2018 was a year of a lot of work for the ELAS Fund. Once again we reaffirm our commitment to the cause of women and our mission to promote and strengthen women´s leadership by mobilizing and investing resources in their initiatives.

81 projects were supported. These are initiatives of women who fight for the end violence, for the insertion of women in STEM, for care among activists, for diversity and for LGBT citizenship. Women from all regions of Brazil who fight for the rights of all of us with creative strategies in the most diverse territories.

Together, women are stronger and they transform their communities and the world. ELAS has promoted several Dialogues and meetings that were spaces of exchanges and partnerships for the more than 300 leaders:

• III Girls in STEM Dialogue, March 20 and 21

• Regional Meeting of Women´s Funds of Latin America, June 4 and 5

• International Seminar Philanthropy for Social Justice: Investing in Women and Social and Environmental Rights, June 6

• Meeting of the Alliance of Latin American Women Funds, Territory and Socio-Environmental Justice, June 7 and 8

• II Dialogue Women in Movement: Alliances and Collective Actions, September 26-28

Once again we have travelled Brazil and the world to mobilize resources and partners to strengthen the women´s leadership and rights:

• Amalia Fischer represented the ELAS Fund at the EDGE International Conference - Engaged Donors for Global Equity, April 17-20 in New Orleans, United States.

• Our program manager Savana Brito participated in the Meeting  of Community of Practice in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning, promoted by the Prospera - International Network of Women´s Funds, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from June 24 to 26.

• Amalia Fischer and KK Verdade represented the ELAS Fund at the 2018 Human Rights Funders Network (HRFN) Conference in Mexico City, October 15-18.

• KK Verdade was a speaker at the Gender & Cities panel in Geneva, Switzerland, on 4 and 5 December.

• In Brazil, the ELAS Fund has participated in several events: I Workshop Elas nas Exatas; X Congress GIFE; Meeting of the Philanthropy Network for Social Justice; Symposium Girls in Science; "Women, Technology and Social Transformation" Panel, promoted by Welight in São Paulo´s Virada Sustentável; "Women, Economy and Purpose", promoted by PepsiCo; "Gender Diversity for the Perspective of Violence against Women", carried out by Firjan; Week of Engineering of the University Center Geraldo di Biase (UGB); I He for She Brazilian Congress, at the Federal University of Paraíba and  Education 360 STEAM event at Museu do Amanhã.

We have expanded our partnerships for the rights of Brazilian women. We have a new partnership with sisters funds: the Women´s Foundation of Minnesota and the African Women´s Development Fund. We also have a new partnership with Viralize, a platform in favor of the culture of giving in Brazil. We have reaffirmed our support for the Nicaraguan women´s and feminist movements and we held a meeting with Nicaraguan activists in solidarity with the severe political crisis they face. We have deepened our partnership with the British Council through Contemporary Feminisms program, and we collaborated with the organizing of the Women of the World Festival - WOW, an unprecedented and powerful meeting. We established a new partnership with UN Women and the NGO Empodera, to launch a program on gender and sports in 2019.

In August 2018 we celebrated 18 years of investment in women´s leadership and rights. In our anniversary month, when we also celebrate Lesbian Visibility, we have honored our five cofounders and also published an interview with KK Verdade, our executive director. In our social media, we also paid homage to indigenous women in September and participated the 16-days of activism campaign, joining a campaign launched by the Avon Institute, our partner in the fight to stop violence against women.

Our work for a better world, where women and men have the same opportunities, was recognized by several partners, earning us prizes and honors such as Destaque Laranja, which UN Brazil and UN Women offer for concrete actions to confront, prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls. Our general coordinator Amalia Fischer was a finalist for the Viva Prize, an initiative of the Marie Claire Magazine and the Avon Institute to honor people who are changing the history of violence against women in the country. In addition, we were elected one of the 100 best NGOs in Brazil, a prize awarded by Mundo Que Queremos, Doar Institute and Philanthropy Network.

We ended the year with the honor of supporting and participating in the National Meeting of Black Women - 30 Years, a historic meeting to celebrate and evaluate the 30th anniversary of the first national meeting of black women. We supported the meeting and launched, in partnership with UN Women, a crowdfunding campaign to further strengthen the black women´s movement in Brazil.

We dedicate all the achievements of this year to Marielle Franco, dear partner that we miss every day. We continue to work so that her struggle and resistance will remain and flourish.

Our days off and a gift

We are taking our Year-break and a few days off to spend time with our families and friends for holidays. And so to be back strengthened for another year committed with the empowerment of all women. You can expect to hear back from us by January 9th.  

As a holiday gift for our partners who share our passion for women´s cause, we´ve launched a new video about the alliances we support in the Contemporary Feminisms Program, that we invite you to watch.

A message of hope and strength, with the certainty that in 2019 we will be together: