Safe World for Women

Safe World for Women is a women-led NGO working with grassroots groups to promote women’s empowerment and sustainable development, tackle the root causes of poverty and oppression, and bring positive social and economic change at a global level.

Through their website, the organisation highlights important issues impacting women and children, campaigns for rights defenders and profiles the work of grassroots organisations - Safe World Field Partners.

Safe World for Women is an advocacy organisation with a global team that uses the potential of internet technology to enable networking and collaboration around the world, with a particular focus on the grassroots.  They initiate appeals on behalf of selected field partners and believe that locally-based groups are best suited to implement sustainable projects in their communities. They help potential donors identify often overlooked, but effective, grassroots organizations who are working toward women’s empowerment. Their platform can be used by funders, donors, philanthropists, and social investors who have the resources to support sustainable projects that can serve as good models for future initiatives.

A strong emphasis is placed on relationship-building.  Many groups work in unstable regions. An emotional support network is often as crucial as providing practical support.

Farida Afridi – in the above photo, was brutally murdered in July 2012, following threats relating to her work for education and peace-building. Farida’s organisation, SAWERA, operates in the tribal belt of Pakistan, and is a field partner of Safe World. A Farida Fund has been set up by Safe World for Women, to help support SAWERA’s work, and there is a concerted effort to develop and expand a network of supporters globally.

An important part of the Safe World for Women advocacy work is to generate awareness and highlight the need for change and better integration of women and children in our society. Their correspondents report from the ground in their respective regions, and help keep supporters informed about local issues.

Safe World for Women amplifies the voices of young people, through a Student Writers Project – a platform for young people to write about issues that concern them and their communities.

Aiming to be the “new media” for women, Safe World for Women adds articles, interviews and news briefs to the site daily in order to inform and educate on women’s and children’s rights around the world.

Their work covers a wide range of issues, serving as a valuable resource for academics, researchers and the general public. Through its extensive social networks, Safe World for Women maintains a large and active group of supporters and is able to mobilize public opinion against discriminatory actions across the globe and stimulate discussion.

Safe World for Women continues to build its global network, helping to connect communities and groups working for women’s rights, encouraging trust, and breaking down cultural stereotypes. Doing so will inspire behavioural change through women’s social and economic empowerment and address root causes of poverty, conflict, human rights abuses, and environmental destruction.

The Safe World Community has recently been launched – a vibrant, interactive meeting place and discussion forum. The community brings together academics, writers and grassroots activists with supporters and partners of Safe World for Women. Valuable personal connections are developed between supporters and Field Partners. The Safe World Community also serves as an online office to help with effective coordination of volunteers in a friendly space and where potential new volunteers can find out more about working with the organisation. The community is essentially a learning place, where members can share knowledge and experience relating to women’s issues – breaking down barriers between gender, age, ethnic origin and culture.

In 2009, founder Chris Crowstaff, visited field partner AWARE Uganda in Kaabong, an isolated rural warrior region in Karamoja, on the border of South Sudan.

Members of COFAPRI in Eastern DR Congo are given small animals, which help to regenerate barren land in mountainous regions, as well as providing an income.