Feminist Grants in Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia
Women and LBTIQ+ in Eastern Europe, South Kaukasus and Central Asia in Focus
filia supports initiatives in a world that is constantly changing. In 1989, walls, systems, and structures collapsed in many countries of Eastern Europe. Since filias was founded in 2001, the foundation has focused in particular on the situation of women and LGBTIQ+ people in these countries. From the very beginning, it has used the new opportunities for movement and connection to provide financial support to activists working to strengthen feminist structures in their countries.
The South Caucasus and Central Asia are also marked by post-socialist upheavals and authoritarian regimes. Given the many established connections to feminist movements in Eastern European countries, it made sense for filia to also focus on the countries in these two regions. Since the South Caucasus and Central Asia are often underrepresented in the context of international feminist funding, filia fills an important gap here.
Who decides on the grants in Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia?
filia has invited fifteen activists from our networks to join the filia Recommendation Committee. As experts on feminist struggles in their countries and regions—who understand the challenges and propose solutions—they provide filia with funding recommendations.
Learn more about the Recommendation Committee.
Cooperations with Women’s Funds in the Region
filia also supports the work of its sister foundations in Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia. Since 1990, women’s foundations have been established in nine countries to bolster local feminist movements.
Through so-called re-granting programs, filia provides funding to sister foundations in Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia. Leveraging their close contacts and ties to the feminist scenes in their respective countries, these foundations pass on the funds to small civil society organizations and self-organized groups on the ground, thereby enabling their work.
Feminist Resilience
Aim
Restore and strengthen the resilience of feminist organizations and the people who work in them; build crisis-resistant structures
Background
Feminist organizations and activists around the world face an excessive burden—both as individuals and collectively as groups of people who challenge existing power structures and thus become targets of violence and hostility. Furthermore, feminist organizations are also institutionally overburdened and overwhelmed. They are severely underfunded, harassed by right-wing populist governments, and threatened by anti-feminist groups.
Partners
Women’s Fund Armenia, FemFund Poland, Women Fund in Georgia and Ukrainian Women’s Fund
On the Right Track
Aim
Strengthen grassroots feminist work and develop joint strategies against the anti-feminist shift to the right
Background
There are powerful and well-funded right-wing populist movements around the world. Although the circumstances vary from country to country, the arguments put forward by right-wing populists follow the same patterns everywhere: in Poland and in Nicaragua, right-wing fundamentalists accuse feminists of “destroying families and traditions.” Through slogans and lies, right-wing populists seek to undermine sexual and reproductive rights, prevent protection against violence, and stoke racist hatred.
Partners
19 Women`s Funds from Latin America as well as Middle and Eastern Europe
Supporting Feminist Activities
Every week, we receive new funding requests from grassroots organizations in Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia. On the one hand, these requests demonstrate just how diverse and extensive the feminist movements in these regions are. On the other hand, they highlight how limited their financial resources are. Of course, filias’s resources are also limited. That is why, both now and in the future, we welcome even more donations and support so that we can fund even more feminist organizations in Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia.
Your Contact Person
Would you like to learn more about filias’s work in Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia? We look forward to hearing from you.
Aline Winchester
Programm Officer
a.winchester@filia-frauenstiftung.de
+49 (0)40 380 381 996
Current Partners in Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia
Femei pentru Femei – Moldova
A Powerful Voice for the Feminist Movement
Femei pentru Femei (FpF) is a grassroots feminist non-profit advancing women’s rights and dignity through activism, empowerment, and community programs. Guided by feminism, empathy, and equity, FpF supports women, girls, survivors of gender-based violence, volunteers, and marginalized youth across central, northern, and southern Moldova.
FpF creates feminist spaces, organizes support groups, and provides mentorship, workshops, and seed funding for local initiatives. It offers psychological therapy, informational support, and essential aid to women affected by violence, including Ukrainian refugees, fostering social cohesion.
