filia Recommendation Committee
filia has invited thirteen activists from our networks to become part of the filia Recommendation Committee. As experts on feminist struggles in their countries and regions, who know the challenges and can point out solutions, we asked them for funding recommendations. All activists on the Recommendation Committee then nominated up to three other activists or groups, resulting in a total of 36 recommendations for funding in Central and Eastern Europe.
The Recommendation Committee is an opportunity to further develop filia’s program work in our main funding region. And not at a desk or on paper, but through trial and error, through discussions with our partners and through the very specific challenges we encounter in the process. The questions that need to be answered during the evaluation include Are our networks in the new regions strong enough to reach new funding partners, even through an open call? Is filia financially and structurally in a position to cover new funding regions? How can we connect the different and diverse project partners? What and how can they learn from each other?
The Activists of the filia Recommendation Committee
Róż
Róż (they/them) is a queer-feminist designer, producer, curator, and facilitator. They co-create holistic and transformative spaces that invite participants to connect with the inner power and take action towards more sustainable ways of being. They co-founded the Open Institute- an academy for artists and activist from diverse cultural backgrounds in Poland. For 15 years they have been an activist and researcher, responsible for numerous protests in Poland min. “Black Protest”, anti-capitalist protests in defence of LGBTQ+, people in move rights, Queer Fests and the ecological justice actions.
Olia Sosnovskaya
Olia Sosnovskaya is an artist, writer and cultural organizer born 1988 in Minsk, based in Vienna. She is part art of artistic-research group Problem Collective and Work Hard! Play Hard! working group, currently PhD-in-Practice candidate at Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
Oksana Potapova
Oksana Potapova is a feminist and peace activist and a researcher from Ukraine. She has been working with gendered impacts of war in Ukraine since 2014. Most recently her focus has been on fundraising and advocating for flexible and needs-based support to grassroots movements in Ukraine, as well as conducting research on movement sustainability in times of crisis.
Hamida Giyasbayli
Hamida Giyasbayli is an independent consultant, facilitator, and journalist from Azerbaijan with over a decade of experience in conflict resolution, human rights, and philanthropy. Specializing in peacebuilding and inclusivity, they have designed safe spaces for dialogue and advocated for gender equality and LGBTQI+ rights across CEECCNA region (Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central and North Asia).
Daria Kasmaytova
Daria Kasmamytova is a Central Asian activist and Digital Workspace and ICT director at FemAgora, where she identifies strategies to maintain and improve collaboration of a core team of 14 people, and over 200 expert contributors across digital workplace applications.
Armine Karapetyan
Armine is a feminist activist, social worker, self-defense instructor and holistic wellbeing specialist with a passion for exploring the intersections of various political movements. She is a co-founder of FemLibrary and actively participates in various other collectives and initiatives.
Miha Brebenel
Miha Brebenel (they/them) is a Romanian-born disabled white trans masc queer based in London. Their long-term and expanding explorations are focused on the histories of internationalism and solidarity, intersections with disability, gender, critical plant studies, law, social and healing justice.
Agnė Bagdžiūnaitė
Agnė Bagdžiūnaitė is a cultural worker, artist and activist. She lives and works in Kaunas, Lithuania. Her professional research interests include art and politics, the theory of critical feminism, social reproduction, and social movements.
Živilė Mantrimaitė
Živilė Mantrimaitė is a past team member of Y?! network – a participatory granting experiment in the Baltics. Currently, she is a freelance researcher and campaigner on the topics of feminist cities and energy justice, based in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Tamar Zviadadze
Tamar Zviadadze is a co-founder of NGO DEP, focused on supporting marginalized communities. Her professional interest lies in social service provision and policymaking.
Khatia Mamukashvili
Khatia Mamukashvili is a co-founder of DEP, the CSO based in Georgia. The main focus of the organization is the capacity building of the marginalized communities. Her main professional interest lies in leadership development and quality education.
Jazgul Orozova
Jazgul Orozova is a Reporting and Monitoring officer at Laolalta, a queer and women led organization dedicated to community engagement and development. Jazgul has an extensive experience in supporting at-risk youth and women with limited opportunities, along with a background in crisis community response initiatives.
Mariia Vorotilina
Mariia Vorotilina (she/her) is an activist and curator from Zhytomyr, Ukraine, currently based in Berlin. Her work focuses on performing and visual arts through queer feminist and decolonial lenses. She is particularly interested in exploring “Eastern Europe” as an invented concept and critically examining the Western gaze on this region. Mariia also engages with themes such as translocal grassroots solidarities in complex political contexts, as well as practices of care. She used to work with such international human rights organizations as Terre des Hommes and Norwegian Refugee Council, as well as at the International Center for Finer Arts “Kampnangel”. Mariia was managing the project and network Feminist Translocalities, which supports queer feminist and decolonial movements in and from Eastern Europe, North and Central Asia, and the South Caucasus.
