MEET OUR ACTIVIST PANEL
At the heart of the Fund is a participatory decision-making model with a panel of girls and young activists from 32 countries playing a central role across design and decision-making moments. The model draws on Purposeful’s experience in Sierra Leone and the With and For Girls Fund, as well as, the insights of other participatory and rapid response grant makers such as UHAI, FCAM, Red Umbrella Fund and FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund and Urgent Action Fund Asia Pacific.
Asia and the pacific
Europe and Central Asia
Marija
Jakovljevic
Marija’s activism started in high school with the fight against gender-based violence. She became a peer educator on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Her study of Sociology opened the doors for diverse engagements from self-organised collectives, to feminist philanthropy. She was recognised as one of the most socially and politically engaged students in Serbia in 2012. After obtaining a Master in Sociology, she has worked in a number of roles and with a wide range of marginalised groups including young people, activists, women’s collectives and women’s funds. In her work she connects gender, social, economic and environmental justice.
Dani
Prisacariu
Dani is a facilitator and community builder, committed to holding space for relational learning that creates more freedom. Most of their work so far has been in LGBTQI+ activism in Romania, and in community organising for social justice. For the past four years, they have coordinated Gender Talk, a community initiative of gender explorers and rebels that works to create more space and possibilities for us all to exist and thrive outside the gender binary.
Anna
Szczegielniak
For the last decade, Anna has worked for a variety of youth-led and youth-centered organisations. She has experience in the areas of youth leadership and empowerment, gender equality, social justice, human rights, and access to health services and treatment for young people from key affected populations. In her work she has focused on community-driven initiatives, identifying existing gaps in the services, exploring interlinkages between different sectors, and addressing stigma. She has experience in advocacy, capacity building, campaign management, grant facilitation and community mobilisation. Aside from working with civil society, she is a medical doctor and a researcher in the field of mental and sexual health.
Zhanna
Zharmatova
Zhanna is a 19 year old activist from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. She has been a feminist activist since the age of 14, fighting for girls’ rights and equality. She is a member of Bishkek Feminist Initiatives, editor and co-founder of teenage magazine Boktukorgon and coordinator of Teenagers and Youth for Justice Equality Initiative. She is also a girl advisor for Central Asia and Eastern Europe at FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund and has been since 2017. As an artist and illustrator she promotes justice and anti-discrimination through art, as well as in her role as a freelance journalist and cameraperson at Kloop Media. Zhanna is currently a media specialist at LGBT organisation Kyrgyz Indigo. She stands up for the rights of queer teenagers, youth and girls, with the aim to increase their visibility and the right to be who they are.
Sub Saharan Africa
The American Continent and the Caribbean
Gabrielle
Bailey
Gabrielle is based in Barbados and is a founding member of local NGO I Am a Girl Barbados, an international award-winning NGO focused on the empowerment of women, where she was an active member of the organisation for five years. She has sat for multiple terms on the Barbados Youth Development Council, the national umbrella organisation for youth organisations locally, with connections to both the Caribbean Youth Development Council and the Commonwealth Youth Council. This places her in a unique position on the ground to have real connections to activists in Barbados across areas such as women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, environment sustainability, and youth development. A passionate, caring and determined youth and gender justice activist, with a keen interest in mental health, she is proud to hold hands with others — whether locally in Barbados, or across the globe — to work towards a more equitable tomorrow for us all.
Ariane
Corniani
Ariane is a Brazilian woman, feminist activist, and technologist based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She is the co-founder of minasprogramam.com which, since 2015, has been carrying out projects to integrate more girls and women into technology. She has experience working as a graphic designer, creative director and product manager. Currently, Ariane studies Social Sciences at the University of Sao Paulo. She is interested in topics related to contemporary Latin American political struggles, black feminism and technology. Ariane loves Argentina, music, colors, and spending time at the beach with her friends.
Jandi
Craig
Jandi is a member of the White Mountain Apache Tribe and was born and raised on the Fort Apache Reservation in Arizona. She is a 2017 Indigenous Fellow at the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights in Geneva, 2018 Global Indigenous Women's Leadership Scholar, and currently works building restorative mental health and wellness programs on her reservation. Jandi enjoys life in traditional ceremony with her children and is honored to carry the stone as a Godmother for her Goddaughters through Apache tradition.
Hawatu
Davowah
Hawatu is a first-generation American who understands that protecting and empowering the most marginalised of our communities is the foundation for liberation. A nomad at heart, they have called Maryland, Virginia, California and Sierra Leone home. Hawatu decided to combine their collegiate studies in International Studies with responsible storytelling and became a contributor for the Mississippi-based organisation The Lighthouse | Black Girl Projects, highlighting the multidimensional experiences of Black women and femmes across the African diaspora. Their recent research focuses on the reintegration process of former child soldiers of Sierra Leone. Hawatu's desire is to use their experience as a peer mentor and project coordinator to center, uplift and advocate for marginalised communities. Hawatu is currently a member of the Reese | Brooks | Gilbert cohort, a leadership development program for college women, with The Lighthouse | Black Girl Projects.
Numa Dávila
Arriaza
Numa is a 28 year old non binary person from Guatemala. They are an anthropologist and artist who through poetry and social research explores the concepts of bodies, genders and sexualities. As part of the collective Cuirpoetikas, Numa creates formative workshops and artistic spaces to share knowledge and experiences from and for women and trans, queer, non binary and lgbtiqa+ people. The collective has run for the last four years, and produces an annual queer arts festival in Guatemala. Numa describes themselves as not an activist, but an artivist, focused on the visual and symbolic representations of sex and gender and on the transformation of power relationships in the racist, heteronormative and patriarchal system.
Juliana Roman Lozano
Juliana is a 35 year old Colombian and a feminist, bisexual and migrant woman. She is in the process of completing her anthropology thesis. Juliana is a former professional soccer player and now the coach of a professional women's soccer team in Argentina, using football as a tool to challenge the patriarchy. As part of feminist civil association La Nuestra Futbol Feminista, based in Buenos Aires, she works to empower girls and women through football, and fights for a woman’s right to play, and to imagine and shape a dissident, inclusive, anti-fascist and feminist world.
Daniela
Moisa
Daniela is a young feminist from El Salvador and a member of La Caldera, an anarchist feminist collective. Daniela has been a feminist activist since she was a teenager, advocating for safe abortion for all girls, teenagers and women in the region. She also provides information, care and accompaniment to children, young urban women and marginalised communities in the country, facilitating sexual and reproductive health and rights education, feminism and art workshops. Daniela is also a scenic and graphic artist who uses her performance and illustrations to speak out on injustices against women.
Abril
Violeta
Abril Violeta is a bisexual gender fluid and non conforming ecofeminist. They are a communicologist specialising in Gender Studies in Education, and diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and generalised anxiety. Abril Violeta is a co-founder of Mexicali Resiste y Las Borders, and a co-founder and current coordinator at Bifanzine Colectivo. The foci of their activism are the visibility of the bisexual population, the co-creation of secure spaces for meetings and dialogues between LGBTIAPQN+ people, feminist support for safe abortion and the recovery of ancestral care to bodies and territory.