FpF empowers women and girls to strengthen their leadership skills, boost their self-confidence, and become proactive leaders within their communities through programs like the Female Entrepreneurship and Leadership School, Art Therapy, Feminist Dialogues, and workshops on feminism, GBV, and women’s health. Actively engaged in advocacy, awareness campaigns, protests, and policy change, FpF co-organizes the Feminist Festival and Solidarity March, strengthening the feminist movement in Moldova and bring societal change.
www.instagram.com/femeipentrufemei
www.facebook.com/femeipfemei
In our Bodies – on the Streets – Active throughout Central and Eastern Europe
Combining Activism, Personal Development and Systemic Change
Throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Trainings and practice meetings for international CEE activists have been held so far in Romania, Hungary, Poland, Czech and Georgia. An online community for weekly practices is also maintained.
In our bodies – on the streets is an international collective founded in 2014 by activists from Eastern and Central Europe working at the intersection and interdependence of activism, personal growth and systemic change. They create courageous spaces for collective healing from burnout, trauma and minority stress – states which can cause conflict, ill health, disengagement from political activism, or the crumbling of valuable collectives. In their words: “In order to build powerful movements towards radical social change, it is important for us to work on ourselves and our collectives so that we can bring the full capacity of our whole beings – our brains, hearts and guts – to our political work.”
The core group of activist-facilitators shares the Generative Somatics methodology with the aim of improving the health and lives of individuals and groups involved in climate and social justice movements.
The methodology teaches politicised somatic practices that work through the body to reduce stress, support trauma healing and deeply connect people to themselves and each other. Supporting sustainable health and stability in activists’ personal lives and organisations builds a strong foundation for the vigor, integrity and longevity of social justice initiatives, increasing the potential for more pleasure and joy in activism!
In our bodies – on the streets is led by and primarily serves LGBTQIA+ women and non-binary people involved in social and climate justice movements.
Mycelium – Poland
Decolonial Research
Mycelium is a research laboratory focusing on the exploration of colonial dependencies, decolonial practices and infrastructural entanglements in relation to the Belarusian context. Based in Warsaw spreading its mycelium everywhere.
www.workhardplay.pw/#mycelium-and-yulia-krivich-mycelial-gathering-one
Medical Movement “Be Like We Are” – Ukraine
Fair Working Conditions for Nursing Staff
“Be like We Are” was first established in 2019 as a grassroots initiative of nurses that opposed cuts and restructuring of the medical sector caused by the medical reform in Ukraine. The initiative is women-led and focuses on women, as 95% of nurses are women. They work in hard conditions, are underpaid and overburdened. The initative grew in scope during the pandemic, when working conditions of medical personnel and their labour rights were under severe pressure in the context of growing austerity.
The initiative was able to advocate for a nation-wide salary increase for medical personnel, which came into force in 2021. Unfortunately, due to the inflation caused by the full-scale invasion, this increase did not affect the cost of living for nurses as much as it could have otherwise. The group raises awareness about legislative changes that affect medical staff, initiates campaigns and advocates for fair working conditions for the medical personnel in Ukraine.
A.casa – Romania
Feminist Community Space for Workshops and Events
A.casa is an anti-hierarchical, queerfeminist trans inclusive self-organised and collectively run community space in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Its values are based in anti-capitalism, feminism and anti-speciesism, offering respect for humans regardeless of gender, race, class, abilities, religion, or sexuality. The space includes an open-to-all anarchist library that contains radical queerfeminist and decolonial literature and hosts a variety of events and discussions including talks on abortion access, fundraising events for the transition of trans and non-binary people, screenings, community dinners, banner making workshops, activist meetings, autonomous zine and book fairs, fundraisers and mutual aid efforts, musical, educational and many other events. A.casa also has a community van that can be used by those who need it for collective actions.
FemLibrary – Armenia
Queer-Feminist Library
FemLibrary is a queer feminist collective that has created a safe space with minimal resources but with endless communal devotion for queer feminist organising, resistance and knowledge building. Their initiative brings together and intertwines feminist and queer activism, art and academia in the spirit of solidarity and sisterhood.
FemLibrary is an uninstitutionalised queer feminist imagination that aims at uniting Armenian feminists across different intersecting movements, initiatives, groups and organizations. It strives to fight against patriarchy, heteronormativity, neuronormativity, militarism, colonialism and other intersecting layers of oppression by producing intersectional feminist knowledge and fostering creative ac(r)tivism.
FemLibrary includes hundreds of books on gender, sexuality, feminist and queer studies, political philosophy, political science, human rights and related fields. It is open to the general public. The collective also organises lectures, discussions, exhibitions, reading clubs, book presentations and other happenings, undertakes translations and writing of own decolonial texts in Armenian.
