From AWID, I have learnt on how to strengthen women’s organisations and to bring solidality on womens movement in our regions and our countries and documentation is important. To make sure that we are achieving…
By Wala The meeting was explosive with different ideas from diverse women across the globe. It was an enriching and eye opening experience. It also challenged me as a woman and as an activist to…
READ MORECrossing the line at the African Feminist Forum
Commonwealth Munyonyo, Kampala was this year graced with the presence of at least 150 African women feminists who got together to continue with the feminist revolution. Throughout the 4 days women from at least 29…
READ MOREFrom the Global Village and Opening Ceremony, AIDS 2008
I’m sharing this space with my friend and sister activist, Sindi Blose, from Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa. She won’t mention the fact that she did an extraordinary job of rocking the Global Village this…
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Develop Women leaders
JASS equips women activists with the skills and strategies they need to organize others and challenge violence and injustice in politics, in their communities, at work or at home. To date, we have trained more than 3,000 women to lead in social movements and bring fresh ideas and strategies back to their communities, where they mobilize many more.
Collective power is our greatest resource for upending inequality. Building inclusive networks across many divides not only leverages this power for social and political change, but also provides the basis for the collective safety women activists need when challenging the status quo. JASS has catalyzed 8 powerful cross-issue networks and fostered collaboration among 450+ organizations to work together from a feminist perspective.
JASS leverages international networks and allies to advocate and influence the thinking and decisions of governments, donors, institutions, NGOs, and the international human rights community. We have hosted over 100 convenings with academics, civil society organizations, and policy makers, centering the voices and specific concerns of women activists and human rights defenders, and advancing the support for gender equality and feminist movement strategies.
When women speak out and offer leadership, their voices are often dismissed or silenced. JASS turns up the volume on women’s voices by providing greater access to the tools and platforms women need to broadcast their truth and build support for their agendas. Through community radio, social media, hosted political dialogues, engagement with journalists and other communications strategies, we are making sure that women’s stories of change, innovations and feminist perspectives shape the narratives about what’s wrong, what’s needed, and what we are doing about it.
JASS is dedicated to bridging theory and practice and ensuring that the knowledge of grassroots women and activists helps to shape ideas, policies, and practice. We document insights from frontline change processes and multiply their reach and impact in the form of analyses, case studies, toolkits, and other practical resources. The knowledge we produce is widely used by activists and their allies and is influential in the field of international human rights and development.
