Brazil Fund selects projects to combat racism in the country

The Brazilian Human Rights Fund will donate R$1.25 million to 25 organizations that work to combat racism across the country. The selection will be made through a notice, which can be accessed here. Registration is open until March 25th, at 6pm. The results will be released from May 21st.

The issue of racism has been considered a priority for the Brazil Fund since its creation in 2007. In the first call for project support, launched that same year, the foundation supported four initiatives developed by organizations founded and led by black people.

Related news:

The notice Confronting Racism from the Base, created in 2018 to strengthen organizations that confront racism in its various forms and propose paths to a country with more racial justice, allowed us to look at this cause in more detail.

“The mobilization of the black population has been fundamental to Brazilian democracy, and the data and reality show this in an indisputable way,” said Allyne Andrade, deputy superintendent of the Brazil Fund.

According to the superintendent, the numbers of violence and exclusion are still alarming, but there is also progress. “Since 2019, black students have been the majority among those enrolled in federal higher education institutions, thanks to the quota policy. The number of black and black parliamentarians has been growing. All of this is the result of decades of pressure from black people organized in social movements. The mission of the Brazil Fund is to support this movement, to thicken this social broth in the search for changes”, maintained Allyne.

In five years, more than R$2.6 million were donated to 50 collectives and non-profit groups, from all Brazilian regions and states, who work directly in their territories and communities, to promote racial justice, combating various forms of racism. The winners were selected by three Confronting Racism from the Grassroots notices.

Examples

The results of the work of the collectives supported by the Brazil Fund's notices reveal how the actions of each of these groups are capable of transforming local realities, constituting a fundamental element to compose a broad movement of social transformation.

In Rio Grande do Norte, Coletivo Cirandas offers legal advice to traditional communities. In addition to litigation for territorial protection, quilombola leaders whose lives were at risk in Bahia recently obtained emergency protection with the support of Cirandas. The collective relied on resources from the Brazil Fund to structure itself.

Last year, the Instituto da Mulher Negra Mãe Hilda Jitolu was launched in Salvador (BA) also with resources donated by the Brazil Fund. The institute is named after the mother of saint and matriarch of Ilê Aiyê, the first Afro group in Brazil and one of the cultural expressions of Carnival, and aims to consolidate the community's actions in promoting the rights of black women in the capital of Bahia, in addition to combating religious racism.

Another example is Quilombo dos Teixeiras, from Rio Grande do Sul, which achieved a significant victory for the appreciation of black and quilombola culture in the country. With resources for institutional strengthening received from the Brazil Fund, the community organized the first exhibition of a quilombola collection at the State Historical Archive, in Porto Alegre.

Support

In this fourth call for Tackling Racism from the Grassroots, projects aimed at promoting the rights of black women, black LGBTQIA+ people, quilombola leaders and communities and African-based homes and communities will be supported. Specific resources will also be allocated to organizations that are working on the debate about racism in digital media.

The Brazil Fund supports the search for racial and gender justice, the fight for the rights of indigenous peoples, quilombola and traditional populations, for climate and socio-environmental justice in the Amazon and also outside the region. The Fund also aims to fight for the rights of children and young people, LGBTQIA+ people, rural and precarious workers, communities impacted by infrastructure works and urban developments, victims of State violence and their families, and the fight against mass incarceration and torture in the prison system, among others.

In its years of existence, the Brazil Fund has supported more than 1,300 projects, with total donations exceeding R$50 million.