CUTRA – Romania
Magazine Creates Space for Queer and Feminist Perspectives
CUTRA is a queer-feminist magazine and online platform for cultural production. CUTRA collective is based in Bucharest, Romania. In their own words ‘CUTRA is antifascist and ancticapitalist, well-documented, intuitive and sensitive. It is imperfect and unsteady’. As a platform, it brings necessary space for expression to queer-feminist, trans, non-binary people and it approaches intimacy, pleasure and sexual explorations from a liberatory perspective. It is both a printed magazine and a permanent online platform that include various contributions: essays, poetry, prose, theory, as well as illustration and visual art, opening up to the creative cultural community opportunities for exposure, expression and support of a creative and supportive environment for their practice. ‘For all feminist souls who flourish by exploring solidarity, poetry, intimacy, and are not afraid of sexual freedom.‘
Empowerment Through Self-Defense for Young Women and Girls in Armenia – Armenia
Practice-Oriented and Holistic Self-Defense Training
The project „Empowerment Through Self-Defense for Young Women and Girls in Armenia“ offers empowerment-based self-defense (ESD) training to young women* in Armenia. Designed to be practical, hands-on, and comprehensive, the training aims to equip participants with the tools they need to take control of their safety.
ESD gives participants the power to choose how to respond to any form of violence—whether it’s verbal harassment or physical assault—without judgment or victim-blaming. It helps them recognize and stop harmful behavior before it escalates by teaching them how to set boundaries, use de-escalation strategies, and, if necessary, defend themselves or others.
More than just learning skills, the training fosters confidence, assertiveness, and resilience, empowering participants to navigate risks and challenges in their everyday lives with greater self-assurance.
Kralyova Workshop – Ukraine
Experience Self-Efficacy through Art
The work of the Kralyova Workshop provides a community-based approach to trauma healing and recovery for those affected by war. The workshop started in 2022, as a response to the inflow of internally displaced people to Shepetivka . The town is also home to several ethnic communities – Armenian, Polish, Jewish, and Roma. There is also a large number of women, whose partners are missing, dead or injured as a result of the war. Therefore, the needs for therapeutic, psycho-social and community-building work in the area are very high. Rather than focusing on individual approach, Kralyova Workshop creates a space for women to share their stories in a safe space, and to create something in an act of empowerment. The project aims at being as accessible and inclusive as possible. By relying on local cultural traditions, crafts, and songs, the project aims to build connections to the local culture, rather than integrate western methods of therapy that may not be relevant or applicable to the context.
Tell me sister – Tajikistan
Raising Awareness on Gender-Based Violence
Tell Me Sister is dedicated to raising awareness about the social issues faced by women in Tajikistan, with a particular emphasis on gender-based violence and discrimination. Operating within a challenging environment marked by censorship, limited internet access, and threats to freedom of expression, the team utilizes both online platforms and offline events to spotlight these issues. Through social media monitoring, anonymous story sharing, and the creation of educational content, they address stigmatized topics that are often ignored in Tajikistan’s media. Additionally, they organize events with community members to foster a sense of solidarity, education, and open dialogue on current issues affecting women in Tajikistan and Central Asia. Their primary goals are to foster public discourse on gender equality and women’s rights, create an informed and safe space for women, where they feel empowered to share their experiences and seek help, increase public awareness of gender-based violence and discrimination and encourage reporting, and educate society on recognizing hidden forms of violence, aiding victims, and accessing support resources.
Miscarea Feminista – Moldova
Campaigns against Gender-Based Violence
Miscarea Feminista is a collective of activists, non-governmental organisations, and advocates for women’s rights. Its goal is to achieve gender equality by advocating for the rights, safety, and empowerment of women and girls, challenging gender-based violence, discrimination, and systemic injustices. It aims to create a more inclusive and involved Moldovan society, where all genders have equal opportunities, protections, and freedoms. Miscarea Feminista is an informal group, which comes together annually, created, initially, to organise the Women’s March on International Women’s Day. The Movement is gathering for various protests and piquets, which call-out the authorities when the injustice is present. Memebers of the Movement are trusted individuals, which the victims of GBV can address to make their voice heard. Over time, the initiative grew to include the Feminist Festival, a response to the growing need to address and raise awareness on a broader range of women’s issues in Moldova. In addition, the collective is involved in various efforts during the annual “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence” campaign. Their initiatives include online awareness campaigns, public discussions with key stakeholders, information points and workshops for GBV survivors, arts workshops, in collaborations with media and other organisations.
