31.08.2021
Year of challenges and solutions – Casa Fund donates over 3 million dollars to strengthen resilience of community groups facing so many challenges
In humankind’s history, 2020 will be considered a very difficult year. In its first few months, WHO declared that the new coronavirus pandemic would be “the greatest health crisis of our epoch.” Quickly, the pandemic effects have begun to affect all sectors of society, hitting hardest the most vulnerable populations. In addition to being life threatening, the pandemic impacted the income of many families and made it more difficult to access basic food and health products, particularly in more isolated communities, such as many Amazonian communities. This scenario caused and continues to provoke many tensions, feelings of insecurity, including food insecurity as hunger is again haunting the most vulnerable people.
For social movements and community-based organizations, the pandemic brought about several setbacks, as it made it impossible to develop field work, and in-person gatherings and meetings so crucial for networking. In a situation of sanitary emergency, priorities have quickly changed, and many organizations were forced to suspend their activities or change their work focus implementing measures to combat and prevent the coronavirus at local level.
It was not different for us in the Casa Fund. We had to revise several processes, cancel events, workshops, and trips, and radically change some of our plans to adjust to the new reality. Although our mission is focused on socio-environmental issues, we were caught in a situation in which was simply impossible to ignore the gravity of the facts. The Casa Fund has consolidated support mechanisms and all this structure could be utilized for emergency grantmaking, providing resources to groups fighting against the pandemic at community level, thus avoiding worse setbacks for social and environmental struggles. We realize this is a huge challenge for us, but sitting on our hands was not, and continues not to be, an option.
Excerpt from the infographic with the main support data of the Casa Fund in 2020. Click on the link at the bottom of this page to access the complete document.
The efforts of our team to maximize the potential of our grants, along with the experience acquired in 15 years of serious work, resulted in a record grantmaking year, a reason for pride and celebration. In 2020 only we provided over U$$ 3 million in grants to 535 projects. This is the result of networking with the grassroots. It was also possible because of trusting relations developed along decades by people who dedicated a good part of their lives to this mission. Grants just to support the struggle against the pandemic totaled US$ 736,936.25 provided to 177 initiatives across the country. These grants were mainly directed to traditional populations, such as Indigenous peoples, Quilombolas, extractivists, and artisanal fishermen and fisherwomen. The trust of 24 foundations and donor institutions was key to make this all possible. We are very grateful for these partnerships.
Excerpt from the infographic with the main support data of the Casa Fund in 2020. Click on the link at the bottom of this page to access the complete document.
The challenges for supported communities are huge and we realize these difficulties are not about to end. In fact, this seems to be only the beginning of many future consequences, and we are happy to be able to help the communities and certain that all the collective effort was worthwhile. To celebrate this effort with our partners we prepared a document with the main numbers, where one can clearly see the destination of all the Casa Fund grants, according to our support programs, characteristics of grantees, organization category, the environment where these initiatives are located, themes supported, among other relevant information. In 2021, we continue working and doing what we do best: directly and quickly support local groups, ensuring that civil society and by consequence democracy are strengthened.