Omul Face Locul – Moldova
Feminist Perspectives on Urban Planning
Omul Face Locul (OFL) is an initiative that operates at the intersection of feminism, queer advocacy, and the needs of minority groups within the context of urban planning. Founded in 2021 as a grassroots effort, OFL aims to address the lack of feminist perspectives in public discourse on urban planning and foster dialogue between citizens and decision-makers. The team is composed of urban planners, activists, and architects. OFL addresses key urban challenges by producing accessible, informative vlogs and podcast episodes that encourage public awareness and active civic engagement. Through its content, OFL holds local authorities accountable while educating viewers on issues such as women’s safety in urban areas, the LGBTQ+ community’s relationship with public spaces, inclusive urban design, safety for alternative transportation, Vision Zero principles, inadequate street lighting and accessibility issues in public transportation. Through an engaging, accessible format, OFL’s goal is to bring these topics to light, encouraging residents to actively participate in the transformation of their city, ensuring that underrepresented communities are actively engaged in these discussions and advocating for equitable public spaces.
www.omulfacelocul.com
www.instagram.com/omulfacelocul
www.youtube.com/@OmulFaceLocul
Alliance for Black Justice in Poland – Poland
Alliance for Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination
The Alliance for Black Justice in Poland (BJP) is a Black-led initiative that works to support and strengthen Black, African and Afro-descendant people and communities in Poland. The BJP was created by a group of long-time friends and activists as an emergency response to the need for aid among Black and African people who were evacuating from Ukraine immediately following the Russian invasion. BJP organized support with accessing safe housing, healthcare, legal aid, and material aid.
Today, the BJP operates as a coalition of organizations and informal groups, most of which are Black-led and focus on issues of human rights, antiracism and antidiscrimination. We work to support and strengthen the position of all Black, African and Afro-descendent people living in Poland regardless of when they arrived to the country, their legal status in Poland, their country of origin, cultural background, religion or faith, or gender identity, etc. Our long-term aim is to foster community and belonging among Black, African and Afro-descendant people in Poland, to advocate for the civil and human rights of our communities, and to consistently provide direct support with access to basic needs such as housing and legal aid.
Black women and LGBTQ+ people are at the forefront of the work at BJP. Their approach to Black justice is grounded in radical Black feminist philosophies and inspired by an intersectional approach that seeks to find common interests and objectives with partners in feminist, queer and other social justice movements. In their daily work, they enact radical community care through non-hierarchical, participatory and collectivist practices.
TraM – Trans Migrants of Baltic – Estonia, Latvia an Lithuania
Psychological Support for Non-binary and Trans Migrants
Since January 2024 TraM – Trans Migrants of Baltic offers psychological support for trans and non-binary migrants in the Baltic States, free of charge. TraM also provides consultations on how to navigate the healthcare system and bureaucracy of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as well as resources in Russian and English, Ukrainian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian. TraM also runs online and offline open and closed events targeting transgender and non-binary people in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Closed events are aimed at the community and include talks with health professionals. Open events – during International Transgender Day of Visibility – are aimed at the multilingual public to increase awareness and acceptance of trans people within their communities. TraM is aiming at growing their advocacy capacities to make changes in routine health-care processes and to make them more accessible to both Baltic citizens and migrants and refugees fleeing war and political repression in their home countries.
Sex Workers’ Rights Lietuva – Lithuania
Support for Sex Workers
Sex Workers’ Rights Lietuva (SWRL) was founded in February 2023. Due to personal security concerns and extensive stigma the group has been organising gradually and carefully, involving new members slowly into the collective. Their shared long-term goals are creating a supportive environment for sex workers in Lithuania; educating Lithuanian society about the wide spectrum of sex work activities, and advocating for the development of policies and practices that protect the human, health and labour rights of sex workers in Lithuania. To do so, SWRL is holding monthly sex workers’ lunches, are organising workshops and slowly starting to do public advocacy. The lunches act as harm reduction and peer support groups. The group has recently established an Instagram account where anonymous personal stories of sex workers in Lithuania are shared. Recently SWRL became a member of SWAN (Sex Workers’ Rights Advocacy Network), which focuses on supporting sex workers rights in Eastern and Central Europe. The group is actively networking with groups in other countries to learn about their advocacy experiences and plan their future actions in Lithuania.
bULT – Kazakhstan
Inclusiv Space for Self-Expression
bULt is a queer-, lesbian-, trans- led community-driven experimental rave space, research, and arts environment aiming to be safe for all forms of life. Established in 2019, the bULt team has hosted over 300 offline events, fostering a safe space through decolonial optics and local knowledge for self-expression and artistic experimentation. With a base in Almaty, their residence supports a range of activities—from parties to exhibitions, film screenings, lectures, and discussions—providing a creative home for around 30 permanent residents and a platform for over 100 artists annually.
bULt creates a place for self-expression based on the principles of equality, solidarity and mutual respect. They support the desire for experimentation, promote the development of the local artistic environment; trying to understand their place and role in the modern conditions of, as Central Asia and the world, maintain horizontal connections within related communities and thereby strengthen solidarity networks.
Their impact extends beyond artistic creation; bULt influences legislative initiatives by advocating for harm reduction and other progressive policies. Their collaborative approach, particularly through residency programs, builds a sense of co-creation and has garnered international recognition, supporting research and cross-cultural dialogue. By incorporating educational components into their artist lab and expanding into concert and gallery spaces, bULt seeks to strengthen cultural exchange and cooperation between different communities and regions.
Unite Girls – Uzbekistan
STEM Education for Girls
Unite Girls is a system-based initiative designed and run by girls. The initiative empowers girls in Uzbekistan to access education and social opportunities, with the main focus in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), regardless of their social background. The initiative functions in Uzbek and English languages, and as there is limited access to resources in the Uzbek language, their mentorship sessions are primarily conducted in the Uzbek language. They address the needs of Uzbek-speaking girls across Uzbekistan and Central Asia, and those who may not have had access to institutional education, which is often centralized in Russian-speaking, urban contexts like Tashkent. Their program has received over 500 applications, accepting 110 girls from various regions for a month-long course covering subjects such as chemistry, biology, physics, programming, and mathematics in their first cohort. They also hold guest speaker sessions to inspire girls with role models in STEM fields and run clubs where girls can prepare for standardized exams in college preparations, with 300+ girls actively benefiting from these opportunities. The program actively challenges traditional gender norms and negative stereotypes in STEM, where these fields are traditionally male-dominated. By providing girls with female role models and mentors, Unite Girls aims to make STEM education and social opportunities accessible and appealing to girls aged 13 to 18 across all regions of Uzbekistan and Central Asia.
Jazve Talks – Armenia
Video-Podcast for Community and Empowerment
Jazve talks is a video-podcast series where Armenian women, trans and non-binary queer creatives discuss their work over a cup of coffee in an “amot” (shame)-free zone.
Their motto is “spill the coffee, not the tea” pokes at gossiping or “spilling the tea” and, instead, calls to strengthen and uplift their communities.
They are amplifying and building visibility of “taboo” topics in Armenia, where there is no formal sex education. They launched their first introductory episode on May 22, 2024 and have since recorded video podcast episodes about their personal journeys as queer non-binary Armenians, about shame surrounding menstruation and women body, about empowering women from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), about rape culture and repressions of patriarchal conservative society.
Through this platform, they aim to shed light and celebrate the works of independent queer creators in Armenia and archive otherwise underrepresented experiences.
Naambobi – Georgia
Sharing Stories of Resilience
Naambobi is a multimedia web platform dedicated to sharing powerful and essential stories, primarily focusing on survivors of domestic violence (DV) and gender-based violence (GBV), as well as successful women whose journeys can inspire others. The Goal of Naambobi is to empower women and DV/GBV survivors by sharing stories of resilience and to create an authentic, trustworthy narrative space where verified personal experiences are honoured and valued. By offering portraits of previously unknown individuals, the platform seeks to highlight voices that would otherwise remain unheard, sharing tales of resilience, achievements, and the fight for justice. Naambobi creates a collective social narrative space to amplify these personal experiences, connect people, and promote a greater understanding of the challenges faced by marginalized voices.
